Summer Electric Car Range Test: Tesla Model S Long Range Exceeds WLTP Mileage

The ranges of electric cars are a frequently discussed topic and their low values ​​are often criticized. The Norwegian magazine Motor.no regularly tests this, both in summer and winter. Now he tried it in the summer, and even in those absolutely ideal conditions. The weather was nice, about 15 °C in the mountains, about 20 °C in the lowlands, mostly windless. On the other hand, it must be said that you do not drive on a level ground, but from almost sea level (10 masl) you climb up to a height of over 900 masl, which increases consumption, and it can be assumed that in the opposite direction the cars would have a slightly longer reach A total of 32 cars lined up for the start.

And how did it all turn out? Despite the ideal conditions (apart from the gradient), only 11 of these 32 cars, which means 34%, reached the WLTP range. Some slight deviations can be expected, but it should be at least around half. There were 13 cars above 99% of their paper mileage, and 17 cars above 98%, which is already more than half. Let’s take a look at some highlights from this test.

It is a premium in the range Tesla Model S Long Range (4WD). It was supposed to cover 634 km on paper, but stopped after 672 km. It exceeded its WLTP range by 6% and the consumption value itself is very good. For such a large car, the value of 14.4 kWh/100 km is really excellent. E.g. a similar BMW i7 drove for 18.1 kWh per 100 km, the Mercedes-Benz EQE 350 needed 16.3 kWh, the NIO ET7 even 19.5 kWh, but on the other hand, for example, an XPeng P7 managed it for 13.7 kWh/100 km . Let’s also note here that this Tesla traveled 530 km in the winter, i.e. 16% below the paper range. This also means that the winter range is shorter by 21% compared to the summer one (and not by half, as is often claimed). As for other Teslas, the Model X Plaid with its 546km range exceeded the paper value by only 0.6%, while the Model Y SR fell short of it by 1.3% at 449km.

The WLTP range is particularly surpassed by the company XPeng. Its G9 was 13% better at 588km, the P7 went 557km, beating the paper figure by 10.3%. The Nissan Ariya also had a decent result with 581 km and 9% exceeding the paper range. On the contrary, the worst results were achieved by twins Subaru Solterra (4WD) a Toyota bZ4x (2WD). While for the 4WD version of the Toyota the difference was only -3.4%, for the front-wheel drive it was -13.7% and for the Solterra it was only a little better -13.3%. In addition, Solterra “won” the title for the car with the shortest range of 361 km (instead of 416 km on paper). Here, however, we must point out that there are many other electric cars with shorter ranges on the market that have not been tested.