EV's ranked by efficiency

Author
Discussion

SWoll

18,503 posts

259 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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Definitely a few in there that look well out of place. i4 M50 least efficient? Taycan 4S in the top half?

Other than that looks about what you'd expect and no surprise to see ours languishing towards the bottom. smile


SWoll

18,503 posts

259 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
quotequote all
mids said:
Yeah, early days for the i4 I guess but in Bjorn's trip (linked in the spreadsheet) he drove 112 miles and it averaged 2.4 mi/kWh.
Short test with lots of acceleration pulls from memory. No way it's going to be that bad in normal use, will be around 3 mi/kWh I'd expect?

SWoll

18,503 posts

259 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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Fingers crossed for those that have ordered them off the back of very limited public testing so far. Still not seen one tested on the road in the UK or over a decent length of time.

Fastlane

1,163 posts

218 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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For reference, my Tesla Model 3 Performance has averaged 3.27m/kWh over 2 years and 23k miles, and my wife's Kona 64kWh has averaged 4.1m/kWh over 16 months and 14k miles.


Amateurish

7,758 posts

223 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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The Tesla 3 Long Range looks very impressive in that list. No other big battery car comes close.

TheDeuce

21,899 posts

67 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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The order seems about right to me... Except the i4. Have BMW really created a coupe that is somehow less efficient than a load of larger and less aerodynamic SUV's?


ZesPak

24,439 posts

197 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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TheDeuce said:
The order seems about right to me... Except the i4. Have BMW really created a coupe that is somehow less efficient than a load of larger and less aerodynamic SUV's?
Tbh the i4 is more perfomance-oriented than for example an e-tron. An M3 uses more fuel than a much slower Q7.

But idd, that BMW doesn't look right sitting there. Maybe it has a great charge curve, which as we all know makes up for the terribly inefficient drive wink

I was hoping to see the ID3 higher up than it is though!

sixor8

6,313 posts

269 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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7 x Audi models, and 43rd was the best......

McAndy

12,527 posts

178 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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Interesting, thanks for posting. Our 2017 Ioniq 28 is currently sat at 4.6 mi/kWh after ~6k miles and one year under our ownership. Mixture of town and A-roads mostly, with a spattering of motorwayss thrown in.

Dave Hedgehog

14,584 posts

205 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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sixor8 said:
7 x Audi models, and 43rd was the best......
they are high priced low volume virtue signalling products

anonymous-user

55 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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Unfortunately these ^^^ tests really mean nothing.

EVs are very efficient, so their consumption is linked to two main things

1) average speed during the test (because aero drag is dominant)
2) Cabin heating/cooling loads (the cabin heater can be MORE than the road load at low speeds!)


The best test for comparitive EV efficiency is to simply to take the EPA eMPG ratings, as these tests are very tightly controlled and highly repeatable:

EPA_Fuel_Economy


No "On road" test is repeatable enough to allow any fair comparison





paradigital

873 posts

153 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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I've been confused about Bjorn's efficiency figures for a while, I've had a PHEV (BMW X1 X-Drive25e) for the last two months (courtesy car whilst my 440i is getting it's roof electronics repaired after water ingestion) and have averaged 3.7mi/kWh over that time (2,200 miles on electricity alone, I've used no petrol at all).

The wife has had a Passat GTE Advance Estate since May, and it's averaged around 3.4mi/kWh during it's use on batteries.

I can't see a PHEV being more efficient than even the most modestly designed pure EVs. Heck, the Q4 E-Tron I took for a test drive yesterday was driven like I'd stolen it and I still returned 2.7mi/kWh, driven normally I'd have seen well north of 3mi/kWh, probably closer to 3.7-3.8.

S600BSB

4,810 posts

107 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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With one or two exceptions, this is broadly what you would expect - with higher performance models towards the bottom.

Moonpie21

533 posts

93 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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As a really dumb observation...

Smaller battery, lighter car = more efficient?

Not that I am surprised by this, more so of the associated commentary with some models around having the best co-efficient of drag etc, whilst obviously a contributing factor, it's not all that?

It just strikes me that manufacturer drive isn't really "green", rather what tag line sells. Surely energy efficiency has to be top of the agenda for environmental reasons all the way from concept, through production, use and end of life. It isn't good creating a demand for more energy, the ability to charge quickly doesn't seem like the right way to work the problem.

Cynically I suppose the true problem is how to generate profit.

I wonder if there will ever be a rating for a vehicles lifecycle energy consumption and how much the list would change.

Heres Johnny

7,244 posts

125 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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One group of peoples ratings on one side, another set on the other. I got bored trying to be more specific but I have added lines to try and connect them where I can

I think we can safely safe the idea that these things contain actual information is misplaced


SWoll

18,503 posts

259 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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Dave Hedgehog said:
sixor8 said:
7 x Audi models, and 43rd was the best......
they are high priced low volume virtue signalling products
All SUV's or large sport coupes with a minimum of 300bhp and 2000KG. Where would you expect that sort of product to rank on a similar ICE MPG table?

They're better built, more comfortable and more traditional alternatives to what Tesla offer. No more of a virtue signal than any other large EV, at least not for us anyway.

kurokawa

585 posts

109 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
quotequote all
Max_Torque said:
Unfortunately these ^^^ tests really mean nothing.

EVs are very efficient, so their consumption is linked to two main things

1) average speed during the test (because aero drag is dominant)
2) Cabin heating/cooling loads (the cabin heater can be MORE than the road load at low speeds!)


The best test for comparitive EV efficiency is to simply to take the EPA eMPG ratings, as these tests are very tightly controlled and highly repeatable:

EPA_Fuel_Economy


No "On road" test is repeatable enough to allow any fair comparison
This

For all the years I spend in my i3, doing the same journey throughout the year, the efficiency could vary between 2.3X mile/kWh to 3.5x mile/kWh

the traffic, the road condition, the weather, how i drive, have i pre-condition too many factors that affect the efficiency

SWoll

18,503 posts

259 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
quotequote all
That's why Bjorn does all of hi testing on the same route and provide detail on average speed, weather etc. so can at least make a reasonable comparison.

As you mention easy to lose a third of your efficiency between dry summer and wet winter driving on the same route.

SWoll

18,503 posts

259 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
quotequote all
mids said:
I wondered before posting if I cba with the inevitable experts pointing out what is obvious.

Personally I think 5000+ miles of road testing of a vehicle from various drivers in various conditions, averaged out is not a totally worthless number. We all understand it's not perfect, no further need to point this out in the thread (yet again).
The point being each of the vehicles will need to have been tested over a similar distance/conditions or a comparison table like the one provided is likely to give a false impression?

Be easy for someone to look at that table and immediately dismiss certain models (the i4 M50 especially) without understanding the data that sits behind it. Better to leave models off when they haven't got enough information to make a determination I'd suggest?

boombang

551 posts

175 months

Wednesday 8th December 2021
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Fastlane said:
my wife's Kona 64kWh has averaged 4.1m/kWh over 16 months and 14k miles.

That's similar to our Soul, 4.6 the best we've seen on a journey, 3.5 seems more typical on a very cold day (starts at 3 and gets closer to 4 by end), average is shade over 4.