The modern miracle, the green revolution, the saviour of the planet… according to every brochure and influencer in a linen shirt. But then, like a plot twist in a bad soap opera, the Australian Automobile Association came along and actually tested them in the real world. Not in a cosy, climate-controlled lab where the road is imaginary and the wind is optional, but on actual roads, with traffic, hills, weather, and gravity doing what gravity does.
The AAA tested vehicles from Tesla, BYD, Kia and Smart in bid to give consumers more accurate information. The result? The fairy tale battery range figures we’ve been spoon fed collapse faster than a politician’s campaign promises.
- BYD Atto3 Extended Range – Promised 480 km. Delivered 369 km. That’s a 23% shortfall. Imagine paying for a dozen eggs and finding three missing… and the shopkeeper telling you it’s fine because you weren’t going to make that many omelettes anyway.
- Tesla Model 3 – Off by 14%. The brand that practically trademarked “range confidence” apparently left some electrons on the table.
- Model Y & Kia EV6 – 8% off, which is the EV equivalent of a “gentle lie.”
- Smart #3 – Only 5% short, so congratulations… I guess.
Of course, the EV lobby insists this is good news. Missing a fifth of your advertised range is like selling a carbonated drink that’s 200ml short and calling it a “healthy lifestyle measure.” But they’ll tell you not to worry, Australians only drive 33 km a day. Which is fine, until you have to actually go somewhere that isn’t your local supermarket.
But here’s the darker, smokier truth no one wants to put on the billboards. All that electricity to charge these miracle machines, unless your entire grid runs on sunshine and happy thoughts, it’s coming from fossil fuels, most often coal. Which means your EV is essentially a coal powered vehicle with a slightly different exhaust pipe location. The emissions don’t vanish, they just happen somewhere out of sight, out of mind.
So, let’s recap:
- Advertised range: Fictional.
- Real range: A polite disappointment.
- Carbon footprint: Still there, just rebranded.
- Romance factor: About as exciting as a washing machine.
EVs are sold to us as the cutting-edge future, yet their range figures are more massaged than a Wall Street banker after a bonus payout and when you factor in the mining for rare earth metals, the coal heavy power grids, and the not so eternal lifespan of those batteries, you start to wonder if the “green revolution” is just another shade of grey.
Perhaps one day, EVs will truly deliver on their promises. But right now, they feel like that friend who’s always “five minutes away” when they haven’t even left the house.
