We crunch the numbers on the electric cars on sale today to see which come closest to hitting their advertised figures
Plenty of electric cars have impressive claimed range figures but managing to achieve them is another story. With the increasing number of EVs to choose from, buyers are hunting for the most energy-efficient electric cars to really make the most of their batteries between charges.
Electric car efficiency is measured by calculating its miles per kilowatt hour used, shortened to mpkWh. For example, a Volkswagen ID 3 with a 77kWh battery would require an efficiency of 4.5mpkWh to achieve its officially rated 347 miles of range.
Tesla Model 3 Unveil (Image: Tesla)
A vehicle’s efficiency is affected in several different ways, with aspects such as weight proving to be a key factor in positively or negatively impacting range.
The Audi Q8 E-tron, for example, is powered by a 106kWh battery, but weighs a staggering 2585kg, meaning it can deliver only around 2.9mpkWh.
Larger, SUV-style electric cars are also usually impacted more by drag, which reduces their range compared with sleeker, more aerodynamic sports cars and hatchbacks.
The range and efficiency of electric cars are also heavily influenced by the weather conditions and outside temperatures. Warmer temperatures mean a battery’s chemical reactions can occur faster and offer higher range, whereas colder weather requires more energy, reducing range.
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In the early 2000s, it would have been difficult to consider an EV as your everyday car. They were too expensive to buy, offered a limited driving range, and the charging network was too small to make them a realistic prospect.
Matters began to improve when the Nissan Leaf arrived in 2010, and EV uptake has only accelerated since. In August 2023, more than 20 percent of new cars sold in the UK were fully electric – and Tesla had two vehicles (the Model Y and Model 3) inside the top 10 best-sellers.
The availability of better and more affordable EVs, along with the rapid growth of the charging network, means the answer to our original question is ‘yes’ – an electric carcan indeed be your everyday car.
Nonetheless, there are several important questions you need to ask yourself first…
How long is your daily commute?
The average round-trip commute in the UK is around 21 miles. Even an electric car with the most miserly range estimate will be able to cover that. You don’t even need a longer-range EV, such as a Porsche Taycan, to tackle a longer daily commute.
Kia Niro Plug-in Hybrid_Geneva 2017 (image: Next Green Car)
For example, the Kia Niro EV offers 285 miles of electric range, which might be enough for an entire week of commuting. At the time of writing, it costs £37,295 in entry-level ‘2’ specification.
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As it turns out, not all electric cars are created equal
Electric cars are not absolute newcomers to the car industry anymore. Over the past five years or so, most carmakers have churned out at least one electric car with plans to release a handful of others over the coming decade or so. The charging infrastructure has grown, too.
While this is obviously good news, it also leaves us (and the customer) with quite a big pond of EVs to choose from. To add more to the confusion and indecision, electric cars come in all shapes and sizes, set in motion by just one electric motor, two, or even three, and, obviously, very different price tags. Long story short, picking your next electric car might leave you scratching the top of your head. We get it.
Fret not, though. We’ve been kindly invited by Romania’s leading car outlet, Automarket, to an eight-day, eight-car real-life experiment that set out to discover just how good (or bad) the latest electric cars are in actual traffic both in and outside the city. What followed was to be known as Electric Romania 2020, basically a workshop on wheels powered by Vitesco Technologies, joined by other partners such as Michelin. The experience helped us better digest and understand both the strengths and shortcomings of today’s electric car: range-wise but also in terms of comfort, dynamics, user friendliness, tech-savviness, and overall liveability.
Porsche Taycan Turbo S (Image: Porsche)
This is where I started feeling like doing my dissertation paper all over again. Firstly, Electric Romania was thought out and designed as a tour of Romania done with EVs.
In case you’re asking why eight days, well, the backbone of the tour consisted of eight cars – all launched in 2020 on the Romanian market – and 14 journalists and content creators that would sample the said cars.
Basically, you got to drive another car each day, and the end of which you had to fill in a form with various bits of information: distance travelled, total time of travel, charging times, how much battery you had left at the destination, how much electricity went into the battery during charging, average speed, and so on.
So, each electric car was put through its paces over eight days, but every time by a different driver with a completely different set of driving habits than the one before him and on a different route. This included highways, winding A- and B-roads through the mountainside and hillside, as well as flat, plain-splitting roads where the elevation didn’t change much.
As for the car lineup itself, this is it, in the exact order we drove them:
Porsche Taycan
Renault Zoe
Volkswagen ID.3
Audi e-tron Sportback
Hyundai Kona Electric
Kia e-Niro
Mini Cooper SE
Peugeot e-2008
From here on, each car’s battery pack, electric motor (or motors), range, other specs as well as driving impressions will be presented as it follows.
Porsche had to get its first electric car right. And good God, it did. The Taycan Turbo is not just a flurry of performance, but a smile magnet. Sitting behind the wheel in the handful of traffic jams that slowed us down is the best way to enjoy the most honest smiles I’ve been treated with in a luxury car. Some people see you in Mercedes-AMG S63 or in a Panamera Turbo and you can just read either envy or loathing on their faces. With the Taycan, it’s the complete opposite: candid, genuine smiles from folks of all ages, walking on the street or driving in the next lane.
When you’re not sitting in a traffic jam, the Taycan Turbo’s personality can flip from tame to psycho as quick as it can go from naught to 60 mph: three seconds flat with Launch Control, on its way to a top speed of 260 kph (162 mph). The acceleration is brutal. You can easily squeeze a lot of squeal out of the wider-than-life rear tires from a standstill and with a drop of bad luck, you can even fracture a vertebra before the electronic nannies kick in or you decide to lift off. Even at highway speeds, smashing the accelerator will make the Taycan squat then shoot straight up ahead. The back of your head never leaves the headrest. Even if it wants, it can’t. At this point, I’m scared just thinking of what the Turbo S can do.
For a car this wide and long, city cruising is surprisingly swift and easy, but it’s the outer roads that make your spine tingle inside the Taycan. When on, the Launch Control feature triggers the Overboost function that unlocks the Turbo’s 500 kilowatts (670 hp, 680 PS) and 850 Newton-meters (627 pound-feet) coming from two electric motors fed by the 83.7-kWh battery pack (that’s the net, usable capacity – gross capacity according to Porsche literature is 93.4 kWh).
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Tesla’s Model 3 has been crowned UK Car of the Year 2020, making it back-to-back wins for electric vehicles at the awards following the Jaguar I-Pace’s victory in 2019.
After emerging triumphant as Best Executive car when the category winners were announced on February 12, the Tesla battled it out against eight other category winners for the overall title.
Tesla Model3 (Image: Wikimedia/Carlquinn)
Three of these cars were electric vehicles (EVs) and the popularity of another one of the trio – the Kia e-Niro – ensured the closest-ever winning margin in the history of the UK Car of the Year Awards.
John Challen, director of the UK Car of the Year awards, said: “Game-changer is an often-overused phrase, but the Tesla Model 3 has shaken up the executive segment and got many brands thinking. Electric vehicles attract a broad spectrum of opinions, but it’s clear that with its technology, performance and range, the Model 3 is converting a lot of people….
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Experts are predicting that 2020 will be the year of the electric car as sales continue to rise.
Figures released today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that the number of battery-electric vehicles registered in November increased by 228.8 per cent compared to the same month in 2018 – with over 4500 new EVs hitting the roads.
So far this year, nearly 14,000 electric cars have been registered in the UK, compared to 38,500 plug-in hybrids and nearly 80,000 hybrids. Mild hybrids have also seen a dramatic increase in popularity, with registrations of mild-hybrid diesels increasing by more than 450 per cent last month.
Peugeot e-208 (Image: Peugeot)
Car manufacturers are rushing to launch new electric cars in a bid to meet new emission targets set by European Union legislators. By 2021, they face strict fines if their average CO2 emissions for each car exceed 95g/km. By selling more electric vehicles (with zero tailpipe emissions) and hybrids (with reduced tailpipe emissions), average CO2 emissions will drop.
Kia recently admitted that it has 3000 customers on a waiting list for the e-Niro – something it says it intends to clear in the first half of 2020, despite previously having to halt orders as it couldn’t keep up with demand.
Volkswagen is set to launch its new electric ID range with the ID.3 hatchback, while the Volkswagen Up, SEAT Mii and Skoda Citigo city cars are also going electric-only for 2020. Vauxhall’s new Corsa is available as a pure-electric model, as is the closely-related Peugeot 208.
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EV range is a hot topic right now so we’ve listed the new electric cars with the longest range you can buy now…
The first question most people have when a new electric car comes out is how much range it has. ‘Range anxiety’ is a phrase often thrown around to describe the fear EV owners could face when driving their electric car with a level of remaining battery charge that may not get them to their destination. As a result, there’s a certain kudos attached to the electric cars with the longest range as well as a valuable competitive advantage manifested as electric car buyers are attracted to them. If you’re wondering which electric car has the longest range, you can find out below.
Manufacturers have quickly realised the importance of range to existing petrol or diesel car owners and now some electric cars can travel just as far on a single charge as an internal combustion engined (ICE) equivalent can manage on a full tank – all the while producing zero emissions at a cheaper running cost to the owner. The fact that most drivers will very rarely travel the kind of distances in a single day that would deplete a modern electric car’s battery is seen as less important than the need to reassure motorists considering the switch to the new technology.
There’s no doubt that the UK’s charging infrastructure still remains a stumbling block for electric cars and their owners. Charging points are increasing in number across the country and charging times are dropping but the chargers that there are are still often in use compounding the fact that recharging an EV is still noticeably slower than filling up a petrol or diesel vehicle.
With increasing investment from the Government and charging infrastructure providers to improve EV charging options coupled with the appeal of emission-free motoring and cheaper running costs than ICE vehicles, electric cars are more appealing than ever. Manufacturers too are in a race to develop enhanced batteries and electric car technology that will increase the range available in electric cars to the point that range anxiety will become a thing of the past.
The figure – dubbed ‘miles per pound’ (mpp) – reveals how much a car can travel for £1 of petrol, diesel or electricity.
Electric cars travel up to three times the distance of their petrol or diesel rivals for the same amount of money, according to research.
With interest in electric cars rising, many potential buyers are left confused by the way running costs are explained, with ‘miles per kWh’ difficult to compare to ‘miles per gallon’.
Kia e-Niro EV (Image: Kia)
To help consumers, car reviews and advice website Parkers.co.uk has developed a way of showing how far your car will go on a single pound – regardless of what fuel it runs on.
The figure – dubbed ‘miles per pound’ (mpp) – reveals how much a car can travel for £1 of petrol, diesel or electricity.
The study found the Kia e-Niro First Edition and the Renault Zoe 65kW are the most efficient models on sale in the UK today, with the cars capable of travelling 33.1 miles per pound (mpp) of electricity.
This is more than three times as far as the most economical version of the Ford Fiesta (9.3mpp), the UK’s best-selling vehicle, when using official testing figures.
With the average UK motorist driving around 7,150 miles per year, they would spend just £216 over a 12 month period if they charged their Kia e-Niro or Renault Zoe from home.
The Tesla Model 3 Standard Range was the third most economical, covering 32.3mpp, while the Volkswagen e-Golf was fourth on 30.8mpp.
The practical reasons against electric are disappearing – and now councils are stepping in to help
This feels like one of the “You’re the expert” questions that appear in Guardian Money every week. I have an old-ish petrol-fuelled car, sitting parked outside my terraced home, which I use only at weekends. And I have a brother-in-law who is evangelical about his Nissan Leaf. I’d like to be more like him. Yet the closest charging point for me is a 10-minute walk away, and often busy. Is it just too early to ditch my old car and go electric?
The question marks over electric vehicles used to be about battery technology and the cost. But “range anxiety” has largely been conquered. The first Nissan Leaf batteries took you about 80-85 miles without needing a charge; the latest ones do 150 miles. The new Kia e-Niro family car manages 300 miles, while at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Mercedes was showing off its Vision EQS model with a “comfortable” range of 435 miles. Given that the average car journey in the UK is just 10 miles, according to the RAC, fears over the usability of electric cars are fading fast.
Kia e-Niro EV (Image: Kia)
Sadly, prices for new electric cars remain higher significantly higher than for petrol or diesel, with the eGolf at about £30,000 compared with petrol ones starting at about £20,000. But as we highlight this week, a used market is now developing in electric vehicles, with entry-level prices as low as £5,000 – with no annual tax, and low servicing charges to boot. What’s more, driving costs are a fraction of the cost of petrol, without even mentioning the enormous benefit to the environment, especially in cities.
So why aren’t we all switching over? The knee-jerk response is now about charging times, for city dwellers like me without the luxury of a drive or garage. Who in their right mind is going to spend half an hour queuing for a charge point, then sit there for an hour or so while it fills up? Or faff around finding the only on-street overnight charge point available, then walk home in the rain for half an hour? It’s not going to happen.
The correct response is that the climate crisis means we will have to live without the hyper-convenience we became accustomed to. If the average journey is just 10 miles, why not take the bus or use an e-bike? And if you must insist on a private car, is a 10- or 15-minute walk to a charging point really such a sacrifice to save the environment?
Earlier this year, as part of a long-term test review, I had six months to discover just how good the Kia e-Niro is. But as the time neared its end, it became apparent that the car’s real-world 250-300-mile range meant I hadn’t driven anywhere that necessitated the use of the UK’s public charging network.
So it was that I took the plunge, adding further jeopardy by making this pioneering journey with my entire family in tow, off on our summer holidays to West Wales.
At worst, I wouldn’t return just on a flatbed truck but also divorced and with children who no longer wanted to know me.
The challenge was complex, because we needed to travel to and from Wales on the motorway networks, whereas we would be looking for every kind of charger available while we were there, from rural public spots to those provided by local car dealers and even, on occasion, three-pin plugs where we were staying.
However, 800 miles later and with two journeys of more than 250 miles under our belts, we were back home and still on speaking terms. It took some planning and there were fleeting moments of inconvenience and lost time, but it worked out just fine, a few ultimately minor dramas aside.
Here, then, are some of the lessons learned from a trip that proved to me once and for all that the capability of today’s EVs and charging network make the switch from a petrol or diesel car far easier than most people imagine.
1. Electric car people are nice people
I’ll be honest, I had my doubts. Social media is awash with virtue-signalling EV evangelists who jump at the chance to strike out at anyone who dare suggest even the slightest compromise of electrification. But everyone I met in an electric car was friendly, helpful and informative, and many went out of their way to help and educate me. This is the kind of advocacy needed to persuade anyone with doubts to switch to electric motoring, and it was a joy to discover a positive subject that bound people together in a common goal.
2. Some people can’t help behaving like idiots
Based on my journey, ‘some people’ is actually mostly made up of BMW drivers. The chap who parked his diesel X6 in a charging bay and left its engine running for 20 minutes? Idiot. The BMW 5 Series plug-in hybrid buyer who dropped it in a charging bay but then got ticketed because he wasn’t smart enough to plug it in? Bigger idiot. The only upside was that they weren’t using disabled bays, I guess.
We find out if the new Kia e-Niro or revamped BMW i3 can beat our current EV champion, the Hyundai Kona Electric
Until recently, electric vehicles generally fell into one of two camps: small, more affordable and often frustrating because of drawbacks such as a limited range; or bigger cars that had larger batteries and therefore a longer range, but were also much pricier.
However, there’s now a growing group in the middle ground promising affordability and usability, thanks to their accurate and genuinely exploitable predicted range that’s making ‘range anxiety’ a thing of the past.
EVs are as usable as ever and leading this group are two upstarts and one familiar face. The newest model is the Kia e-Niro, which combines an advanced electric drivetrain with a conventional compact SUV body. The latest BMW i3 gets a bigger battery that gives it even more range. And in the sportier i3s trim that we’re testing here, it pretty much matches the e-Niro for performance and price.
Finally the Hyundai Kona Electric is our current favourite affordable EV, having taken the title at our New Car Awards last year – but it’s by no means old. The e-Niro shares much of the Hyundai’s tech, so it’ll be interesting to see how much difference there is and which will be Britain’s best wallet-friendly EV.
