• Country: Luxembourg
  • Name: Gerhard Kuntschik, President of the Jury Country: Austria Capital: Vienna Population: 9,097,759 Auto Park: 240.000 new registrations (2021)
  • Name: Xavier Daffe Country: Belgium Capital: Bruxelles Population: 11,239,755 Auto Park: 5,9 millions
  • Name: Ilia Seliktar, Honorary President of the Jury and Co-Founder member of the board Country: Bulgaria Capital: Sofia Population: 6,856,602 Auto Park: 2.5 million, year import and registration of new cars - 35 000, second hand - 250 000. Name: Leonid Seliktar Country: Bulgaria Capital: Sofia Population: 6,856,602 Auto Park: 350,000 new vehicles.
  • Name: Ozren Adamović Country: Croatia Capital: Zagreb Population: 3,88 million Auto Park: 1,968,370
  • Name: Petros Soutzis, Co-founder & Vice President of the jury Country: Cyprus Capital: Nicosia Population: 1,141,166 Auto Park: 900,000
  • Name: Vladimir Rybecky Country: Czech Republic Capital: Prague Population: 10 515 669 Auto Park: 6 293 125 registered cars (average age 15,58), 610 405 registered light commercial vehicles, 186 905 registered trucks, 20 489 registered buses (end of the year 2021). Registrations in 2021: 206 876 new cars, 19 660 new LCVs, 8 679 new trucks, 1 367 buses. Car production in 2021: cars 1 105 223, trucks 1 262, buses 4 947.
  • Name: Mikkel Thomsager Country: Denmark Capital: Copenhagen Population: 5,700,000 Auto Park: 2,278,000
  • Country: Finland
  • Country: France
  • Name: Ioannis Stavropoulos Country: Greece Capital: Athens Population: 10,815,197 Auto Park: 5.200.000 cars, exclude taxi (is about 34.000) LCV and HCV
  • Name: Robert van Ginneken Country: Holland Capital: Amsterdam Population: 17,5 million Auto Park: 9 million of which 400.000 BEV and 145.000 PHEV
  • Name: Gábor Szécsényi Country: Hungary Capital: Budapesta Population: 9,617,512 Auto Park: 4,000,000
  • Name: Achim Stahn Country: Germany Capital: Berlin Population: 83,000,000 Auto Park: 47,700,000
  • Name: Dave Humphreys Country: Ireland Capital: Dublin Population: 6,378,000 Auto Park: 2,515,322
  • Name: Alessio Viola Country: Italy Capital: Rome Population: 60,795,612 Auto Park: 36,900,000
  • Name: Krumislav Barzov Country: Macedonia Capital: Skopje Population: 2,058,539 Auto Park: 400,000
  • Name: Anthony Alfred Darmanin Country: Malta Capital: Valletta Population: 425,000 Auto Park: 410,000 Registered vehicles, approx. 10,000 new vehicles registered each year
  • Name: David Andersen Country: Norway Capital: Oslo Population: 5,136,700 Auto Park: 3 milion
  • Name: Szczepan Mroczek Country: Poland Capital: Warsaw Population: 37,773,915 Auto Park: 25,000,000
  • Name: José Caetano Country: Portugal Capital: Lisbon Population: 10,347,892 Auto Park: 4,480,000
  • Name: Dan Vardie, Founder & Chairman Country: Romania Capital: Bucharest Population: 19,237,691 Auto Park: 8,9 millions
  • Name: Suspended – Petr Menshikh Country: Russia Capital: Moscow Population: 143,975,923
  • Name: Mladen Alvirović Country: Serbia Capital: Belgrad Population: 7,209,764 Auto Park: 2,200,000
  • Name: Rudolf Karpat, Co-founder Country: Slovakia Capital: Bratislava Population: 5,415,949 Auto Park: 2,725,538 Name: Michal Karpat Country: Slovakia Capital: Bratislava Population: 5,5 milion Auto Park: 3,436.018 cars and LCV registered , 2021 sales: 75.700 cars and LCV
  • Country: Slovenia
  • Name: Joan Dalmau Country: Spain Capital: Madrid Population: 46,786,605 Auto Park: 29.9 million vehicles
  • Name: Felix Björklund Country: Sweden Capital: Stockholm Population: 10,23 million Auto Park: 4,887,904
  • Name: Markus Rutishauser Country: Switzerland Capital: Bern Population: 8,306,200 Auto Park: 4,503,339
  • Name: Okan Altan Country: Turkey Capital: Ankara Population: 85 million Auto Park: 25,385,084 (End of 2022, February)
  • Name: Richard Aucock Country: United Kingdom Capital: London Population: 64,511,000 Auto Park: 37,000,000
  • Name: Oleg Vasylevskyi Country: Ukraine Capital: Kiev Population: 42,031,000 Auto Park: 10,950,000 cars and commercial vehicles

Technical backgrounds, key figures, findings and interpretation30 / 11 / 2022

  • In a first for the ECOBEST Challenge, one model surpassed the homologated range under the WLTP cycle. 7 out of 14 of the mainstream EV cars achieved more than 80% of their homologated WLTP range in real driving conditions. However, six reached less than 80% of the WLTP range. 
  • As the previous ECOBEST Challenge proved, there is life in the battery after the cluster indicator is zero. 12 of the 14 cars demonstrated a strategic reserve of between 3 and 23 kilometres. Furthermore, two cars stopped once the battery indicator showed zero on the cluster. 
  • With the ECOBEST Challenge, AUTOBEST uses two proprietary indexes. EcoC 1 represents the ratio between the real driving range and the WLTP range. EcoC 2 states the actual energy efficiency of EVs, revealing how many kilometres of real driving range a specific car can provide from 1 kWh. The EcoC 2 is the most important expression of the energy efficiency of an EV. With better results for EcoC 1 but worse for `EcoC 2`, this edition proves that most EVs are less efficient with the energy stored in the batteries. Compared with last year’s EcoC 2 record of 8.07 km/kWh, the best result this year is 6.65 km/kWh, with only five cars exceeding 6 km/kWh. Two cars were unable to achieve 5 km/kWh.
  • AUTOBEST uses the EcoC 3 index as the ratio between the real energy charged into the battery and the official net capacity, a clear expression of the charging process’s efficiency. To give an even better real-life perspective, we are also introducing a new index, EcoC 4, which measures the car’s actual efficiency, taking into consideration the energy filled in the battery and not the net battery capacity as EcoC 2.
  • In a world first, the ECOBEST Challenge used an app specially designed to measure the key data through a direct connection to an Oppo mobile terminal in the car. With this, AUTOBEST is harnessing a wide range of data & graphs from the testing sessions and the charging process with both AC and DC (HPC). We also have the batteries’ temperatures during different stages of the test and charging. These are available on request. 
  • ECOBEST Challenge is conducted in partnership with VINFAST, the emerging Vietnamese EV producer and a part of the VINGROUP, the largest industrial conglomerate of Vietnam. 
  • AUTOBEST counted on the logistical and technical support of the Italian car publication Quattroruote, the support of Oppo for mobile devices, and e-gap to offer remote charging once the batteries were depleted at the end of the test. The app to measure the cars’ data was provided by PKC – Power checK Control, developed by the Italian company  Power Cruise Control.
  •  

Preliminary considerations on the ECOBEST Challenge

The ‘ECOBEST Challenge 2022, electrified by VINFAST’ and supported by Quattroruote, is the first European independent real traffic test of mainstream EVs to reveal the real green credentials. It remains the only such test with a transparent, neutral and balanced approach. The results come from a consistent methodology of testing performed identically on all 14 cars. This methodology is inspired by the practical needs and driving behaviour of most European motorists, coming from the habits in their daily commuting. 

It is not designed pro or con to any models or brands and is neither a typical motoring media comparative test nor a record-breaking range test or – by contrast – a rally speed test to check how agile EVs are. The ECOBEST Challenge states the results and does not comment on the differences between models in the test. The test results are available to European consumers as a basis for their decision-making process.  

The key findings

As a consequence of this unbiased approach, the real range results show – with one exception – that WLTP is a bit more optimistic in comparison to driving in real traffic. The majority of the tested models did not achieve their homologated WLTP figure. However, all the cars reached more than 71% of the minimum WLTP reference used in all the indexes. 

Last year AUTOBEST introduced a key index named EcoC 2, representing the quintessential idea of EV energy efficiency. It is simply how many kilometres of actual range one kWh of the battery can offer for a specific model.

“Compared with the previous edition, we discovered a smaller average EcoC 2 index for all the cars tested this year. The most efficient car managed only 6.65 km/ kWh compared with the remarkable last year’s record of more than 8.2 km/ kWh. Based on this evolution, we emphasise the urgent need for all EV producers worldwide to focus on how the energy is spent on the car’s propulsion. In the new era of electromobility, we need to achieve 10 km/ kWh of battery in the next years. It is an imperative mission of the entire industry to make the best use of onboard energy. This year ECOBEST Challenge proved a step back from this mission,” stated Dan Vardie, Founder and Chairman of AUTOBEST and ECOBEST Challenge. The lowest EcoC 2 at the test was only 4.49 km/ kWh, far less than any car tested last year. 

The ECOBEST Challenge is one of the only independent tests in Europe measuring what happens after the battery reserve indicator reaches zero. All the cars have been driven to a total depletion of the battery when the cars stop entirely. AUTOBEST is happy to deliver good news to all motorists: except for two cars, there is still life in a battery once it indicates zero on the cluster. Twelve cars proved between 3 and 23 kilometres of driving remained. Two cars ‘died’ immediately after the battery cluster indicated zero. Compared with last year, this test shows an apparent decrease in the battery reserve left at the disposal of motorists in a difficult situation. However, AUTOBEST recommends keeping this as a strategic reserve of the battery and better never entering the situation to use it. 

Another interesting result of the ECOBEST Challenge is the energy needed to fully charge cars with totally depleted batteriesAll the vehicles required more energy than the capacity of the batteries, between 3.2% and 16.5%. The figures are far better than last year, showing the industry’s capability to reduce loss during the charging process. 

The explanation for the additional consumption when recharging is studied and has several causes. Around 5% of energy is lost when transformed from AC (grid) to DC (battery). Some energy powers all the car systems used for charging, mainly the inverter but also the software, the socket, and everything related to the process. Energy is used to cool the battery during the process (this energy increases with fast charging, especially in hot climatic conditions). The state of the batteries and the charger type may also generate some losses.

In our continuous improvement, AUTOBEST has added the EcoC 4 index, an additional parameter for evaluating the true efficiency of electric cars. It measures how many kilometres the car runs on a single kWh considering not the nominal net capacity of the battery but the total amount of energy supplied by the charger to fill it. Of the cars featured in the test, we are talking about values between just over 3% to 16% more. Above all the explanations we mentioned, the driver pays for energy, and these supplementary kWhs are ‘escaping’ the trip computer.

As another premiere of this edition, we measured the AC and DC Fast Charging processes with great accuracy, using 22 kW AC stations and 350 kW DC stations which delivered to all the cars in test the maximum capacity to recharge. We also measured the time needed for the charging process. 

Here we able to deliver probably the best news for the many millions of motorists still been reluctant for the time needed for fast charging. In DC we got a record of only 7 minutes to charge for 100 kilometres! This time is an incredible achievement, showing that we are coming closer to the moment when the time for a full charge will be similar to the one filling the tank with conventional fuels. With this impressive result, we also reiterate the need for a capable DC Super-Fast charging network everywhere in Europe as the best solution to address the range anxiety and the time needed for the charging process,” said Dan Vardie. The longest time encountered in the DC charging process was 27 minutes for 100 kilometres. Each car’s maximum charging capacity determines this time. 

Two important notes: for the AC, we charged the batteries from 0 to 100%, and for DC, the charging process was 20% – 80%, the most common recommended cycle for such charging. The timings for charging 100 kilometres is an average of the entire charging process and has to be understood as such. As we noticed, charging rates are not linear during the DC fast-charging. AUTOBEST has all the charging graphs, which are a part of the data available on request. 

Alessio Viola, the road test chief editor  of Quattroruote, said: “We all know that this transition will not be easy for various reasons, but it is good to see that, year by year, each edition of the ECOBEST Challenge demonstrates that electric cars are making small but significant steps towards total daily usability. Indeed, in many ways they are ready, also because an electric car is not just about its range: charging times also matter a lot. And, in this sense, it’s time the infrastructures to really grow.”

To get precise and complete data in the EcoBest Challenge 2022, AUTOBEST, in close cooperation with Quattroruote Centro Prove, used Power checK Control (PKC) to analyse and certify an electric car. Since it is connected in real-time with the car via a Bluetooth Onboard Diagnostic II (OBDII) dongle, PKC accesses many parameters about the actual battery status: the SoC (State of Charge), the SoH (State of Health), the temperature, the car’s speed, weather conditions, the power used or regenerated by the car, the power during the charging phase and other relevant factors. EV drivers may get this expertise in daily life using Power Cruise Control. PCC suggests the right charging points along the route and precisely calculates how much kWh you need to charge. And to use it in the best way, this software gives constant feedback to the driver via an intuitive interface called the Heaven-Hell indicator.

Please see the Annex tables with all the relevant results to see all results.

How the ECOBEST Challenge electrified by VINFAST was organised

It took place in Vairano, where the ASC proving ground of Quattroruote is based, near Milano. The professional motoring journalists of AUTOBEST drove 14* electric vehicles available in Europe (all with more than 300 kilometres of homologated WLTP range and a price list under €65,000 before taxes) to answer the most common question people ask when looking for an electric car. 

The test started and finished at Vairano ASC, where we also recharged the cars. All the vehicles tested were regular production models with one person on board, climate system and infotainment equipment active and the tyre pressure recommended by the brand. All the cars were driven in ‘Normal’ mode and using Brake mode in the city environment when available.

Using a mixed trip, all the vehicles travelled a series of three circuits with different lengths with motorways (50%), conventional roads (20%) and urban environments (30%). 

All the drivers changed cars every 30 kilometres to avoid any individual effect of the driving style in the results. All vehicles drove in convoy behind a leader, establishing the average speed and respecting the speed limits at all times.

After reaching the indication of 0% battery and/or 0 Km range appearing on the cluster, cars continued to run in the Vairano ASC until their complete stop.

*AUTOBEST intended to have 15 cars in the test, but just few days before the start, Tesla announced they could not provide the promised Model Y. To replace the missing care was simply impossible at such short notice.  

The ‘ECOBEST Challenge 2021’ was organised in partnership with VINFAST, the emerging Vietnamese manufacturer that will launch two new EVs on the European markets in the first half of next year. “I use this opportunity to thank the great support of VINFAST in organising our EV test. Although VINFAST has no cars in the test, the involvement is a part of its commitment to electromobility, giving the European consumer a fair chance to benefit from this process. These are values we share entirely at AUTOBEST,” added Dan Vardie.

AUTOBEST also thanks the leading title Quattroruote, widely considered the Italian car bible, for the full logistical and technical support. 

The cooperation with Oppo and e-gap is also highly appreciated. 

Disclaimer. 

As the organiser of the ECOBEST Challenge, AUTOBEST stands behind all the results and figures resulting from an unbiased test conducted precisely in the same manner for all the cars. AUTOBEST is confident that all the results are much closer to reality than the WLTP homologated figures. Therefore, AUTOBEST is inviting all European motorists to use all the info provided to decide based on their needs. The aim of the ECOBEST Challenge is not to rank the 15 cars but to offer an average reference that can lead to a more realistic option for each and every European consumer. There are no worse or good vehicles and ranges. Everyone should make a personal choice based on their individual mobility needs. AUTOBEST believes there is no car able to satisfy all the consumers’ possible needs. The ECOBEST Challenge provides an average obtained under certain conditions of landscape, temperature, cycle of testing etc. Although we believe we are very close to the ideal average, AUTOBEST is not claiming this. 

For more info please visit www.autobest.org

Or send your enquires to pr@autobest.org

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How many km can electric cars run after battery indication 0 ?