The range of electric cars and plug-in hybrid cars

The most common questions about electric cars and hybrids tend to be around battery range. How far can they go on a single charge? What factors affect the battery range of an electric car? And what’s the difference in range between a fully electric car and a plug-in hybrid?
There are numerous factors that determine how many miles the battery in an electric car or plug-in hybrid will give you, but the basics are easy to grasp. Mainly, the following five things affect battery range: 1. The size of the battery and efficiency of the car 2. How fast you’re going 3. Your driving style 4. The car’s weight 5. The weather We’ll explain these things in more detail below, but firstly let's look at the difference between the two types of plug-in electric vehicles: full electric cars and plug-in hybrids. You can also learn more about the differences between a hybrid (sometimes called a ‘self-charging hybrid’) and a plug-in hybrid in our article here.

Battery Electric Vehicles

A battery electric vehicle, usually referred to as an EV or a BEV, is a fully electric car that has a large battery pack powering one or more electric motors to drive the wheels. Electric cars require an external power source for recharging, like a home charger or a public EV charging station. You can learn more about the different types of charging units here. There are some cars that are technically EVs but have a petrol motor that acts like a generator to keep the battery charged, but these are very rare. The BMW i3 Range Extender and the Nissan Qshqai e-Power are two examples. All electric cars have a quoted ‘range’, which is the estimate of how many miles the car can travel on a fully-charged battery on average, based on the ‘WLTP’ test. We’ll dig into that in a moment, but simply put, although the size of battery packs varies between different models, most modern electric cars can provide a range of more than 200 miles from a single charge. Some of the longest range models are capable of delivering more than 400 miles, like the Mercedes EQS, which has a whopping 464-mile range. For more information on electric cars with the longest range, see our article here.

Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles

A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) combines a petrol or a diesel engine with a battery pack and an electric motor to power the wheels. When you accelerate in a PHEV it will drive using either the fuel engine, the electric motor, or a combination of both. Sounds complicated, right? And it actually is quite complex under the bonnet, but in reality, driving one is no different to driving a ‘normal’ petrol or diesel car. They always have an automatic gearbox, and they’ll work as normal even if the battery is flat, using the fuel engine alone to drive the wheels; think of a PHEV as a part-time electric car with the backup of a petrol or diesel engine, so you’ve always got a fuel tank to alleviate ‘range anxiety’. We’ll talk about that further down, too. Like a fully electric car, a PHEV needs to be plugged in to charge the battery - hence the name - and to be at its most efficient. A PHEV will be less efficient when the battery is flat because when that’s the case, the car essentially becomes a standard petrol or diesel, but one carrying a heavy battery and electric motor, which means the engine has to work harder. PHEVs have much smaller battery packs than fully electric cars, meaning their electric-only range is relatively low - usually somewhere between 20- and 60 miles. As with a full EV, each manufacturer will quote an electric-only range for a PHEV.

In Europe, every car must go through a series of tests called the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Testing Procedure (WLTP). It applies to all types of car - petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric. The tests determine a vehicle's fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and any other harmful pollutants that may be emitted from a vehicle when it’s driven. For petrol and diesel cars, fuel consumption is measured in miles per gallon (mpg), but for electric cars, WLTP determines a vehicle's range from a fully charged battery.
To give fair like-for-like results between cars, the WLTP is performed in near perfect testing conditions in a laboratory. The test emulates high speed motorway driving and low speed urban driving, and an ‘average’ figure is determined. It doesn’t tend to give a true reflection of everyday driving, though, with all the variations of driving style, traffic and even weather. Manufacturers are legally obliged to display the results of their WLTP tests, but whether it’s mpg or electric range, they are often hard to achieve once a car is on the road. With electric cars, many manufacturers now talk about ‘real world’ range to give a true reflection of how far an EV can travel. A useful rule of thumb is to assume the real world range is around 20-25% lower than the official WLTP figure, so bear this in mind when choosing an electric car.

The actual range you will see when living with an electric car depends on a variety of factors. Some of them aren’t under your control, but some are and it’s useful to know what you can do to get the most from the battery of an EV or a PHEV. Let’s look at the main ones.

The size of the battery and efficiency of the car

EV and PHEV batteries are measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh), which is a unit of electrical energy output. Technically, it’s the amount of energy it would take to run a 1kW (1000w) appliance for an hour. As with a fuel tank, the bigger the battery, the more miles it can give you when it’s full. But as with fuelled cars, PHEVs and EVs differ significantly from each other in how efficient they are; most people understand that they’ll get more miles from a litre of fuel in a small hatchback than they will in a supercar. It’s the same with an EV or PHEV. It’s worth looking at the efficiency of an electric car when choosing one, which will often be quoted either in ‘miles per kWh’ - the number of miles it will do per kilowatt hour of energy on average. Anything above 3 miles per kWh is considered good in real-world driving. Battery sizes vary in EVs from around 20kWh to more than 100kWh in the most expensive models, but it tends to be that 50kWh is average. In most EVs, that’s enough for around 200 miles of quoted range. The battery in a PHEV tends to be much smaller, usually between 10kWh and 20kWh. That’s because the battery isn’t the main thing driving the car in a PHEV, but most PHEVs can do between 30- and 40 miles using the battery alone.

How fast you’re going

A petrol or diesel car is at its most efficient when it’s being driven at a steady 50-60mph in top gear, because the engine is settled at low revs, not working too hard, and therefore not using much fuel. Think about it like riding a bike. Imagine being at the bottom of a hill and trying to start pedalling in the highest gear. It’ll require a massive effort to get moving. Working through the gears from the bottom makes things much easier, and once you’re up to speed you can engage a higher gear and keep the pace up using much less effort. But an electric motor naturally has high torque (strength) from zero rpm, and doesn’t need a traditional gearbox to operate efficiently. Therefore, the vast majority of EVs have a single gear that give the motor a good compromise of acceleration and top speed, but the motor uses more energy the faster the car is going. As such, an EV is most efficient when it’s being driven slowly, unlike a fuel engine, which needs more effort to get up to speed.

Your driving style

Whether you’re driving an EV, a PHEV or a fuel car, adopting a more efficient driving style will naturally increase the number of miles you get from a charge or tank of fuel. To preserve your range, don’t be too heavy on the accelerator and ease off it as you approach junctions. This will help recharge the battery pack through what is known as regenerative braking, also known as ‘brake energy recapture’ - a system that captures energy usually lost as heat from the brakes and transfers it back to the battery. Driving on motorways naturally means faster speeds and fewer opportunities for regenerative braking, so taking a more efficient route can benefit your range, but may compromise your time.

The car’s weight

Be wary of additional weight in your electric car, as this can significantly affect the battery range. A heavier car needs more power to move it forward and range will therefore be impacted with more passengers and luggage. It’s the same principle in any car. To go back to our cycling analogy, it’s going to be much harder to get up that hill with a fridge strapped to your back, right?

The weather

Any battery, be it in your phone, laptop or car, has an optimal operating temperature and just won’t perform as well in really cold weather. You’ll notice a significant drop in range over the winter months but conversely, improvement in the summer when it’s warmer. There are things you can do to mitigate things in the winter, though…

Watch your driving style, speed and route choices

Moving to an electric car shouldn’t mean a compromise in how you drive, but most EVs have functions that aid their efficiency and ensure you can squeeze more miles from the battery pack. Most electric cars have an ‘eco’ driving mode, which typically limits the car’s top speed, reduces the amount of torque the car delivers when accelerating, and increases the resistance of the regenerative braking, to put a few more miles back into the battery over longer distances. If you don’t like the thought of being in eco mode all the time though (nobody wants their car to feel slower, right?), you can be selective about the modes you use depending on where you’re driving. Most electric cars allow drivers to adopt a “one-pedal” driving style with the use of regenerative braking to slow the car down. In urban areas, set the regenerative braking function to its highest setting (often known as “B” Mode) to maximise the charge back into the battery as you slow down. On quicker roads, soften it to the lowest setting so you have the ability to coast as you release the accelerator. It follows that if you can choose lower speed roads to get to your destination, and you have the time to do that, it can be a wise move. For longer or less familiar journeys, lots of electric cars have navigation that will suggest the most economical route.

Use in-car conveniences smartly

Contrary to popular belief, turning on your air conditioning in hot weather or whacking the heater up in cold weather won’t leave you stranded by the roadside. The impact that in-car functions have on your range is negligible and you’re more than likely to burn through your range with a heavy right foot as opposed to turning the heating on; your battery will almost certainly deplete more quickly if you drive with the climate control off and the windows open than it will with the windows closed and the climate control on. However, many of the functions in your car will draw some energy from the battery, so you will potentially see the range in your EV drop a bit more quickly if you’ve got lots of in-car comforts operating at the same time - maybe only use that heated massaging driver’s seat occasionally. Having said that, if you're travelling alone and your car has the ability, use the heated seat and heated steering wheel functions to warm yourself up rather than heating the whole cabin by blasting the air conditioning, as this will use less power.

Watch your weight

Only carry what you need in the car, basically. A couple of bags for life is sensible, but if you’re carrying a boot full of golf clubs or flat pack furniture, for some reason, that’ll have an impact on your range. You’ll be surprised how much weight a few months’ of clutter can add, so clear your car out regularly.

Use your car’s pre-warming function

Lots of electric cars have a cabin pre-warming function, which you can set either in the car itself using the touchscreen, or by using a phone app. If your car is plugged in overnight at your home wall box, it will use power from the charge point to pre-warm the cabin and the battery, rather than using the battery itself. In addition, some EVs have a heat pump, which is a separate unit whose job is to get the battery up to operating temperature quickly. Occasionally it’s on the options list. If so it’s worth ticking that box because it’ll not only save you money in the long term by making the battery more efficient, but it’ll give you those extra few miles from the battery in the winter months.

Plug-in hybrids have staggeringly high WLTP miles-per-gallon ratings, most of them exceeding 200mpg. It’s extremely difficult to achieve those numbers in real life… let’s be honest, it’s basically impossible. That’s because, again, the WLTP test is lab based and has them operating at their most efficient at all times, with a fully charged battery and no variation in driving style, weather or any other mitigating factors.
For some drivers they’re perfect, though. For a start, their low CO2 ratings make them very cost-effective as company cars, because the tax rates are low. Even if they’re run inefficiently - you never charge the battery, say - that alone can make them a real money-saver. But, a PHEV with a decent battery-only range can effectively work as electric cars for those with short daily journeys; keep a PHEV plugged in regularly, and in theory you’ll never need to dip into the fuel tank. Over long journeys, however, the battery of a PHEV will deplete quickly, effectively leaving a heavy petrol or diesel car. It’s tempting to just keep going with a flat battery, but we’d strongly advise that you recharge the battery throughout. It will take less than an hour to recharge a PHEV battery at a motorway service station, and it’ll have a big impact on the car’s overall efficiency.

If you’re thinking about switching to a fully-electric car then you need to understand how far you drive each day. You probably already have a good idea, but to check you can put your regular journeys into Google Maps to see what distances you normally cover.
So let’s say most of your journeys are under 50 miles a day. In that case, opting for a car with 150+ miles of range will be more than sufficient and you might not necessarily need to opt for a larger battery pack with a 300-mile range. On the flip side, if you regularly take journeys that require you to do 100-150 miles a day, then choosing a car with a range of 200 miles might be cutting it fine. It would be worth opting for an electric with a WLTP rating closer to 300 miles so you’re not constantly looking at the range and remaining battery percentage when you drive. Another consideration is the longer trips you do away from home. It’s tempting to worry about the 200+ mile journey you take every once in a while and make this a reason for not going electric, even though the car will be suitable for every other journey you do. Although it’s not something to overlook, it also shouldn’t be a barrier to choosing an electric car if you’re confident it covers all your other journeys. With almost 50,000 publicly accessible charge points for EV drivers to use, and counting, there are plenty of rapid charging options. Most motorway service areas on the major UK routes have them, and there are thousands of destination chargers in towns, cities and venues across the country. Although running out of charge is often a concern for people considering the switch to electric, the RAC reports that only 4% of their roadside callouts for full-electric cars is for this reason.

Should I get a plug-in hybrid instead of an electric car?

It’s often said that a PHEV is a good bridge between a traditional petrol or diesel car and a fully electric car, and that’s true to an extent. If your daily commute is short and you get a PHEV with an electric-only range that will cover it, you effectively have an electric car without ‘range anxiety’, and that you can use for cross-country motorway trips. It could be that you’re more comfortable with that than with going fully electric. Be aware, though, that they’re nowhere near as efficient as the manufacturers claim they are. The Skoda Octavia PHEV, for instance, claims 282mpg and a 43-mile range - similar to most PHEVs. You’ll only get that if the battery is full and your journey is well within that 43-mile range. On a long motorway run, expect closer to 50mpg. If your daily driving amounts to a standard work commute and other shorter journeys, an electric car will be a great, cost-effective choice.

Which electric cars have the longest range?

Generally speaking, the biggest and most expensive electric cars are the ones with the biggest batteries and the longest ranges. Currently (October 2023), the Mercedes-Benz EQS 450+ has the longest range at 452 miles (officially) from a massive 108kWh battery pack. It costs £106,000 though. Thankfully, there are plenty of much more reasonably priced electric cars with highly impressive battery range - cars like the 391-mile Tesla Model 3 Long Range, and the 379-mile Polestar 3. And even the most cost-effective electric cars now come with the sort of battery range that’ll be more than enough for the vast majority. The MG4 Long Range has a 323-mile quoted range, and even the Vauxhall Corsa Electric claims 222 miles. For the full list of the longest range electric cars, check out our article here.

What happens if an electric car runs out of charge?

This is at the heart of ‘range anxiety’, the fear that an electric car’s battery will run out and leave the occupants stranded. You can’t just jog to the nearest garage and fill a jerry can with electricity, right? The fact is, you’ll have to call out a recovery service, who will either put the car on a flatbed to take it somewhere to charge, or bring a mobile charging unit to put enough back into the battery to get you home or to a charging station. It’s extremely unlikely that your EV battery will go completely flat, though. EVs have sophisticated monitoring systems that will warn you when the battery is running very low, and will show you where reachable charging stations are. Most have a little reserve power, even when the charge gauge is showing zero percent.

I heard an electric car can’t be towed - is that true?

Mostly, yes. The majority of electric cars can’t be towed in a traditional manner because they don’t have a proper neutral gear that detaches the wheels from the electric motor. This means that if the wheels move for any length of time without the motor being on, kinetic energy can build up and damage the motor or battery. Some cars, like the Nissan Leaf and Volvo XC40 Recharge, have a towing mode that does allow them to be towed away, but most will have to be transported on a flatbed truck if they’ve broken down or run out of charge completely.

What does ‘WLTP’ mean?

The ‘Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure’ is acronymed to WLTP, because that’s snappier than ‘WHLVTP’. It’s the standard set of tests used to determine the efficiency of any vehicle, including petrol, diesel, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric. It replaced the ‘NEDC’ test in 2018, but the fact remains that in order to make it a fair, like-for-like test, it’s performed in controlled conditions - on a rolling road in a laboratory. While it’s a more ‘realistic’ test than the NEDC was, it’s still not able to properly account for all the variables that you’ll face in day-to-day driving: weather, traffic, driving style. You should use it to see how one car fares against another, but not as a real indication of what sort of efficiency, or battery range, you’ll achieve in real life. A good rule of thumb is to reduce the official number by 20-25%.