Here’s how the EPA calculates how far an EV can go on a full charge

boem@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 96 points –
Here’s how the EPA calculates how far an EV can go on a full charge
arstechnica.com
9

You are viewing a single comment

So this value should only be used as a horizontal comparison metric (i.e. one car to another) and a rough estimate of overall range, just like listed MPG has always been.

Honestly it's not even a rough estimate. ICE cars only convert something like 20% of the energy to actual power at the wheel. That means, in practice, range is mostly just about how much time you're behind the wheel. It would make more sense to estimate ICE range in hours than miles.

EVs are more efficient, so in practice, particularly on long trips at high speed, range will vary dramatically depending on what's going on aerodynamically, which changes dramatically from one second to the next.