There’s one part of the process we currently go through when benchmarking a new car for a road test that, while necessary, isn’t formally part of it at all.
And yet it’s very often one of the more revealing things we do, although I’m not sure how to regularise it or, for that matter, if we can practically take meaningful test data from it at all.
Inevitably, it’s something specific to electric cars, the test procedures for which it feels like the duty of this generation of road testers to coin and assimilate.
Our performance benchmarking of EVs starts with a minimum 90% charge showing and, going via acceleration tests, braking tests, handling tests and everything else, typically concludes with between 45% and 65% SoC (that’s ‘state of charge’) left.
At that point, two key performance tests remain: the measurement of ‘charge depleted’ acceleration at less than 10% SoC and DC rapid-charge testing, taken from a similar level.
So what’s the quickest way to turn an EV with more than half of its charge still ‘in the tank’ into one running on ‘electron fumes’?
Well, there’s probably a smarter, more technical solution (although I would be surprised if you could do it in a minute at the roadside), but if you’re an Autocar road tester, you follow your instincts and simply spank it.
My preferred method is to use the Horiba MIRA proving ground’s ‘number one’ circuit. It’s four lanes wide, nearly three miles around and has three banked corners.
In the outside lane, you can be cornering at 33deg from the horizontal, at a ‘neutral’ steering speed (the one at which the car would steer itself around the bend) of 86mph.
Set the cruise control to 90mph, then, and just let about 30 to 45 minutes fly by the window: that will usually do it. What I tend to do, however, saves some time. It’s an abuse test, I suppose.
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