Sticker Shock: The Real-World Range Of Electric Vehicles

EV range figures — and fuel economy for fossil fuel vehicles for that matter — provided by auto manufacturers can be on the optimistic side; but by how much? Recent and ongoing testing in Australia reveals the differences from real-world driving range can be substantial.

What’s WLTP Got To Do With It?

WLTP (Worldwide Harmonised Light-Duty Vehicles Test Procedure) is a laboratory-based test for measuring new vehicle fuel economy, electric range, CO2 emissions and other pollutants. WLTP values are currently widely used in Australia by vehicle manufacturers for EV range labeling, but the WLTP test cycle is not a mandatory legal standard for all new vehicles just yet.

In April 2024, the Australian Government adopted three new Australian Design Rules (ADRs) for light vehicle emissions; one of those being WLTP. Newly approved vehicle models supplied from December 2025 became subject to the ADR’s and new units of existing vehicle models supplied will be covered from July 2028.

Why Is WLTP Still Problematic?

WLTP is more realistic than previous metrics such as the New European Drive Cycle (NEDC); developed in the early 1990s and last updated in 1997. According to RAC WA, the NEDC test procedure results in approximately 20-30 per cent lower range/mileage than motorists can expect to experience in real-world driving.

WLTP testing runs longer than NEDC (30 minutes vs. 20), further (23.5 km vs. 11 km) and has more driving phases; 4 vs. 2. It is conducted using a dynamometer. The car doesn’t move – the dynamometer works by using large rollers to spin the wheels or a direct engine link. Under WLTP, vehicles are subjected to speeds up to 60km/h, 80km/h, 100km/h and 130km/h.

But as the WLTP lab test is also carried out in ideal, controlled conditions it doesn’t fully reflect real-world variability such as wind, hills, A/C use,  traffic, or heavy loads.

Scandal Sets Wheels In Motion: Australian Real-World Testing

The 2015 Volkswagen scandal (aka Dieselgate or Emissionsgate) revealed increasingly strict regulation of vehicle emissions encouraging car makers to optimise vehicles for laboratory instead of real-world performance.

The scandal eventually sparked Australia’s Real-World Testing Program that was started in 2023 with $14 million of Commonwealth funding and is being run by the Australian Automobile Association. The program tests vehicles on a 93-kilometre circuit in and around Geelong in Victoria.

As at December 2025, the program had released results for 131 internal combustion engine and hybrid vehicles; revealing a whopping 76% of tested cars exceeding the fuel consumption recorded in lab tests — and one in five also exceeding noxious emissions limits applicable to lab tests. The program had also begun testing electric vehicle models, with the results of more added early this month.

The program aims to test up to 200 different vehicle makes and models — Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), hybrids and battery electric vehicles — over its four-year duration; running to 2027.

Real World EV Range Results

Here are the EV verdicts so far, with figures reported in accordance with Australian Design Rule 81/02. For battery electric vehicles, when an EV’s low state of charge (SoC) warning displays or the battery’s SoC reaches 15%, it is fully charged to 100% and real-world performance calculations made.

And in a graph:

Speaking from our own experience with a BYD 2023 Atto 3 Extended Range:

• 60 kWh battery.
• 41,770 kilometres so far mostly around the streets of Adelaide.
• Mainly flat road conditions and lots of expressway driving — around half our travel.
• Significant air-conditioner use.
• Over the entire travel time distance and including non-expressway bits of the daily drive, average speed range of 34 – 45 km/h (lots of peak hour driving).
• Cumulative AEC (Average Energy Consumption) of 14 kWh per 100 kilometres over the 41,770 kilometres according to the Atto app.

Assuming the app is correct, it works out to approximately 428 kilometres range per charge vs. BYD’s 480 km figure; still higher than I expected and significantly more than the Real World Testing results. But while our car sees higher than average use, it has a pretty easy life in terms of driving conditions.

Trivia: According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2020), passenger vehicles travel 11.1 thousand kilometres on average annually in Australia, or a bit over 30 kilometres daily average.

The AAA’s Real-World Testing Program isn’t the only show in town. Other resources include the Electric Vehicle Database, which pegs the Atto 3 Extended Range at 340 kilometres.

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