Testing Electric Vehicles in the Real World
Edmunds.com
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Testing Electric Vehicles in the Real World
With electric vehicles, the EPA's estimated range is only part of the story. See how our real-world driving tests of electric cars can give you the whole picture.
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Here's a test we did of 13 Nissan LEAF's in Phoenix, to compare how much heat had degraded the battery there. The newest car completed 83 miles to "turtle" mode, and the worst only 59 miles (after 29,000 miles of driving in the baking heat):
http://insideevs.com/all-the-results-from-the-largest-independent-test-of-nissan-leafs-with-lost-capacity-not-instrument-failure/
You could drive all cars that you review on the same loop, and report on the cost, and the pollution (gm/distance), as well. And it would be really important to compare the EV ranges to what people actually drive each day; and how much money they would pay for an EV vs their current car.
You do post the kWh/100km (for all the cars except the Tesla Model S, curiously), and since the test loop is ~30MPH average, all the cars do significantly better than their EPA rating.
Neil
I predict that it costs as much (or more) for regular maintenance at a dealer on an ICE car, than it does to drive an EV. Remember, there is almost no regular maintenance on an EV; rotating the tires is about it. The Leaf needs to have the oil in the reduction gear at 150K miles. That means that you save about $17,000/per 100K miles driving an EV compared to a typical 23MPG car. Even a Prius costs about $7,000 more to drive 100K miles than driving an EV like the Leaf. All of the money you pay for electricity stays in your local economy. Much of the money you pay for gas goes to a foreign country. We don't need a military to defend our electricity, either.
I would be very interested to know what "gear" you drove the cars in - I'm assuming it was Drive? I would love to have the drive completed a second time in the Eco mode on each car that has one.
The Tesla has a toggle for the level of regenerative braking, and it would be very interesting indeed to know more about how this affects the range. I think that most EV's have way too much regenerative braking dialed in on the accelerator pedal - and they do not allow easy and consistent free-wheel coasting. Only the Honda Fit EV has free-wheel coasting in the Eco mode when you lift your right foot; and then has all the regen on the brake pedal. Edmunds could help improve all EV's by demonstrating whether easy and consistent free wheel coasting, or lots of regen on the accelerator yield more range.
Neil
Can you list the time needed to recharge? "How long to gas and go?" Tesla is offering charging stations and I would like to know if the time they give are true.
A highway course. Maybe I-5, I-405 and I-605. Meeting range targets at highways speed will be hard for EVs.
Finally test the EV only capability of hybrid plug-ins. The Karma and Volt both have EV only modes that are rarely tested without add the gas engines.
Thank you again for testing these cars.
Can you list the time needed to recharge? "How long to gas and go?" Tesla is offering charging stations and I would like to know if the time they give are true.
A highway course. Maybe I-5, I-405 and I-605. Meeting range targets at highways speed will be hard for EVs.
Finally test the EV only capability of hybrid plug-ins. The Karma and Volt both have EV only modes that are rarely tested without add the gas engines.
Thank you again for testing these cars.