The Norwegian Norges Automobil Forbund has carried out an autonomy test with 40 models of electric cars in real conditions, but many of them have not managed to match the homologated WLTP data.
When the NEDC consumption and emissions homologation system was replaced by the new WLTP cycle, the objective was for official data to be more reliable so that users could better understand what new vehicles that were coming onto the market were capable of.
And the truth is that there has been progress, but in the case of electric cars it has become clear that the conditions greatly influence the results.
summer vs. winter
The latest example of this has been the test carried out by the NAF (Norges Automobil Forbund), a Norwegian automobile club that has tested a total of 40 models of electric cars; 16 of them in summer, 19 in winter conditions and five in both.
During the test carried out on a fixed itinerary that always departs from Oslo, and which was carried out with temperatures that ranged between 20 and 25 ºC in summer and between 0 and -10 ºC in winterthe results were quite mixed.
In summer, only two of the 21 models tested traveled less than the approved distance
In the first part of the test, carried out in summer, only two of the 21 models tested traveled less than the approved distance before stopping after starting with the battery 100% charged. these were the Xpeng G3 and the Citroën ë-C4.
On the contrary, the iX3 It was the one that exceeded its approved autonomy by the greatest margin, 23.6%, which allowed it to lengthen its trip 116 kilometers more than expected.
On the other hand, the results in winter have been very disappointing, since none of the vehicles tested in these conditions managed to get close to their approved autonomy, being the BYD Tang the one that stayed the closest (11% – 44 km) and the Škoda Enyaq iV80 the one that stopped the farthest (31.8% – 162 km).
Precisely the German SUV was one of the few vehicles that completed the test in both seasons, reflecting the enormous difference between the autonomy of an electric car in summer and winter. With an approved autonomy of 509 km. the Enyaq was able to cover up to 522 kilometers in summer, but only 347 in winter. That is to say, its autonomy was reduced by 33.5%.
On the contrary, the Tesla Model 3 Standard Range RWD It was the one that suffered the least from the cold, losing only 14.8% of the autonomy achieved in summer.