Truth in range: How far can I really go?
Expected miles per charge (range) is one of the most common, complex and deceptive issues related to the EV category. Range anxiety could drastically affect the success of electric cars, and unfortunately some companies in the industry may just making the problem worse. If companies continue to communicate the best case range rather than a realistic range, early adopters will likely be disappointed and public perception that electric vehicles are not yet ready for primetime will be reinforced. Our solution? An industry wide overhaul of how electric range is calculated and communicated.
Not surprisingly, this problem can be traced back to internal combustion cars. Do you actually get the MPG promised by the EPA on the window sticker when you bought your car? We don’t either. Fortunately for you, and everyone else who’s not driving like my grandma or our cautious product engineer, gas stations are easily accessible, so it’s not really that big of a deal. Most drivers know that the “EPA City” and “EPA Highway” mileage ratings are only an estimate of what they should expect when they buy a new car, not a daily guide of when to refill their tank.
The problem is that many companies coming out with an electric vehicle are communicating a single range number. Sometimes it’s based on a combination of the EPA City and the EPA Highway driving tests, and sometimes it’s only based on the EPA City test; neither one gives consumers a realistic range expectation. And since there aren’t yet readily accessible fast charge stations to plug into when your car runs out of juice, range is a critical piece of information that drivers of electric cars need to plan around.
The EPA City test (aka UDDS or LA 4 cycle) creates the best possible scenario for optimizing EV range, with a very low average speed of 21.2 mph and lots of stops and starts resulting in low aero drag and maximizing the benefit of regenerative braking. While it isn’t false to claim that a vehicle gets 100 miles per charge based on the EPA City test, it seems misleading to tell consumers they can normally expect this many miles per charge considering most people drive faster than 21 mph throughout the day.
The EPA Highway test is more representative of the actual range drivers should get in an electric car. With a top speed of only 60 mph, slow maximum acceleration (3.2 mph/sec) and no stops, the Highway test still doesn’t accurately represent the way people typically drive. Who really tops out the speedometer at 60 mph on the freeway?
That’s why we believe the EPA City test and the EPA Highway tests don’t cut it. From our perspective, another test, the EPA US 06 (aka aggressive driving or high speed test), is far more representative of the way average drivers actually drive. Not only does the US 06 test have a top speed of 80 mph and average speed of 48.4 mph, but it also has higher maximum acceleration of 8.46 mph/sec than the other tests and includes stop and go situations. We believe this is currently the most representative test to measure expected range.
In lieu of developing an EV specific test, CODA Automotive believes that the DOT should require reporting and labeling of the US 06 range along with the EPA City range to represent a reasonable lower and upper range estimate for daily driving. In the meantime, we urge all manufacturers to voluntarily communicate both the US 06 and the EPA City numbers and for the media to report US 06 numbers so that people begin to understand that electric range can vary significantly depending on how they drive.
This is what CODA has done all along. We usually say our car will go 90-120 miles per charge. When we say this, we are using the modeling estimate for our range under US 06 and UDDS (we will confirm these numbers using our production models). When we need to use a quicker sound-bite, we say “over 100 miles” to err on the conservative side. We think that’s the best way to communicate such a critical issue to the public.
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