- According to UFC-Que Choisir, the autonomy announced by manufacturers of electric vehicles is far from reality in use
- Some models show a deviation of more than 30%
- Charging power figures are also misleading
Definitely, the start of 2023 does not smile on the electric car industry. While Europe could revise its plans on banning thermal cars from 2035, a new investigation of the UFC-What to choose reveals that manufacturers lie about the autonomy of their vehicles.
The consumer association screened 20 electric cars, including the best-selling models in France. Of the 20 models studied, none displays a real autonomy equivalent to that announced by the manufacturer.
Volkswagen, Citroën and Tesla: not good!
At best, the gap is 9.9% for the Hyundai Kona Electric 64 kWh with 436 km of autonomy measured for 484 km of autonomy announced. This is followed by the Kia EV6 (470 km measured out of 528 announced), the Honda e Advance 17” (180 km measured out of 205 km announced), the Mercedes EQA 250 (350 km measured out of 402 km announced) and the BMW i4 eDrive40 (493 km measured for 572 km announced).
The worst students are Volkswagen with its ID.4 GTX which shows a gap of 33.4% between the announced autonomy and the actual autonomy. Citroën follows with its ë-C4 136 hp Automatic Shine (27.2%), Tesla with its Model Y Long Autonomy AWD (26.8%) on a par with Aiways with its U5 Premium 150 kW (26.8%) and finally Volvo with its XC40 Recharge Twin AWD (24.4%).
According to UFC-Que Choisir, manufacturers are not solely responsible for this distorted information. The WLTP certification protocol would also need to be reviewed since he “does not reflect the actual conditions of use”.
Overrated charging power
Autonomy is not the only element overestimated by manufacturers. Still according to UFC-Que Choisir, the charging power is also largely overvalued. The brands indeed have record charging powers, but in fact the vehicles cannot absorb such powers over the entire duration of a charge. UFC-Que Choisir explains:
Charging a battery is like filling a glass. First, open the tap wide to enjoy a good flow, then gradually reduce the trickle of water until you reach the brim. Otherwise ? Otherwise, it overflows.
Thus, the consumer association tested Renault’s Megane E-Tech whose maximum charging power is announced at 130 kW. First observation: the maximum power reached peaked at 121 kW when the battery was empty.
This power then gradually decreased: -10 kW at 10% load, -30 kW after 10 minutes, -60 kW after 20 minutes and -80 kW after 30 minutes. We are therefore still very far from the promises of the manufacturer.
