Marc UrbanoCar and Driver
From the September 2020 issue of Car and Driver.
There are a number of factors that make an EV’s EPA range unachievable in real-world driving at the highway speeds where range matters most. For starters, EVs can benefit from the EPA test’s speed fluctuations via regenerative braking, which puts energy back into the battery. Most gas-powered vehicles can’t do that.
There’s another fundamental difference. Every EV in production except the Porsche Taycan has a single reduction ratio, so as speeds rise, their electric motors spin faster and less efficiently. Gas cars have multispeed transmissions with a tall top gear for high-speed cruising at a low, efficient engine speed.
This is why gasoline-powered vehicles regularly beat their EPA highway figures in our real-world 75-mph highway test, yet no EV has even matched its EPA range. An Audi e-tron came closest, missing its label value by 7 percent. A Hyundai Kona Electric is our worst, falling 38 percent short in winter temperatures. Among all EVs we’ve tested, our real-world range averages 24 percent less than what’s on the window sticker.
Even our figures are generous. Car and Driver‘s 75-mph range assumes an EV can use 100 percent of the battery’s available capacity, which isn’t practical since limited charging infrastructure makes “coasting in on fumes” a risky gamble. And because batteries charge quickest between about 20 percent and 80 percent capacity and slow considerably at the extremes, it typically doesn’t make sense to wait for a complete charge during a road trip. Running the heat or air conditioning can also reduce an EV’s range substantially.
All of this means that if you want an EV that can repeatedly drive 200 miles on the highway between charges, you’ll need to look for one with an EPA range around 350 miles. That makes the agency’s current ratings more misleading than helpful. EV buyers deserve a realistic range test that places more emphasis on high-speed highway driving.
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