QUenta Strada really runs an electric car with a charge? It is a question that many potential buyers of a battery-powered car are ask, even the plug-in hybrid ones. And the doubt is that the travels promised by the manufacturers are well higher than the actual ones. A suspicion so well founded as to have pushed the Guarantor Authority for the competition and the market to deepen the matter: on February 21, the Antitrust Authority announced the start of four investigations on as many automotive companies (Byd, Stellantis, Tesla and Volkswagen) for possible incorrect commercial practices. That day, antitrust officials and finance guard agents carried out an inspection at the Italian offices of the four companies to collect useful elements for investigations. The investigations concern “the information provided to consumers on the autonomy of kilometer travel of electric vehicles, on the loss of battery capacity and on the information relating to the limitations of operability of the conventional guarantee on the batteries, in possible violation of the consumer code”, reads a note from the authority.
That the “official” autonomies, which emerged from the approval tests are higher than the real ones is a fairly obvious fact, as have shown various investigations on the field. The site Insideevs He leads a test every year on the great ring road that surrounds Rome by comparing a dozen models that must travel respecting the limits and the flow of traffic, starting with the batteries charged to 100 percent and with the air conditioner at 22 degrees. Result: in the last comparison, which examined 12 compact electric cars, the difference between real travel and the declared one oscillates between a minimum of 23 percent and a maximum of 34 percent. For example, a Ford Explorer that should have traveled 602 kilometers covered only 400.
At similar conclusions the test conducted in the United States from the magazine has arrived Consumer reportwho tried 22 electric vehicles on the highway at 112 kilometers per hour with 22 -degree air conditioning: almost half did not reach the autonomy that emerged from the approval tests. The Ford F-1550 Lightning has traveled 434 kilometers against the expected 514 (-15 percent), while the Tesla Model S dropped from 651 kilometers to 589 (-9 percent). On the contrary, the Mercedes EQS 580 has done better, exceeding 10 percent the expected autonomy. Even in the forums animated by the owners of electric cars we often confront each other on actual travel, and in addition to those who complain are those who, like the driver of a Model Y, have recorded a higher autonomy than that indicated.
The problem is that autonomy depends a lot on the driving style and environmental conditions. Lithium ion batteries suffer, for example, efficiency reductions of up to 30 percent at temperatures below zero. The Adac, the German automotive club, replied a Monaco-Berlin winter journey in the laboratory (600 kilometers to zero degrees and average speed 111 kilometers per hour) discovering that only the Mercedes EQS 450+ has completed the route without stopping, while 18 out of 25 models have consumed 50 percent more than the data of the WLTP test.
And it is precisely the results of the WLTP, published in the sites of the manufacturers and sometimes used in advertising, to feed false illusions. The Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure is a European standard that entered into force in 2018 instead of the least realistic Nedc. It takes place in the laboratory at a temperature of 23 degrees: the car is made to rollers at an average speed of 46.5 kilometers, simulating accelerations, braking and various driving conditions. During the test, secondary consumption such as those due to heating and air conditioning are not considered. The main objective is to measure the emissions of each new vehicle in almost realistic conditions.
However, it is clear that this procedure does not adequately evaluate critical factors such as low winter temperatures, the use of the air conditioning or the supported motorway driving. With the final result of offering the car manufacturers a number to be slammed which, however, does not reflect reality. In fact, the European Commission proposed the integration of the WLTP with extreme scenarios (motorway with less 10 degrees). In the meantime, antitrust officials will have to check whether the WLTP data have been presented by the companies in order to deceive consumers.
The same problem, should be underlined, arises with petrol cars: a 2024 report created by the General Management for the Action for the Climate of the European Commissionbased on the real consumption of 600 thousand circulating cars registered after 2021, reveals that the petrol cars consume on average 23.7 percent more than the declared values, while for the diesel the difference is 18.1 percent. But for the drivers of a petrol car, the data on real autonomy is relatively important information: if you end up in reserve before expected there is always a service station nearby and the time necessary for refueling is reduced to a few minutes. For users of an electric car, on the other hand, the data is crucial, because the diffusion of charging columns is less widespread (at least for now) and the time to make a decidedly longer full energy. There is a risk of having to cancel an employment appointment if the office is not enough.
Another unresolved knot concerns battery wear: the Italian antitrust contest to the manufacturers that it has omitted information on the loss of capacity that could reach 20 percent after eight years. The German consultancy firm P3 has conducted a study on this issue by examining the data obtained from the measurements on seven thousand models to zero emissions, including cars with over 300 thousand kilometers. The survey shows that the degradation of the batteries is not linear but is more marked within the first 100 thousand kilometers and then stabilize. In the first 30 thousand kilometers, the loss of efficiency stands around 5 percent and then climbed to 10 percent within 100 thousand kilometers. Then, between 200 thousand and 300 thousand kilometers, the batteries maintain an average of 87 percent capacity. However, it must be borne in mind that even in this case the usury depends on many factors: an ineffective thermal management system, frequent quick recharges, maintain the charge constantly at 100 percent or completely download it completely. In short, the world of electric car is complicated and consumers have the right to have complete and truthful information.
