Nine BEVs are tested on a 105 mile test track to determine how far they could go on a single charge Testing Electric Vehicles in the Real World
It's great that there are 9 cars to test. When this announcement went through the EV club the use of an old Leaf against new and preproduction vehicles was suspect.
Without knowing the depth of battery discharge, I ignore the range. The wh/mile data though is really interesting. The Honda Fit stands out, and it would stand out even more if normalized to car weight. The Coda stands out too, but not in a good way.
They did it on real roads, not a track. As I said in the thread, I don't like how they conducted their range test. See my comment at My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Phila. Auto Show - Leaf range. (GOM = guess-o-meter = wildly inaccurate "distance to empty" indicator on the Leaf).
The problem with the Fit EV is that it's not-quite-vaporware because it's a pure compliance vehicle. With a small lease-only volume it could have expensive hardware in it that would make any real-world price uncompetitive.
Amazing what a battery under the floor does to handling. The RAV4 EV, a tall SUV, does the slalom and g-pad better than a Prius c! while also being heavier by 2 tons.
The test were done on real world non-superhighway roadways not on a professional test track. Edmunds is not using a *test track* maybe a better description would be *standardized rea- world road circuit*? Edmund's hopes to test other BEVs on this same route as they become available to provide a standard two work from. The range for each BEV tested was based on when the on-board computer signaled for a recharging. The reported on-board computer's estimated Distance to Empty (DTE) plus the actual distance traveled indicates the full range of the BEV as estimated by the on-board computer. The Honda Fit EV and Mitsubishi iMiEV have very light curb weights and have a very small aerodynamic frontal area so it is not surprising that they are the most energy efficient BEVs in the group.
I like this test. I wonder how much better the 2013 Leaf will perform with its 15% higher efficiency to 115 MPGe.
Perhaps, although it seems counter-intuitive to me to put expensive hardware (and presumably R&D) into a compliance only vehicle.
They really should've taken them all to the equivalent of turtle on the Leaf. The GOM on the Leaf is pretty crappy, as most Leaf owners will tell you. There's still some range left even after the GOM (cough... DTE) hits ---. After some driving in that, I believe the next phase is turtle.
From what I understand the Nissan Leaf tries to keep a minimum of 20% SOC charge in order to extend the lifespan of the battery pack at the expense of its range. However, Edmund's comparison is not testing/tracking battery pack lifespan.
It's not 20%. See My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Why not just display estimated number of kWh left?. Basically, there's some at the top that's not usable (charging to full doesn't really == 100% SoC) and there's some at the bottom that's not usable even when you've triggered turtle and the car gets to a point (after turtle) that it will no longer move. I'm saying they should've taken it to the turtle alert, not when the GOM suddenly changed from "3 miles left" to ---. They had a bit more go to before hitting turtle.
Would have been nice to do that to see what the warnings really mean. To avoid safety issues, that part of the test could have been finished on a real track. The two problems I have: 1. The mild temperatures mean they didn't have to deal with the cold affecting battery charge, as the NYTimes driver did (I don't think that test was as bad as some of us do.) 2. Yes, these are commuter cars, but a lot of commuting is now done on interstates (e.g., my commuting)--so I would like to see a test which included that
Thought I'd update this 10 year old thread with the closest link I could find to the OP's link Testing Electric Vehicles in the Real World — Car Forums at Edmunds.com forums.edmunds.com/discussion/28868/general/x/testing-electric-vehicles-in-the-real-world there is a "Read the full story here" link near the top of the page. that ( for me ) links to the " Edmonds EV-charging tests: How fast does each EV charge?" link that @Gokhan posted in the thread he started. The same as when I clicked on the OP's 10 year old link above. At least there are the posts above and the Edmunds forum posts.
On my computer the link in the original post automatically updated to February 9th, 2021(updated November 14th, 2023) when I click on it and all the cars listed in it are 2023
I got anywhere between 30 miles and 125 miles of range out of my 2013 Leaf, depending on the weather and driving technique.
Did anything change in the battery and drive train between those years? The OP is from 2013. Edmunds likely tests when the model came out, and will only retest when some something changes. The Bolt EUV came out in 2022. The EV had at least one battery change since its release, and that is not considering fall out from the recall.
