Edmunds Tested: Electric Car Range and Consumption
edmunds.comThe article missed expanding on a weird contrast.
Some of the cars were less positive in the consumption comparison than they were in the range comparison or vice versa, but the Tesla’s were better in consumption than their range comparison.
The consumption and range measure slightly different items, but the article should have explained what the relation was between both outperforming for a car or both performing different.
If one car is leaving more of a buffer or not charging to 100% then the range will be effected. It almost looks like the Tesla’s are performing as rate in range but leaving a 10% buffer. If that is the case, Can the buffer be used or is it unavailable?
That was my thought. There's a feature in Teslas to set the max charge, and normal usage is to put it at 80%-90% capacity to improve battery life. But that hidden range is still there, and you can access it if you're planning a long trip by setting it to 100%.
"We prefer to use a higher percentage of city road driving because we believe it's more representative of typical EV use." - different tests give different results. I bet if this were instead 70% freeway the rankings would be totally different. You see the same thing with gas cars. The EPA mileage doesn't match real world because everyone drives different roads, in different temperatures, with different gas petal usage.
Being as how ZEV credits are earned based on the battery range of vehicles, Tesla's credits are overstated as well.