Mythbusting the world of EVs: does a big battery mean fewer stops?

MYTH: “A big battery means fewer stops”

Guess I’m as guilty as any other tester of banging on about range, from which arises the myth that it’s all that matters. But it’s not the whole story. We need to talk about efficiency too.

Consider the Nissan Ariya and Toyota bZ4X. According to WLTP, both their small-wheeled versions go about 320 miles. But the Nissan needs an 87kWh battery for that, while the Toyota needs just 71.4kWh.

That means two things. First and obviously, you’ll pay proportionally less per mile to charge the Toyota, and with recent high electricity prices that matters.

But second, if you’re doing a journey of more than their max range (which in either case is a safe 250-odd motorway miles), you’ll probably arrive more quickly in the Toyota. That’s not because of their theoretical charge timings on 150kW rapid chargers – on those they both claim about half an hour to get back to 80 per cent. It’s because in Britain 150kW chargers are still a bit scarce. And on the more common 50kW posts you’ll be departing more quickly if you need less energy.

See, on any journey you’ll almost always want to stop for a rest after less than 250 miles. But ideally that stop would be 20-odd minutes for a sandwich, coffee and wee. So if a car takes 20 minutes plugged in while you do that, it’s effectively taking no time at all. But every minute after that you notice. If you need less energy, you need fewer minutes.