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Hi, I'm Gary, and this is Evie Musings, a podcast about renewables, electric vehicles,
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and things that are interesting to electric vehicle owners.
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And on the show today, we'll be looking at why your Evie won't do the range.
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The advert's save, won't.
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This season of the podcast is sponsored by Zatmap, the go-to app for EV drivers helping you find
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and pay for public charging with confidence. Our main topic of discussion today is range.
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A recent BBC Morning Live segment highlighted a Mustang Mach-E odour who was extremely unhappy
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with his car because he wouldn't do the range he was told it would do when he bought it.
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The official range was 610 km or 320 miles, and he was getting around 260 miles maximum,
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fewer than that in winter. Now, he purchased the car so that he could do the trip to see
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grandkids in Gretna, 95 miles away, giving a round trip of 190 miles in total. But in midwinter,
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he arrived at Gretna with around 20 miles left. So, what went wrong? Was he sold a tough car?
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Why was he getting such a low range in a car that he was told would do 320 miles?
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Well, this is a common issue, and it's when I hear being discussed in forums and social
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media posts on a regular basis, it highlights a fundamental issue with understanding range in
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electric cars. Today, I want to talk about what the issues are, why the range will rarely be what
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the advertising tells you, and how to work out what your actual range should be. But first,
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a bit of history. Before EVs, the standard associated with efficiency for petrol or diesel
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cars was fuel consumption. TV adverts, newspaper adverts, commercial advertising material
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used to always quote a miles per gallon figure, or if you're listening in Europe,
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a litre per 100km figure. This was meant to let the potential buyers know what the relative efficiency
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was of the vehicle. You'll notice that it didn't give any indication of how the figure varied
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across the year. You'll also notice that it didn't give any indication of what the range was
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on the car. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that the vast majority of ICE car
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drivers have absolutely no idea how big their fuel tank is. Even if they did,
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it would probably be a figure in litres, not gallons, which they picked up from seeing how much
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they put in at the lash refill. So the efficiency is in miles per gallon and the fuel tank is in litres.
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Yay! Philometric system in the UK. Consequently, nobody knew how far their car would go on a
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tank full of fuel. To find out, you had to get the car, fill it with fuel, drive it and then
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you refilled it and you drove it again and then you refilled it etc. Each time you refilled
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it, the range you had would be a bit different. Perhaps you'd done a lot of round town driving
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this time. Perhaps you'd done a lot of motorway driving. Either way, you weren't getting anywhere
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near what the official figures were showing and your range was all over the place. Regardless
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of this, how far you could travel was not a problem. In fact, and I've told you before on
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this programme, back in the 1980s, my father's Jaguar had, uh, HJ6 had two 10 gallon fuel
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tanks and it averaged 12 miles per gallon so it could travel 240 miles between refuelling stops
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maximum. I saw a recent post on LinkedIn that showed a 1973 RS3100 Capri which had a 255
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mile range on a 13 gallon tank. Now these figures are lower than a lot of EVs currently
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available to buy, including the Ford marquee I talked about at the top of the show.
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So we're now at the situation where electric cars are becoming more and more mainstream,
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approximately one in four cars sold in the UK this year were electric. And now it seems that
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range figures are both important to know and crucial to be accurate. But that's not how it works.
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All the range figure gives you is an approximation to be used as a comparison figure, just like
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the fossil fuel efficiency figures. The data that always get quoted are the WLTP figures.
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This is the worldwide harmonised light vehicle test procedure. It's a simplified way of comparing
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different sorts of vehicles over the same sets of conditions. The test itself is designed to
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simulate an average car journey and it takes place on a dynamometer or commonly known as a
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rolling road. The test journey includes phases for acceleration, braking when the vehicle is
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stationary and other items to be taken into account are rolling resistance, air resistance,
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different engine and gearbox combinations and optional equipment. Generally vehicle testers
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will examine the lightest and heaviest variant of any given model then apply a mathematical
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formula to determine the consumption figures for the rest of the range. But the key to
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remember on this is that testing takes place over a relatively small driving distance and at a standard
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temperature. Tests are carried out at speeds from 29 miles an hour up to 81 miles an hour,
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but only over a rolling distance of 14 miles in total on a test that takes 30 minutes to
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carry out. Now what this means is that very little, if any, relationship to real world
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figures exists and the reason for this is because it's not meant to be used for real world values,
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it's meant to be used for comparison purposes only and we'll come back to this a little later.
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The key thing to remember here is that ice cars are the same. You go a lower distance on a fuel
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tank in winter. This is especially true if you have a diesel vehicle that's generally doing
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shorter journeys such as or I don't know the school run. The diesel engine takes a
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while to get warm and it's less efficient while it's happening and if you're doing short trips
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regularly you'll be a using more fuel and b kicking out more particulates and toxins as the
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engine warms up to peak efficiency by then a lot of the shorter journeys like the school run will
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have finished. You also don't get the Malper gallon rating you were promised on the car for
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exactly the same reason you don't get the WLTP figure because the tests don't reflect
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real world driving. As with fuel efficiency in ice cars your range depends to a very
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significant degree on your driving style. If you have the proverbial heavy right foot it's going
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to be very easy to both increase your fuel consumption in an ice car and lower your range
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in an electric vehicle. There is a motoring journalist who can be seen lurking around
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the LinkedIn comments of four-time Guinness World Record holder Kevin Booker. He has one simple
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refrain that he repeats pretty much ad nauseam. Your EV range drops dramatically when you start to do
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motorway speeds. The implication of course is that EVs are no good for motorways but what he always
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tends to omit from this little refrain is the words and ice cars do too as in EVs and
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ice car range drops dramatically when you do motorway speeds. The amount of energy needed to
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push a car forward is proportional to the square of the speed at which you're going
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thus energy is directly related to fuel consumption. Higher speed equals more energy equals more fuel
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consumption equals shorter range. This means that for example the diesel car traveling at 55 miles
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an hour might have a fuel efficiency of 55 miles per gallon but if you increase that speed to
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75 miles per hour that efficiency will drop to around 37 miles per gallon. Likewise for a car
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such as the Tesla Model 3 your range at 55 miles per hour might be 364 miles but if you do the same
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journey at 80 miles an hour your range will be around 230 miles 238 miles even. Now it's just
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physics so yes while traveling at a slightly higher speed you can expect on certain parts of
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the German Autobahn your range will drop quickly in an EV. It will also drop in any car regardless
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of fuel time. If I go back to our Mark E driver who was the subject of the BBC article it's
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worth noting that in the report he was seen traveling in lane three of the motorway in other
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words he was traveling the lane that encourages the kind of speed that would decrease his efficiency.
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It's worth remembering that at speeds such as this big increases in speed from say 60 miles an
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hour to 70 miles an hour don't create huge differences in journey times. There's a famous
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graphic that Rory Sutherland at ad exec from Ogilvy shows from time to time which indicates
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that traveling at 60 miles an hour will let you cover 10 miles in 10 minutes but if you travel at 70
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miles an hour you'll cover the same 10 miles in only 90 seconds fewer. Is that extra 90 seconds
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worth destroying your fuel efficiency for? Now while we're talking about Kevin Booker as we were
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he holds a number of world records for distance and efficiency driving. The one that I always
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found the most interesting is that he traveled from Land's End to John O'Groats a distance of
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over 570 miles in a Ford marquee electric vehicle the one around which this whole discussion evolved
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and he did all of this with one single charge stop. That's right the full length of the UK
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with one stop to charge and that's pretty much twice the WLTP range specified on the vehicle.
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So how did he do it? Well you can listen to the whole episode in the archive
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for more details but basically it's a combination of careful driving style,
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correct setup of the car software with things like eco mode and regenerative
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braking setup correctly as well as using the tyres that are most suited to the job. Kevin likes to
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go for the smaller tyres such as the 19 inch rims rather than the 21 or the 20 or 21 inch rims that
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come with many cars. It seems like a small difference but it all plays into rolling resistance
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and that plays into efficiency which plays into range. So how do you know what your real range
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is going to be if you're looking to buy a new or second hand EV? The easiest way
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is to consult the EV Database at EV Database Dusk Drog. It has realistic ranges for all
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electric vehicles split into summer and winter ranges for both city combined and highway
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driving. My current car the Polestar 278 kWh has according to the EV Database arranged
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the various from 175 miles on the highway in winter to 350 miles around town in summer. Knowing
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that I can make a respectable guess at how far I can actually drive on a given journey according to
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the figures. What the EV Database will also give you are some actual consumption figures compared
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to WLTP data. For the Polestar 2 for example the WLTP consumption figure is 256 watt hours per
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mile which is about 3.9 miles per kilowatt hour but the EV Database consumption figures are closer
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to 3.2 miles per kilowatt hour and on a 75 kilowatt hour vehicle that difference in range is 52 miles.
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So check them out for your car or potential car linking the show notes.
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So you've worked out that buying a car and using the WLTP range as your definitive guide for
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how far the car will go is probably a mistake and we've worked out that the difference in
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actual range and stated range under WLTP is also something that happens to ICE cars.
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And we've worked out that WLTP is a comparative measure not an actual measure. It's used to
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give an indication of efficiency and rate difference between two cars not actual empirical
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values. So is it a conspiracy? Well no. As I just mentioned the WLTP ranges are meant as
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comparative values not absolute values. If you see a car with a WLTP range of say 320 miles
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and another with a range of 400 miles you know that the second one is a longer range car.
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As these are only comparative values it doesn't mean you'll be able to actually do
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400 miles of range out of that car although you certainly might be able to as Kevin Booker
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has illustrated on numerous occasions but it does mean that under similar conditions
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you'll get a higher range than the car with the WLTP range of 320 miles. Now if range is important
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to you when looking at an EV the best thing to do is not look at the actual range figures
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but look at the efficiency figures for the vehicle. Some figures are respectable the old
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Hyundai Ioniq 28 kilowatt hour old 38 kilowatt hour wind knife cars used to easily get over five
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miles per kilowatt hour without trying. This gave good distance even with a small battery
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whereas something like the Audi e-tron SUV might not get anywhere near that even with a bigger battery.
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Generally you're looking for the most efficient vehicle not necessarily the one with the biggest
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battery and the reason this becomes important is because if you go for the longest range that
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depends on efficiency and battery size it's relatively easy to give an inefficient car a
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long range by sticking a large battery in there. I'm looking at you 2025 GMC Sierra EV
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extended range with over 204 kilowatt hours of battery but once the efficiency starts to drop as it
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will in winter or when towing or if it's raining the range will start to fall away very quickly.
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Once you know and understand this WLTP starts to become a useful measure to help you understand
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potential range differences between cars but you certainly shouldn't be using it for actual
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range calculations. So how does this help if you're looking to buy an EV? If the range stated on the
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car's advertising is not a real-life range how are you supposed to know how far the car will actually
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go? Well there are two ways to do this and we've already discussed one of them check the EV
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database for realistic figures and the second way do a test drive in the car. Now I have a
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complete episode on test drives in the archives and what you should do but in essence one
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of the things you need to use a test drive for is to get some indication of the range of the car.
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If you only have a 20-minute test drive ask the dealer to reset the trip meter
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and the efficiency settings and drive as you normally would. Then at the end of the test
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drive make a note to the efficiency either miles per kilowatt hour or kilowatt hours per 100
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miles or per 100 kilometers depending on where you're test driving and what the units of measure
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are and ask the dealer for the battery size or better still look it up online because chances are
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they don't know what it is or they don't know what it is accurately and remember you want the usable
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battery not the total battery. With the efficiency figures you've got multiply that by the battery
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size to get an approximation of range. Now it won't be perfect but it will probably be more
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indicative of WLTP. If you're doing your test drive in winter remember your summer range
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would be more if you're doing your test drive in summer and be your winter range would be less.
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If you get the vehicle for 48 hours or even 24 hours try and do a long distance drive in it.
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Charge to 100% take it somewhere on the motorway and when your battery is at about
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55% state of charge i.e. you've used 45% of charge to get to where you are
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turn around and head back home. In theory the distance you covered there and back
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should be 90% of the range of your battery. Add what's left on the display and that should be 100%
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of your range under those conditions again longer in summer shorter in winter. So that's WLTP
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useful for comparison purposes not so useful for planning purposes. However if you do want to
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see what a good efficient driver can do to the WLTP range check out Kevin Booker's social
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media profiles in regularly test cars across the year and beats the WLTP range in most of them.
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But he's a magician not a normal driver.
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It's time for a cool review or renewable thing to share with you listeners.
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Healthy soil is full of tiny organisms that produce energy as they break down organic
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matter. Milieu Brunel designed the Sully lamp which uses this energy from microbes to create
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light. The outdoor lamp uses microbial fuel cells which is a type of battery that converts
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the chemical energy released by micro organisms like those in soil or wastewater into electricity.
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Researchers have said that there could be an alternative to fossil fuels
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powering everything from biosensors to desalination plants and in labs they've
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powered small fans, LEDs and calculators. Scaling up this electricity source
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is still a challenge but it produces relatively low power and it isn't yet cost competitive.
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Brunel hopes her work will inspire people to better connect with
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and respect the environment. Another one to keep an eye out for.
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I hope you enjoyed listening to today's show.
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If you have any thoughts, comments, criticisms or other general messages to pass on to me
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I can be reached at info at evmuseings.com. On the socials I'm on blue sky at evmuseings.biscount.com.
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I'm also on instagram at evmuseings where I post short videos and podcast extracts regularly.
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Why not follow me there? Thanks to everyone who supports me through Patreon
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on a monthly basis and through coffee.com on an ad hoc one. If you enjoyed this episode one
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buy me a coffee go to coffee.com slash evmuseings and you can do just that
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ko-fi.com slash evmuseings takes out the pay too. Regular listeners will know about my two books
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so you've gone electric and so you've gone renewable. The 99ph are equivalent and you can get them on
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Amazon. Check out the links in the show notes for more information as well as links to my regular
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evmuseings newsletter and associated articles. Now I know if you're listening you're probably
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driving or walking or jogging now but if you can remember and you enjoyed this episode
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drop a review in iTunes please it really helps me out. Thanks if you're watching on the YouTube
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nice subscribe and maybe a like would also be very helpful.
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If you've reached this part of the podcast and are still listening thank you.
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Why not let me know you've got to this point by messaging me at musingsv.biscount.com
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with the words WLTP and FLA not a TLA is that okay? Hashtag if you know you know
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nothing else. Thanks as always to my co-founder Simon.
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We know he's been quite quiet again this week. I'm hoping he's going to be back next week.
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Thanks for listening. Bye!
