When purchasing their new car, several criteria guide the choice of motorists. The price, above all else, but also the model (city car, sporty, family, SUV, station wagon, etc.), the design, the engine (petrol, diesel, electric, etc.) or the comfort. Consumption is also of paramount importance in consumer choice, especially given the volatility of the price of available energy. Between a vehicle that consumes 4 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers and a similar machine that consumes twice as much, the choice is often quickly made.
However, the information from manufacturers and made available to motorists is often truncated by tests often carried out in laboratories, at constant speed. As a result, official consumption data is often underestimated compared to the realities on the ground. A car displaying in concession a consumption in mixed mode (city and highway) of 5 liters per 100 kilometers, will rather be 6 liters in the hands of its owner. And this despite the dieselgate, and the discovery at Volkswagen of software intended to truncate the results of the tests, which had led to the establishment of the procedure WLTPdespite everything imperfect, which determines a more reliable consumption.
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A phenomenon also present in electric cars. In 2021, our colleagues Auto-clean had done the test with 15 vehicles, making them travel the same route many times. Result: all the models tested had recorded a lower autonomy than that announced. Not much for the Dacia Spring, announced at the time with 224 km of autonomy by the Renault group and which had traveled 221. A lot for others like the Peugeot E-208 which had only been able to travel 270 km out of the 340 announced by the Lion brand.
Today, it is the French consumer association UFC Que Choisir, the equivalent of our Test-Achats, which delivers its own verdict. With values strongly in regression compared to the claims of the manufacturers. “Autonomy is at the heart of the concerns of electric motorists, explains the organization. As proof, the latter constitutes one of the main criteria for choosing an electric car.. We must therefore rely on the data of the manufacturers. And that’s where the problem lies. The reason? There is a substantial difference between the advertised value and the reality.”
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According to UFC Que Choisir tests, there would be up to 33.4% difference between the advertised value of a vehicle and its actual autonomy. And it is the Volkswagen ID.4 299 hp GTX which would win this sad palm. Conversely, the Hyundai Kona Electric 64 kWh 204 hp would be the best in the test, having been able to travel 436 kilometers out of the 484 announced. Still a difference of 9.9%.
In total, the 20 vehicles tested should have been able to travel a cumulative 7,644 kilometres. But they only covered 6,257. Or 18% less than the claims of the manufacturers.
Here is the ranking established by UFC Que Choisir.