British expert Nickmolden, chief executive of Emissions Analytics, agrees that indicated 80 mph cruising speeds, the norm in Britain, generate significant range penalties. Potential buyers of electric cars are not made aware that as soon as they consistently raise their speed over 60 mph, range begins to drain away, and in mainland Europe often with a 130 km/h (81.25 mph) speed limit it will disappear at an alarming rate. In Britain, the speed limit is 70 mph on motorways, and in the real world this becomes about an indicated 80 mph and no doubt a similar leeway is practiced in Europe, except in Germany of course where big chunks of the motorway system don’t have a speed limit at all.
My own data shows that most modern electric cars, driven on motorways at speeds close to 75 mph, will shed range at just over 30% compared with the range availability on offer. In other words, if the range availability is 100 miles, don’t expect to go much further than about 65 miles. Some models like the Nissan Leaf 62 kWh, Fiat 500e 42 kWh, Vauxhall Corsa 50 kWh and Polestar 2 78 kWh won’t get you 50% of the way.
Professor Greenwood points out that electric car drivers operate under varying conditions which will generate different performances, while hot or cold climates can undermine performance.“Electric cars are much more energy efficient than ICE (internal combustion engines), and that efficiency is relatively constant over the entire operating range. What this does mean is that the range will be much lower at high road speeds than it is at low road speeds – simply because it takes more energy per mile at high speed than it does at low speed due to the aerodynamic drag of the car increasing with speed,” Greenwood said in an email exchange
You must be logged in to post a comment.