> In fact, nothing changed on the vehicles themselves, except the way range is now calculated. Specifically, the EPA now mandates that all EV manufacturers test acceleration and ride height modes in both best and worst-case scenarios. This makes almost all EVs lose range and efficiency, although the changes were introduced to better reflect real-world range performance.
> The new system is applicable to vehicles testing for the 2024 model year and later.
This is a slight improvement but still EPA testing is both a poor match to actual road tripping (where people often care about EV range) and can be very inconsistent between vehicles due to the number of options automakers have in choosing which cycles they will test with and how they use those results. The EPA's standard "highway" driving cycle averages 48 mph.
It's worth pointing out that the only international alternative to the EPA efficiency cycle for EVs is WLTP, which produces even more optimistic range numbers.
We can't win. If you ask the average person on the street the right way to measure "EV range", they'd give you an answer (e.g. "drive like you do in the real world") that looks very much like what the EPA tests. If you ask that same person if their car goes as far as it claims, they'll say "no", because they're thinking about highway range at 75mph.
My understanding is that WLPT is more consistent across manufacturers but as you say provides higher range numbers that won't match 70mph+ highway driving.
ICE cars are rated in City MPG and Highway MPG, and both are displayed on the window sticker. The EPA does test and compute City and Highway efficiency for EVs but then distills this into one combined range number for the sticker.
My suggestion would be to display separate City and Highway range figures for all EVs, adjust the Highway cycle to reflect 70mph highway driving, and combine all of the current options into a single set of test cycles that all manufacturers must use.
The current situation where different manufacturers use different test cycles and adjustment factors doesn't seem good for consumers at all.
> The new system is applicable to vehicles testing for the 2024 model year and later.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/tesla-my2024-updates-less...
This is a slight improvement but still EPA testing is both a poor match to actual road tripping (where people often care about EV range) and can be very inconsistent between vehicles due to the number of options automakers have in choosing which cycles they will test with and how they use those results. The EPA's standard "highway" driving cycle averages 48 mph.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/01/heres-how-the-epa-calcu...