Electric Vehicle Manufactures: Lying About Range?

Electric cars are not getting the range advertised, similar to the way gasoline powered cars rarely get the MPG that is advertised.

Are they lying?

Let’s figure this out.

Breakdown:

Those stats are based on the weight of the car and the energy necessary to create the force necessary to move the mass of the car at certain acceleration intervals. It’s a conversion of energy to work, based on power demands.

If you accelerate quickly, this takes more energy to go the same distance in less time. Also, every time you use the brake, you lose momentum and inertia says you are losing energy and force in that vector if you apply and opposite force by way of friction.

The numbers were not “exaggerated” they were calculated estimations based on known mathematic and scientific formulas. However, over time, things behind to break down, warping and rust can become a factor, less traction in the tires can affect the force applied to the ground to propel the car forward, and they do not always assune the amount of added weight in the cars.

Therefore, if you use your break a lot, if you accelerate quickly, especially from a stopped position, if you add weight to the vehicle, if your car wears out or breaks down, and as the battery degrades over time, naturally, all of the outputs will be affected by way of a loss of overall range.

This does not mean the company misrepresented such fIgures, it means tht was likely the case at the time the tests were performed, under the conditions the tests per performed in, which are ideal conditions isolating as many variablea as possible to give an avaolute best possible figure, to use as a standard apples to apples comparison with all the other car manufactures when shopping for a vehicle, because they all generate the figures in the same fashion, using the same formulas that exist already in nature, in physics, and in mathematics.

These relationships already exist, the manufactures market it in a way where it is easy for the consumer to understand and not required to manually do these complex calculations.

Typically, the claims made are “up to 42 MPG highway, or 30 MPG city” OR “up to 235 mile range.” The “up to” is the common denominator, proving they are comparing the same apples to apples measurement being written in the same notation with the same unit of measurement, but in the best case scenario, and yet, it’s actually not the “best case” scenario.

Consider this:

If you were only traveling one way, downhill, you aould notice an incredible range! Given that the force to accelerate the mass of the car is being aided, assisted and provided in part by gravity, therefore, the (stored) potential energy, is converted into kinetic energy (energy of motion) which generates heat and friction (which also creates heat), the distance a car can go on the fuel required to create acceleration and momentum is a lot less, and therefore, better gas mileage and/or longer range.

Furthermore, range is also affected by elevation due to air density, as there is less air to force out of the path of travel of the car equals less friction, meaning less opposing force is applied against the car to slow it down, and therefore, longer coasting while also using less fuel.

However!

Drive at sea level, or drive up a hill, and you will quickly realize how you are able to have so much stored up energy when descending from higher elevations, because of the amount of extra work it takes to work against gravity before you allow it to assist you.

I’m my opinion, these are basic principles that everyone should be learning in school.

The question is, are schools just not teaching them, or are the students too busy on their phones in the classroom to realize this stuff will actually have application out in the real world?

Please let me know with a comment down below if you were taught this in school and what you think might improve the range of electric vehicles moving forward.