What's Efficient For An Electric Car? (m/kWh & Wh) - MPG Equivalent-ish

We all know that something that does 20mpg isn't efficient, but what's the equivalent in Electric Car terms? Is 300Wh good or bad? Is 5mpkWh efficient?

[Dave-in-France]

Hi EVM, this must be one of the most useful EV-related videos on Youtube - VERY WELL DONE

[johnrussell]

Thanks for an interesting video.
My BMW i3 has averaged 4.3mi/kWh over the 13, 427 miles since we bought it. That's a total of 3, 123 kWh used. As we only ever charge it overnight at the off peak rate of 2.6p per unit, that means our total 'fuel' cost has totalled £81.19. I therefore estimate, in fuel, we've saved around £2, 012 when compared against our previous diesel car.

[CaroAbebe]

Great video, thanks!
I’m not an EV owner (yet), but I’m more familiar with kWh/100km. Seems to help me understand better just how (in)efficient an EV is.

[rbdogwood]

I must admit I found the 3.4, miles per kWh reading that I get on the eNV200 easy to understand and most like the old mpg. What I do find harder to work out in my head is the time I need to charge to a given range. The charge current is usually known, I get 6.5 kW through the cable I have plugged into the house, that gets me about 22 miles per hour. However, I don't do much mileage generally so I usually charge to 60%. The tricky bit, when it is dark and wet, is calculating how long I need to go from, say, 30% to 60% without going back to see what the timer says. The best ball park figure I've got is 10% every 2 hours, but it would probably be better to find out how to set the thing to turn off at 60%. I'll just have to go and read the manual again.

[markbloxham]

Good video, thanks. When asked by a non-ev owner about what is an effecient EV I just tell them to look up the miles/kWh and multiply by 10 for an mpg equivalent. I know this is scientifically rubbish but people can relate to an E-Tron doing a measly 28 mpg (2.8 m/kWh) and my Ioniq doing a respectable 58 mpg (5.8 m/kWh).

[markiliff]

Just so you know, you can switch units between mi/kWh & Wh/mi on the VW ID.3

[TassieEV]

I use Wh/km as having watched Bjorn for so long prefer that plus luckily my Ioniq I can show that, well technically kWh/100km but simple to convert with a single decimal point.

[MrGonzonator]

One UK gallon of petrol releases 40.47kWh of energy when burned, but engines are so inefficient they can't use it all, that's why cars reject so much heat out the tailpipe and radiator.
So your "standard" petrol car that gets 50mpg is really getting 50/40.47 = 1.235 miles/kWh, or 809Wh/mile.

[no-oneman.]

Thanks Andy. You must do this for a living, if not you should do. Excellent.

[odditythreeD]

I think Miles/kWh is the best way to market EVs to new people. The battery sizes are all published openly, so saying to someone a car has a 30kWh battery and does 3 miles per kWh is easy to explain how that works.

[chadbalogh]

Great video, thank you!!! I think the “Average” number’s you chose(red, yellow, green)are fair enough across the spectrum of EV’ world. I’ve owned my 2023 Model 3 RWD for about a year now. I also get 4 season’s here in the USofA where I live(Wisconsin, right by Canadian border). When I 1st brought my Tesla around my family, my Dad was really skeptical and within the first Month of owning it, he really wanted to figure out what I was getting to the mile and or how to convert the cost from gas to electric/milage. He was off a bit, lol, but after I showed him this video, he then understood, as did I, with your awesome simplistic breakdown(Wh/mi or mi/Kwh). Had fun really testing my Tesla this year in the winter element’s, driving a couple 100+mi road trip’s in -25F, couple ft of snow/snow storms, rain, etc…! To be honest, in June of 2023 when I made the leap to a Tesla, I thought to myself, winter is gonna make me or break me on sticking with an EV(Tesla). Nonetheless, it definitely exceeded my expectation’s! Anyway, I have 15K on it already, and it’s sitting at 223 wh/mi. Like you so easily taught the math 1000/223=4.48 mi/Kwh and I can happily say, my family and I are really enjoying the EV lifestyle. Although my Dad still won’t drive it, at least he’s let me take him for a drive once😂 and everytime I leave his place, he’s always intently watching and I know he marvels at the ingenuity of the future. He’s definitely coming around. SSL, again, Thanks for a great mathematical breakdown that I now always use to help skeptic’s and or people understand how much more I save($$$)making the leap that I did! Cheers!👍

[wobby]

Perhaps you should have pointed out why 1000 ? It’s because there’s 1000 watts in 1 kWh.

[solentbum]

My LEAF had averaged 4.2 m/Kwh over 30K miles. Since a service in April it has upped to 4.4m/Kwh. The Nissan EV website also provides the Watts/Mile figure. All of course dependent on the right foot .
I am never in a hurry, and use adaptive cruise control much of the time.

[tonydalton]

Is there anything online where I can see how far EVs go with a heavy load? I’m looking at a Polestar 2 and wondered what range I can expect with 4 people in the car

[rantmaker]

Hi can you do a vid on the best way to set up your Ohme charger I know it should be easy but it’s not when your nearly 80 years old, any help would be appreciated

[scottgruber]

Thank you for explaining this. My 2017 averages 4.3kwh. So I am happy my leaf is pretty efficient even with 2 bars gone.

[oplkfdhgk]

i personally prefer wh/mile because it makes it easier to calculate how many watts you use for certain amount of distance.

[andrewdyson]

I liked how you tried to hide your figures on the left of the board but kept looking at them. Joking apart, another interesting video that explained something new to me

[FHHOOKS]

I've been driving a second hand LEAF for over a year and a half now and this is the easiest and most straightforward explanation of kWh/m or vise versa I've heard to date. Simples, thanks mate. 👍 BTW link clicked, very useful.

[iannadin]

Good explanation, well presented - it should help a lot of people working out efficiencies. I think that the next step - the "how much would it actually cost me per mile" is the thing that'll persuade drivers to make the transition. So if they're on a regular tariff of say 15pkWh domestic they could probably work out what that would be pence per mile but they might not be aware that they could get close to 1p per mile on something like Octopus Go (which I use). Money in the back pocket is the key yardstick. (Great channel btw, keep it up!)