In cold conditions, electric cars’ ranges are generally significantly shorter than when the weather is warm. To find out what you can realistically expect, we drove 12 of the latest models until they died
Will Nightingale will.nightingale@haymarket.com
Twice a year, in the height of summer and the depths of winter, we put a selection of electric vehicles (EVs) through a ‘drive ’em until they die’ endurance test. The aim? To find out how far they can really go on a full charge and how efficiently they use the electricity stored in their batteries.
Some of the cars lining up this winter, such as the Mercedes-Benz EQE and MG 4, have taken part in previous tests – but there are plenty of newcomers, too, including the BYD Seal, Jeep Avenger and heavily updated Tesla Model 3. We’re also including two Volkswagen ID 7s – one with an optional heat pump and one without – to find out if it’s really worth paying extra for this energy-saving feature.
HOW WE DID IT
For obvious reasons, it wouldn’t be safe (or potentially even legal) to deliberately run our EVs out of charge on the public road. That’s why we always use our test centre in Bedfordshire. We follow a relatively simple test route of roughly 15 miles, which includes 2.6 miles of simulated stop-start urban driving, four miles at a steady 50mph and eight miles at a constant 70mph. The rationale for the high percentage of high-speed cruising is that drivers who want to travel long distances in one hit are likely to be using the motorway network.
The 12 cars were charged to 100% and then left out in the open overnight, for roughly 14 hours in 6-10deg C ambient conditions. The following morning they were plugged in again to check they were fully charged before the climate control was set to 21deg and the headlights switched to dipped beam.
Eco (or the closest equivalent) driving mode was selected, and the cars were left in their default regenerative braking setting – or if an ‘automatic’ or ‘adaptive’ mode was available, this was selected.
The cars were then driven repeatedly around our test route in convoy, with driver changes and a switch in running order at the end of each lap. It was a relatively windy day with plenty of rain and standing water on the road, and the temperature during testing ranged from 10-11deg C.
WINNERS AND LOSERS
Shockingly, it was one of the most expensive cars in the line-up that ground to a halt first. Th
