#EvRange

EV battery technology has progressed to the point that range anxiety is becoming a thing of the past – at least on paper. A new study from Consumer Reports found that real-world driving ranges often fall way short of automakers’ advertised range estimates, but some exceed their on-paper numbers.

Tesla owners are passionate about their vehicles, especially when it comes to all the cool things they can do compared to other EVS. It wasn’t surprising to see them sue the automaker in 2016 over claims that a new software update limited their driving range, though it’s a little surprising to see it happening again in 2023. 

Hyundai announced today that the maximum range in the Ioniq6 will be a tick over 360 miles.

Not bad!

Over-the-air (OTA) updates have made it relatively easy for automakers to add new vehicle features and improve or fix existing functions. The technology is especially impressive with EVs, where companies can make tweaks that impact major vehicle characteristics like range and performance. With its most recent OTA, Rivian made significant improvements to the R1S and R1T, making them more efficient and friendlier for people living where the air hurts their faces in winter.   

The planning session was brief. At TTAC’s virtual HQ, also known as TTAC Slack, Steph Willems, Corey Lewis, and Adam Tonge were busy formulating an idea.

Fascinated by the Cain family’s recent move to rural Prince Edward Island, the guys wondered if, on electric power alone, Ford’s plug-in hybrid 2017 Fusion Energi SE could cross Prince Edward Island from the north side’s Gulf of St. Lawrence to the south side’s Northumberland Strait, which separates Prince Edward Island from mainland Canada.

Sure it can, I said, but that’s too easy. There are many narrow parts of Prince Edward Island. Crossing Rte. 308’s nine miles from Naufrage to Rollo Bay wouldn’t be much of a challenge.

Building on that idea, however, we developed a plan that would grant yours truly a midday office reprieve, or so I thought. From the Cain homestead in Margate, just outside the bustling metropolis of Kensington, I would depart with a fully charged 2017 Ford Fusion Energi and attempt to reach five spectacular beaches along the Gulf of St. Lawrence on PEI’s so-called Green Gables Shore.

Google Maps said I would need to travel 22 miles. The 2017 Ford Fusion Energi has 23 miles of pure EV range. This’ll be a breeze, I thought to myself, and I fled my office and TTAC’s virtual HQ minutes later, thoroughly unprepared for what came next.

Yes, we know the drill: range will vary with an EV, even more so than with a gas car. Nissan has now set out a number of scenarios to project the range of its Leaf EV. It confirms what we’ve been saying all along: this is not the car to buy if you like driving fast. There’s little doubt that a Baruthian blast could deplete one in some 30 miles or less. On the other hand, if you like driving at a steady 38 mph…