I've tested in my own model 3 and the range and kwh usage is actually pretty accurate as advertised assuming you accelerate slowly, drive the speed limit, and don't run the heat, and don't have a strong headwind. Many people, including myself, absolutely do not drive like that, so the range will be less.
This is honestly true for the ICE estimates as well. It’s just that people have a lot more range anxiety when they can’t find a refueling spot every other street corner.
Not that I’m condoning it. And not that they’ve always gotten away with it. They need to be held accountable to come up with reasonable range expectations.
It seems like it's an issue with manufacturing consistency/quality. The report said some cars were getting literally half their advertised range on daily commutes. That's not an amount that could be accounted for by driving styles.
Yeah it's all about ideal conditions, and same for ICE as the other reply said. Even external temperature matters for EVs too, if it's too cold the battery won't perform as well.
Running the heat can be energy draining because you don't have a hot engine to draw air from. Using the heated seats is much more efficient but of course less comfortable in cold weather.
Isn’t this something for the FTC to prosecute? And then after that, class-action lawsuits?
When Apple got caught extending battery life on old iPhones without user knowledge, there were lawsuits announced by the end of the day. What about Tesla?
I'm actually within about 5% +- on my Model S Plaid depending on the time of year and that's hardly driving conservatively (maybe luck?). Oddly enough, my Model S has been more efficient than my Model 3 LR was, which I know makes no sense. But pretty much across the board for all the same drives, I use less kWh, it boggles my mind.
This is based on data from Tessie.
All that said, I realize the article says other manufacturers have more accurate fuel economies. I'm sorry, but no, my friend's leaf is absolutely wrong by an extremely large margin, especially in winter, and has been since day one. It's not even close.
I've found the max range on the Hyundai Kona EV's is fairly accurate. It can vary quite a bit with stuff like AC/heat but generally in reasonable weather it gets close to what was advertised.
The MPGe Tesla advertised also is. Then they use that to correspond to % remaining battery.
All EVs get wildly different range depending on outdoor temps (I get 30% lower range in winter) and their hysteresis is way higher than an ICE car. But, their range numbers are accurate for when they are measured under ideal circumstances.
I regularly do better than rated range. Others have a heavy foot and do worse. Kinda par for the course.
One thing is to exaggerate the range in your advertisement material, which every auto manufacture does—especially since you need to meet veeery specific criteria to get the advertised mpg.
Another though is to rig your software to show misleading range to the people actually driving the fucking car, that’s either stupid or very shady.