When it comes to electric vehicles, reach is the most important stat. Whether you get the next public charging place, are able to complete your daily living work or random on the side of the road instead, depends on it.
Reach was taken into account so heavily because EVs can hardly travel half of the distance from gas-powered vehicles before they need a “fill-up”, and because petrol pumps are much ubiquitous than public fast chargers. Most EV series discussions are centered around the EPA combined series, because that is the one who is being prominently published on the window sticker. For the 2025 model year, 256 EVs have EPA reviews (this includes several variants of the same vehicle), and the EPAs combined reach figures include 141 miles for the Fiat 500th to 512 miles for the Lucid Air Grand Touring on 19-inch on 19-inch wheels and tires.
What is the EPA range and how is it determined?
Just as with fuel economy figures for gas vehicles, the range of EV's range are determined by letting the vehicle run in a test laboratory on a dynamometer at a treadmill for cars on the EPA drivecycles.
These tests result in individual city and highway figures, which are weighed 55 percent city and 45 percent highway to arrive at the combined figure shown on the window sticker of an EV. In contrast to gas -powered vehicles, whose highway efficiency almost always exceeds the city figure, most EVs have higher city range assessments than highway. Part of the magic of electric vehicles in scenarios with low and variable speed is their ability to recapture energy when slowing down by the vehicle using the electric motor (or engines) instead of the traditional brakes.
Another way in which EVs are different is that reach and efficiency are not directly related. This is due to the charging of losses; Approximately 85 to 90 percent of the total energy that comes out of the wall makes it in the battery pack. That is why two terms are used: efficiency, which can be expressed in MPGE, includes charging losses, while consumption, energy consumption while driving does not include them.
How to test EV -Reasons for car and driver
Our EV -Bereikt test is done on a steady 75 mph, because Highway riding is where the reach is the most. If you want to cover 500 or 1000 miles per day, this must necessarily be done at high speeds. There are just not enough hours in the day to do differently. Even the shortest-range EV can manage through city traffic for more than seven hours with an average speed of, for example, 15 km / h. In contrast to a gas vehicle, the consumption of an EV also increases dramatically as the speeds rise. Of course, just like with all cars, aerodynamic resistance is blown up with the square of speed, but EVs are mainly influenced like most do without several gears. A higher vehicle speed therefore means that the electric motor runs at a faster and less efficient point.
Below is a subset of the data from our EV -BerEiktests and how it relates to the EPA range figure. In contrast to gas cars, which tend to meet their EPA fuel economy figure or to exceed in our 75-MPH highway test, EVs reach only about 85 percent of their label value on average. Some vehicles, usually those of German car manufacturers, have performed their EPA label value better in our highway test. It seems that in particular those car manufacturers assess the reach of their vehicles much more conservative than some others. Lucid, which makes some of the longest series of EVs,, for example, is much more aggressive in his EPA range values. Although the 410 miles that we have reached in a lucid air Grand Touring is the longest result of all the EVs we have tested, it is only 80 percent of its 516-Mile EPA range.
You will notice that the largest underperformer is the electric Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon, which only reached 67 percent of his EPA range in our test (160 miles to its 239-Mile EPA range). But it is logical that this brick -shaped vehicle would be more comparable with the higher speed of our test.
If you want to dive deeper into this subject, we have sketched co-author of a technical paper for Sae International with this difference between internal combustion vehicles and electricals using our test data.
Which factors influence the EV range?
Two important factors are speed and ambient temperature. Traveling with a steady speed of speed, as in our 75-MPH test, is the worst case for EVs. Aerodynamic resistance increases dramatically at higher speeds and when maintaining those speeds there is no possibility to recapture energy while slowing down.
Cold weather can also affect the range dramatically. One of the many reasons for this is that the use of the stove to heat the cabin – especially on EVs that have resistive stoves – is a lot of juice. In a test with our long -term model 3 We have found that the use of the heat can increase consumption by no less than 35 percent and kill 60 miles of reach, a considerable part of the 310-Mile EPA rating of Model 3.
How to maximize the EV range
If you drive in cold weather, this will help dramatically to condition the vehicle in advance while it is connected before you leave. This will heat both the cabin and the battery with energy from the grid instead of the battery, which retains more energy to use to drive. Another simple way to improve the range is to keep your speed modest.
You must take into account our Real-World highway reach figures The absolute maximum possible in high-speed highway conditions and, just like with our zero-to-60-Mph times, it will be difficult to reach them with every regularity. That is because it is about charging the battery to 100 percent, which is not the EV standard. Closing the last 10-15 percent is considerably when the speed of charging with the help of a DC -fast charger of level 3 slows down, and it also leads to increased demolition in the battery capacity over time. Tesla recommends, for example, to limit charging to 90 percent for daily use. Even with long distance trips, the stops are more specifically by the charging infrastructure Something else, and the fastest method is to supplement the battery just far enough to keep it perhaps 80 or 90 percent, to keep it in the fast part of the load speed curve to reach the next charger.
Reach is crucial; Reach is complicated. And if you want to drive an EV -long distances and you live in a place where it gets cold, plan a large buffer between the EPA combined assessment and what you can actually use.
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