Neil Winton is a Senior Contributor for Forbes, writing about the automotive industry in general and electric cars in particular. The opinions expressed are his own. He was previously European Auto Correspondent for Reuters, wrote the European Perspective column for the Detroit News and contributed to the Wall Street Journal.
If you have just taken delivery of a new electric car, you may be faced with unpleasant surprises. The dealer would take you for a test drive and you would have been very impressed with the luxurious tranquility.
You would have ventured onto the highway and tasted its fantastic performance, more like an Italian supercar than a regular SUV.
You would have been impressed with the specification. For example, if it were a new Hyundai Ioniq 6, you would be told that the range is 600 kilometers, and that the car will sprint from a standstill to 100 km/h in less than five seconds and on to 185 km/h. Even though the price was around £55,000, what’s not to like?
However, it won’t be long before some nasty surprises pop up. The deal probably included a home charger, which you plug in after a few days. This is where the love begins to crumble. You let the car charge overnight for the cheapest electricity rate and you look at the range that is ‘fully charged’ the next day. It says 270 miles, not 384 miles. Where did the other 180 kilometers go, you may wonder?
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The 2023 Honda e:Ny1
HONDA
Slightly downhill, tailwind
The answer will not amuse you. The dealer must have mumbled something about official figures and WLTP. This stands for Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure. All electric vehicles sold in Europe are rated according to the WLTP standardhave been assessed Through WLTP despite this theoretical computer data never comes close to real world results. Cynics might say that WLTP is the abbreviation for Slightly Downhill, Following Wind (SDFW) in some obscure European language.
Then you go out for a business meeting. It’s 300 miles away on the highway. You take your seat for the long-distance cruise at an indicated speed of 130 km/h, just like the rest of the traffic. After an hour you look at the remaining range indicator and see that 190 kilometers have already been traveled. That’s because this car loses almost 40 percent of the promised range at highway speeds. If you start with 100 miles, you’ll end up with about 60 miles at these speeds. That’s because of the physics of electric cars versus diesels. At high rpm and high but legal speeds, the electric motor makes an effort to produce the extra power. At these speeds a torquey diesel will have settled into a relaxed and powerful low rev range.
Peter Wells, professor of business administration and sustainability at Cardiff Business School, put it this way.
Range Falls From A Cliff
“The range falls off a cliff at high speed. For an electric car, the extra energy required to go from 100 to 120 km/h is astonishing and virtually doubles energy consumption.
It’s not just about the Ioniq 6. This scenario is typical for all electric cars. You’ve probably heard the radio ads for the new Honda e:Ny1, which claims a range of 256 miles, but actually averages about 162 miles per charge for me. Highway performance was slightly better, with only a 27 percent reduction in the promised high-speed range, but that translates to a highway range of just 120 miles.
You will be aware of the threat of new Chinese EVs. They are technically very impressive with high quality and competitive prices. But on the highway they perform the worst: the Polestar 2 (made by Geely of China) destroys 59 percent of the promised range, the BYD ATTO 3 61 percent and the BYD Seal 66 percent.
The 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6
HYUNDAI
Excluding Tesla
There is one notable highlight and that is Tesla. The Model 3 and Model Y offer a battery capacity of 360 miles and 531 miles respectively, and after charging they give you about exactly that. But on the highway the same EV versus ICE rules apply and the Model 3 has a 30 percent penalty and the Model Y 45 percent. The latter is an SUV and has a much higher profile, which contributes to air resistance.
How come this is probably news to you? After all, the media regularly write reviews about these vehicles. Why didn’t they inform the public? Automakers provide bare statistics, and the car launch process does not make it easy for the media to examine the data in detail. Range is often described as “up to” a large number. However, some reviews are written after reporters have borrowed the cars for a week. There’s no excuse for this process not yielding more details, but most reporters probably don’t have a home charger. Battery and range details are not tested.
The car manufacturers’ range claims do not make it clear that the data was generated at an average speed of probably 90 km/h. There’s never any indication that fast highway cruising will destroy range. There is never any indication that when you charge the battery it may never come close to the WLTP claim.
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Neil Winton is a Senior Contributor for Forbes and writes about the automotive industry in general and electric cars in particular
DELIVERED
Step to the plate
The car manufacturers have to step up.
Manufacturers must make it clear that the range claim is based on an average speed of 90 km/h, that the penalty for fast cruising is (say) 50 percent, and that the battery often does not even come close to WLTP .
Have EV car fun.