A Toronto man is upset because he leased a BMW electric vehicle on the basis of online advertising that said it had a 200 kilometre-range on a charge. He realized right away, having leased the car, that this was not true. On review, he found that the online claim had been changed to 160 kilometres. The CBC says, yes, Internet archives show that BMW changed the figure without explanation or comment some 11 months after the man leased the car. CBC
I’m not taking up for BMW, obviously they changed the number. However, driving an EV is different from driving an ICE and it’s something the general public isn’t aware of. First, if you drive an EV like you are probably used to driving a ICE vehicle, you probably aren’t going to get very far to begin with. There is a learning curve. Second, the numbers advertised for EV range are based on ideal conditions. Load, outside temperature, speed and hills, etc. all effect range. Actually it’s more like flying a small plane than driving a car. Your mileage may vary.
Fortunately, as time goes buy and the driver gets better at energy management with the vehicle, the usable range does improve. If the driver has experience with a manual transmission they are already ahead of the game. If the driver also rides a bicycle that’s even better. The ability to anticipate road conditions and think ahead for solutions is a huge benefit. If someone wants to just get in and not think at all about anything but getting to the destination as fast as possible without concern for how much fuel it will take, by all means, avoid driving an EV.