We were being told, incessantly, that Tesla has some "secret sauce" as regards drive train efficiency, that it is "lightyears" ahead of competition, or, by those using less hyperbole, at least three, more likely five or more years of development. Some attributed this to Elon Musk's magical powers, others merely to almost complete vertical integration with tight control over design and manufacture of every last bolt, connector and cable tie.
Something sounded fishy: I am quite familiar with engineering of some German companies, and it looked barely imaginable that they would come up with efficiency half that of Tesla. And, guess what: they don't.
Edmunds, one of the guys who, allegedly, find you the best car deal, whether you are buying or selling it, went and tested actual efficiency and range of many electric cars on the market. While their testing procedure is not fully documented, it seems to be close to that what EPA cycle attempts to simulate. The results are what we suspected all along: Teslas consistently perform poorer than EPA figures would suggest, most others quite better. Is Edmunds' testing procedure such that it in some way disadvantages Teslas, or is this a case of "friends in high places", or Tesla is somehow manipulating test procedures in a way reminiscent of VW & Co's Dieselgate, or is everything just a fluke, I don't know and won't try to speculate. However, see for yourself: much maligned Porsche Taycan (admitedly, Tayycan 4S, not the top of the line Turbo S) actually achieves a hair (five miles) longer range than Tesla Model S Performance
The article with the results is here.
(Spoiler: Audi e-Tron is a hog.)
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