If a conventional thermal vehicle does not show excessive differences in consumption depending on its use (up to 50% for gasoline and 25% for diesel), electric cars can display consumption from single to double, or worse. It’s not uncommon to get close to 12 to 14kWh in the best conditions and sometimes exceed, frankly, 25kWh in the worst.

It’s fun
#You are here
#consumption
#too fast
pic.twitter.com/mhBguYzkHd

—
NESS (@tartinedeouf) January
23, 2021

Electrical specificity versus thermal

The same applies to the very design of this type of vehicle, the use and energy consumption of which is very different from an internal combustion engine. In urban and suburban areas, the advantage is clearly for the electric engine, because, unlike its gasoline counterpart, he consumes absolutely nothing stationary or at low speed (except for air conditioning). And even better, thanks to the regeneration system they are equipped with, every lift of the foot or braking allows you to recover energy and, in fact, reduce consumption medium electric. However, very often the restart of an electric model, which is often very heavy, is not the most efficient (but much more efficient than a thermal one) and will prove its value primarily at low speeds and a small number of complete stops.

Fun 😂🤣😅
#You are here
#consumption
#too fast
pic.twitter.com/mhBguYzkHd

—
NESS (@tartinedeouf) January
23, 2021

in energy efficiency of electric much better than a petrol/diesel engine, but the energy density of the oil is far from equal (1 liter is roughly equal to 10 kWh). So you need big batteries, especially heavy ones, where the heat exchanger is satisfied with a 50 liter tank, to be able to cover a longer distance. However, from a purely energy point of view, an electric car consumes much less and especially loses much less, especially for heat.

Without electric gearbox

The diesel car will perform better on the road and highway, in particular thanks to the gear ratio associated with the gearbox and the relatively low engine speed. Indeed, the top speed of a classic vehicle is between 4,000 and 7,000 rpm, depending on whether it is diesel or gasoline, with the exception of sports vehicles.

The electric motor, for its part, capable of operating at 20,000 revolutions per minute and does not benefit from a lowering system (with the exception of the Porsche Taycan). Partly because of its always available torque and a lot because there’s nothing on the market right now from OEMs. The engine is electric and technically capable of suddenly receiving much more energy from the battery. If you add to this a very high rotation speed, the energy consumption becomes particularly high. Indeed, the direct correlation between speed and engine speed (without a gearbox) requires high electron consumption as soon as the speed increases. A trip on the German Autobahn at a speed of 160 km/h or more will consume significantly more than 30 kWh per 100 km.