Electric cars lack range? The South Korean manufacturer Hyundai tested three of its Kona vehicles on a racetrack. All three covered over 1,000 kilometers on a single charge.
The Hyundai Kona is a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) with a 150 kilowatt drive.
According to the manufacturer, the vehicle with its 64 kilowatt-hour battery covers 484 kilometers according to the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP). However, the team around Thilo Klemm, Head of Aftersales Training Center, had calculated that theoretically a range between 984 and 1,066 kilometers could be possible.
The Dekra supervised the test
That had to be verified: Hyundai had three teams compete against each other, two from their own company and one from Auto Bild magazine. At the Lausitzring, they should drive as far as possible under the watchful eye of the Dekra testing company.
The teams lapped the 3.2-kilometer route for almost three days, and people kept changing at the wheel. For the sake of range, they switched off everything that could use additional electricity: Despite outside temperatures of up to 29 degrees (Celsius), the air conditioning remained off, no radio or music brought entertainment. The cruise control ensured consistently low speeds.
After about 35 hours it was over: the cars stopped one after the other with empty batteries. All three of them managed the specified distance: The first car gave up after 1018.7 kilometers, the next after 1024.1 kilometers. The third dragged itself just under 2 kilometers further, down to exactly 1026 kilometers.
This corresponds to a power consumption of 6.28, 6.25 and 6.24 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers. The manufacturer specifies 14.7 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers.
In addition to the possible range, according to Hyundai, it was also important that the charge status display of the electric car is very reliable and that the percentages are counted down precisely according to the driving style. At zero per cent, the car continues to drive for several hundred metres, then drives out without power and finally stops with a small jerk because the electric parking brake is activated for safety reasons.
“The average speed of the teams after the over-1,000 kilometre distance was between 29 and 31 km/h. Although this may sound slow at first glance, it had to be achieved in typical inner-city traffic conditions, including rush hour and traffic light changes, as well as in the 30 km/h zones of residential areas.”
