A car’s range can be calculated by how far a car can travel with the available fuel. I wish it was that simple! Do you drive with your foot to the floor or economically? How old is your car? Is it serviced and well maintained? Where are you driving? In Cornwall we are always going uphill or downhill and going uphill means exerting more power whereas downhill you can use regenerative braking to put a charge back into the battery. Another factor is the size of the car and the engine and what you are carrying? I know a journey with just me in the car will be different to a journey with my wife and children, dogs and the kitchen sink!
Why is this all important? Well, range on an electric vehicle is a big selling factor and will help you decide what car you want to buy. Our car’s range is around 220 miles with optimum conditions. We generally only travel around Cornwall with the longest journey around 100 miles and usually we travel a lot shorter than that. So 220 miles is fine as a range for us. But we don’t ever get 220 miles out of a tank of electric. So how do they calculate that our range is 220 miles?
They have test rigs called Dynos. They put a car on a dyno and run it through a series of tests driving at between 30 and 60 mph. I presume they do various other tests and come out with a figure but I can’t find actual details. Can anybody point me to a UK government body that does the testing? It seems to me at the moment that the figure of 220 miles on a Vauxhall Corsa is the top we will get out of it. I would presume all manufacturers will be quoting maximum range.
As I said in a previous post on car range (How does temperature affect range), there are many factors that drop our range of 220 to below 100 miles which is an important consideration when buying a car. At a speed of 30 mph and a temperature of 15 degrees C, our car will deliver around 200 miles on a full charge. But this will drop if the speed is increased to 50mph and I can expect to get around 170 miles. Drop the temperature to 3 degrees C and I will get less than 100 miles and that is having the temperature gauge at 18 degrees C. If I do that journey at night with lights on and the wipers going, playing music and trying to warm the car… I haven’t tried it! With low temperatures just don’t expect to travel far in your car.
Vauxhall have been very unhelpful when I have tried to ask them questions and I have been unimpressed with them. I hope you get better mileage (forgive the pun) with your dealer or maker. To be clear our dealer West End Motors in Bodmin have been brilliant and I am visiting them this afternoon to present these posts and findings and to have a chat so I might come back better informed.
At the end of the day, the average UK motorist doesn’t have long journeys. In 2019 it was listed as 8.4 miles! An electric car will cover that easily. So don’t be put off buying an electric car.
| Average car journey distance in the UK | 2019 | 2020 |
| Driver travelling alone | 7.7 miles | 7.0 miles |
| Car ride with a driver and passengers | 9.1 miles | 8.1 miles |
| Average car trip length | 8.4 miles | 7.9 miles |
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