For a long time we have become accustomed and normalized that car manufacturers give us consumption figures that have little to do with reality. It happened with cars with combustion engines, and it happens with electric cars. But in this case, the latest studies indicate that the problem is even more serious and the differences between official and real consumption are larger than in diesel and gasoline.
This has been determined by a study by the North American magazine Car&Driver, which has completed a series of tests where it has seen that the EPA approval cycle does not meet reality, and offers distorted autonomy figures.
The study shows that electric cars consume an average of 12.5% more than what is specified by the manufacturer under the EPA cycle. Something that clashes with what has been achieved by models with a combustion engine, which the report indicates that on average they have even managed to improve the official numbers by 4% compared to what is specified by the manufacturer.
Experts call for the testing procedure to be changed, which indicate is misleading to customers looking to buy a new car. They ask for changes in order to obtain realistic consumption and autonomy information in the official EPA test.
According to Dave VanderWerp, Car & Driver Test Manager: “We see a large gap in consumption deviation between electric and combustion cars. The question is: when people buy an electric car for the first time, will they be pleasantly surprised or disappointed by the range?»
One of the problems in the case of the American EPA cycle is the measurement method. In this case, consumption in the city and on the highway are measured separately, but then an average is made between the two, with a weighting of 55% for urban circulation. The result is that the range figures for electric cars are artificially inflated.
Another problem according to Car & Driver experts it is at the extremely low speeds at which cars are driven during homologation tests. Something that has as a result that when driving on the highway at 120 km/h, consumption skyrockets.
There is also the question of the official results and the real ones, where some brands have offered very modest numbers during the homologation test, but which have improved in real driving. A conservative position inherited from the emissions scandals, which sought to avoid possible future complaints by customers.
As a paradigmatic example we have the Porsche Taycan. This in its Performance Battery Plus version exceeded its EPA homologation figure of 362 km by 88 km, 24% more, traveling 450 km in the highway test at 120 km/h.
For his part, he Tesla Model S Long Range, the official autonomy reaches 646 km EPA, while in the Car&Driver test it has stayed at 514 km. 20.4% less than the official numbers.
Experts are now demanding that authorities and manufacturers get their act together and introduce more realistic and standardized testing procedures for electric cars, so that consumers do not receive information that can be described as misleading to some extent and be misled. I move on to numbers more appropriate to average real driving.
Source | SAE
