Extreme heat causes EVs to lose up to 44 per cent of their claimed electric ranges – research

It’s been revealed that EVs can lose up to 44 per cent of their claimed electric ranges in extreme heat.

That’s according to motoring consumer magazine, What Car?, which recently took a Citroen e-C3, Kia EV3 and Tesla Model 3 from Seville to Cordoba in southern Spain to see how their batteries would fare against temperatures rising from 32 to 44-degrees C.

The results found that the Tesla managed 244 miles, which is 44 per cent down over its claimed 436-mile range. The Kia travelled 246 miles, resulting in a 32 per cent drop over its claimed 362-mile range and the Citroen managed just 142 miles on a single charge, which is 29 per cent short of its claimed range of 199 miles.

Will Nightingale, What Car? reviews editor, said: “Our extreme temperature test shows that range and efficiency plummet in very hot conditions. The three EVs fell an average of 35 per cent short of their official figures, which is worse than the result we achieved in our most recent winter range test and more than double the discrepancy seen in the 2024 What Car? summer range test.”

He added: “While extreme heat is still (thankfully) quite rare in the UK, the planet is undoubtedly heating up. We’ve already seen temperatures of more than 40-degrees C in the south of England and multiple heatwaves have swept the country this summer. So, hopefully, as technology advances, EVs will become better at coping with extreme temperatures.”