What does Real-World Range mean?

Explanation

Real-world range is how far your car actually drives on a full charge in your daily conditions, with your driving style, your climate control settings, your speed, and your local weather. Unlike WLTP range, which is measured in a laboratory, real-world range reflects what you actually experience.

Many factors affect real-world range. Speed is the biggest one: driving at 130 km/h uses roughly 40% more energy than driving at 90 km/h. Temperature is second: cold weather increases consumption through heating needs and reduced battery performance. Other factors include terrain, tire pressure, tire type, passenger and cargo weight, and use of accessories.

The best way to know your real-world range is to track your energy consumption over several weeks. Your car's trip computer shows consumption in Wh/km or kWh/100km. Multiply your usable battery capacity by 1000 and divide by your average consumption to get a realistic range estimate.

For detailed documentation, see EV Database.

Where you'll see this

• On your car dashboard

Common confusion

People compare WLTP range across cars and assume the difference holds in real life. Two cars with 500 km and 450 km WLTP range might perform nearly the same in practice because their efficiency differs in real conditions.

Example

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