If you drive in the evening at 130 km/h on the highway with your EV, you know that the range specified by the manufacturer is a utopia. How many kilometers can you actually drive with a full battery at that speed? The colleagues from AutoBild found out this time with the Tesla Model Y, the Polestar 2, the Cupra Born and the Volkswagen ID3. Here’s their previous test with other EVs.
Polestar 2 with 408 hp and 78 kWh battery
Polestar, until recently Volvo’s home tuner, has been an independent brand since 2017 and currently has two models in its range. The Polestar 2 is a 4.60-metre crossover with a sleek, durable interior (PET/fishing nets) and Google’s Android operating system. With its 408 hp power and four-wheel drive, the 2.2-ton Polestar delivers quite impressive performance (top speed 210 km/h, 0-100 km/h in 4.7 seconds) and should reach 470 kilometers according to the WLTP standard . However, he does not achieve this in the test, which we conducted at an outside temperature of about 10 degrees Celsius. The tested Polestar covered a distance of 268 kilometers at a constant speed of 130 km/h.
Cupra Born with 231 hp and 58 kWh battery
The brand new Born shares its technology with the Volkswagen ID3 and, like that car, is built in Zwickau, Germany. But, let’s be honest, it simply looks better, sleeker on the outside and nicer on the inside. The 1.8-ton test Cupra is equipped with rear-wheel drive, a power of 231 hp and the 58 kWh battery. This makes it a smooth and handy car. Cupra promises a range of 420 kilometers for this version, which the Born has not achieved. In the test, it consumes 25.7 kWh at a constant speed of 130 km/h, which equates to a range of 226 kilometers.
Tesla Model 3 with 77 kWh battery
The Model Y, which will soon see the light of day in the German factory in Grünheide near Berlin, is an SUV with a length of 4.75 meters with plenty of space and the typical Tesla control via the central touchscreen. Unfortunately, the Americans do not provide us with test cars; we picked up the Model Y from a rental company. It is a Long Range Dual Motor with two electric motors, 441 hp, four-wheel drive and a 77 kWh battery. For this version, Tesla specifies a range of 507 kilometers according to the WLTP standard. The Model Y is nowhere near that under the test conditions. At a temperature of about 10 degrees Celsius and a constant speed of 130 km/h, our copy reached 304 kilometers.
Volkswagen ID3 with 204 hp and 58 kWh battery
The fully electric ID3 has been available since 2019 and is comparable in size to the Golf. The ID3 is available with power ratings of 145, 150 and 204 hp and with three battery packs: 45, 58 and 78 kWh. Not all variants are currently available, because the Volkswagen group is particularly affected by the chip shortages that plague the car industry. Perhaps the tense situation is the reason why Volkswagen does not want to make test cars available to us at the moment. So we arranged one at a rental company, an ID3 Pro with 204 hp engine in the back and a 58 kWh battery. According to the WLTP cycle, it should be able to cover 419 kilometers on a fully charged battery, but in the test it gave up at 130 km/h after 216 kilometers.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl