NEW DATA has revealed cold weather can cut battery range by up to a third, resulting in drivers losing valuable time and money.
Electric car (EV) drivers are being warned the real-world range of their vehicles during winter could be almost a third less than the official figures suggest, according to What Car?
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Taking 12 of the latest and best-selling EVs, ranging in price from the Ora Funky Cat (£31,995) through to the Jaguar I-Pace (£69,425), motor experts drove the cars from fully charged until they stopped.
And the worst performer – the Funky Cat – launched by Chinese car maker Great Wall Motors/Ora last year fell 32.8% short of its official range, covering just 130 miles before running out of power, compared with the official figure of 193 miles.
The car that got closest to its official range, the £55,890 Nissan Ariya, still fell 16% short of its official figure, covering 269 miles rather than the claimed 322 miles.
The £52,990 Tesla Model Y came second in terms of getting closest to its official range, recording a shortcoming of 17.8% from its official 331 miles, but covered the most distance overall, at 272 miles.
Commenting on the report, Will Nightingale, who heads up the What Car? test team, said: “While it’s common knowledge that cold weather negatively affects battery performance and efficiency, especially if the car’s heating system is in use.
“What Car?’s Real Range testing is designed to give car buyers the clearest possible understanding of how many miles they will typically be able to cover in wintery British conditions.”
To ensure that the report was conducted fairly, all cars were driven simultaneously at a test venue – chosen to remove any variables that might compromise the final results.
And all cars ran their heating systems to provide an interior temperature independently verified at 19.5 degrees.
Three of the 12 EVs reviewed had already been tested in real-world driving conditions in the summer, offering an interesting comparison of performance in the two opposing seasons.
These were the Cupra Born, BMW i4 and Tesla Model 3.
And the only notable difference in car specification was the BMW running on 20-inch wheels in the What Car? winter test rather than 19-inch alloys in the summer test.
In the winter test, the average range achieved by the trio was 18% lower than in summer, with the BMW performing worst (261 miles vs 317, a fall of 21.6%) and the Tesla doing best (272 miles vs 304, a fall of 11.8%).
And the Cupra covered 182 miles, against 219 in the summer – a fall of 20.6%.
