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Why a rated range instead of a rated efficiency?
- Thread starter gecko10x
- Start date
People mostly care about how far the car goes, not how much energy it takes.
Just because people might not have a currently defined benchmark in their head doesn't mean they are incapable of understanding the concept.
Everyone gets what MPG means.
yes because people know what a mile and a gallon are they use those terms every day and learn them at like 3 years old. I agree with your premise, but in reality it would likely just leave people confused and walking away. This is a country where we have to tell people coffee is hot and to remove a windshield shade before driving.
rayfound
Member
MPG makes sense for Gas vehicles because fuel is ubiquitous and fast. The only constraint on the buyer is the cost to drive, so mpg addresses that concern.
Range makes sense on EV because charging is sparse and slower, the constraint on the buyer is distance, so range addresses the main concern.
Range makes sense on EV because charging is sparse and slower, the constraint on the buyer is distance, so range addresses the main concern.
Counterpoint, people are pretty stupid. I'm not confident that much more than 50% of people understand MPG for that matter.
Efficiency is also irrelevant if you don't know your battery size. 200Wh/mi is great if you have a 100kWh battery. Not so great if your battery is 50kWh.
"Think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
People with <90 IQ find it difficult to calculate the cost of carpeting a room given the dimensions and price/sq ft. Seeing as roughly 1/3rd of the US population falls below 90, that's 100 million people.
I think MPGe is a horrible metric, mostly because electricity costs vary so much from place to place. The best IMO is having the estimated range and also mandating the manufacturers have to show the usable battery capacity. This way people who want to know efficiency can easily calculate it. 75kWh battery / 300 mile range = 0.25 kWh / mile = 250 Wh/mi
Look on the EPA fueleconomy.gov website, the efficiency is right there. 29 kwh per 100 miles , vs 46 for the eTron. Then it converts it to MPGe and explains the conversion formula on the left.
So then why do people freak out when they can't drive the full 310 miles our cars are "rated" for?
Seems pretty clear you should never actually expect to be able to drive the full rated distance, because you always want a buffer. I rarely let my ICE car get below 20% fuel; why are people trying to drive their EVs to 0%?
Seems pretty clear you should never actually expect to be able to drive the full rated distance, because you always want a buffer. I rarely let my ICE car get below 20% fuel; why are people trying to drive their EVs to 0%?
Interesting, I had assumed they were basing the MPGe off of prices of gas/electricity (I think they did this at one time). But instead they are using the actual amount of energy that a gallon of gas has and calculating with that. Very cool, thanks!
The whole point of the nav system in the car is to tell you when to stop at a supercharger so you don't run out of battery.
the rated efficiency units that Tesla uses is so new and foreign to people. EPA is struggling with this too. In an effort to create a metric that is most relatable to the average person, they ended up using kWh/100mi instead of Wh/mi, because then the number would be 2 digits long instead of 3. This is important because mpg is typically a 2-digit number. That's the level of dumbing down we need when we're addressing the average person.
I'd also wager the average person doesn't know how kW relates to kWh, or even how W relates to kW.
I'd also wager the average person doesn't know how kW relates to kWh, or even how W relates to kW.
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