Which cars travel the most distance in 30 minutes?

Apart from the average power and fast charging time, the most important thing is the ability of the electric vehicle to recover the distance in a given time. We value our actions.

Peak charging capacity is a facade selling point for electric vehicles. And it’s often far from average charging power, an otherwise interesting value because it takes into account charging time and the amount of energy delivered during exercise. However, manufacturers who prefer to advance only the fast charging time between the two charging levels (generally from 10 to 80%) never report this. Therefore, it is no coincidence that it does not appear on the technical sheet, because it allows a more accurate understanding of the performance in terms of fast charging.

On the other hand, in practice, the user is rarely interested in these figures: only the charging time is counted for him, if there is no autonomy restored in a certain time. This calculation relates charging performance and consumption (and therefore the theoretical range achieved). In other words, the result is closely related to the car’s appetite and all the factors that can affect the resulting fuel consumption (topography, wind, outside temperature, average speed, traffic conditions, etc.). And we know that the latter can change significantly as one or more of these parameters change.

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Electric car supertests: summary of consumption, range, performance and charging time (BMW i4 added)

This did not prevent us from measuring these values ​​during our Supertests. Among the myriad ways to calculate the results, we decided to measure the cars’ performance in 15-minute increments during a full charge. Why this time? That’s roughly the minimum amount of time spent in one area while deciding to take a breather, go to the bathroom, and eat or drink (yes, we mapped out this typical route). And then, to be honest, few drivers only stop for 5 or 10 minutes to charge, except in very special cases. The upper 30-minute plateau is a rounded count that allows you to approach the 80% mark in most cases. It is for this last time that we proceed to construct the following classification. Finally, it should be noted that we systematically calculated these values ​​by relating the average autonomy observed during a long highway journey (500 km at an average speed of 115 km/h) to the fast charging time.

Autonomy was achieved within 15 minutes

The best average charging power, the best charging time between 10 and 80%, …: despite its unfavorable consumption, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 climbs to the top of the podium again, gaining 182 km of autonomy in 15 minutes. A car for people in a hurry, this is it. The BMW i4 eDrive40, which can recover 166 km of autonomy in a quarter of an hour, took second place. It beats the third-place Tesla Model Y Performance by 149 km during our measurements. Nissan Ariya 87, which is more efficient in terms of fast charging, fell to the bottom of the Top 5 because it consumed more.

This does not allow the Aiways U5 to perform well with only 83 km of autonomy gained, and this despite a fairly well maintained charging curve. However, it is slightly more than the MG ZS EV (80 km) and the Renault Zoé R135 (50 km) and, unsurprisingly, comes last. It’s hard to believe that the Kia Niro EV can cover 85 km in 15 minutes. But remember, it had winter tires. An ordinary climb, with conventional stiffness, we estimated the gain at 95 km.

He gained autonomy within 30 minutes

On the other hand, the evolution of the curves of each allows the cards to be redistributed, staying connected for a longer time. This serves the Hyundai Ioniq 5: after reaching the 80% mark in 18 minutes, the charging power decreases, and the gains are not as interesting as at the beginning. So it is second behind the BMW i4 eDrive40 (262 km) with 241 km in 30 minutes. The Tesla Model Y Performance remains on the podium, but it shares its place with the Skoda Enyaq iV 80 (233 km for both).

Although it moves further down the rankings. The Renault Megane e-Tech EV60 is then among the bottom four, while the Kia Niro EV returns to the fray. Although the consumption is a bit more economical, we think it may be a little lower than the best, with a recovery of about 170 km in 30 minutes. But this is a guess.

All the cars tested this year managed to cover at least 100 km in 30 minutes (99 km for the Renault Zoé R135, but let’s be charitable), while only five managed to exceed 200 km. In general, these are cars with a peak power of more than 130 kW. This is certainly a trend, as the Megane e-Tech (130 kW) is at the bottom of the list, while the Mustang Mach-E (150 kW) is dragged down by its highway consumption. After 45 minutes, only the BMW i4 eDrive40 exceeds 300 km (324 km to be exact). Finally, note that only Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Skoda Enyaq iV 80 manage to perform 10-100% in less than an hour with 46 and 56 minutes respectively.