The range of e-cars is currently considered a key factor in sales success. But the US boss of the Japanese manufacturer Mazda, Jeffrey Guyton, is convinced that this will change in the near future.
Various factors play a role in the personal purchase decision for an e-car – but the range is still at the top of the ranking before the price-performance ratio. According to RND 2021, this was confirmed by a survey by the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of mobile.de. A quarter of those surveyed even stated at the time that it should be at least 800 kilometers.
For Jeffrey Guyton, CEO of Mazda in the US, this is only a temporary phenomenon. He predicts an imminent shift in priorities.
Guyton believes that the pursuit of greater reach will soon become less of an issue. The owners of electric cars would weight differently when buying the second electric model.
Based on their experience, they would have learned that range is not the key to satisfaction. Charging at home is becoming the norm. More and more charging points are also available on the go. Once the charging infrastructure has been expanded, according to the Mazda top manager, the question of the range with one charge takes a back seat. This is also changing the vehicles, which are being equipped with smaller and lighter battery packs. This could even reduce the range, but charging is lightning fast.
Guyton also sees the current race for maximum range as a failure from an environmental point of view. Vehicles with gigantic batteries like the GMC Hummer EV SUT – curb weight well over four tons, range more than 550 kilometers – could not be the electric future. That is definitely not sustainable.
Mazda currently only offers the MX-30 as an electric car. The small city SUV has a range of around 200 kilometers. With the CX-50 and the CX-90, two hybrids have been announced. According to greencarreports.com, the CX-90 models that have just been presented should be available at dealerships in the spring.
Range according to WLTP: Everyone interested in e-cars knows this information – and hardly trusts it. Because only rarely do these range values correspond to practice. EFAHRER.com took ten popular e-cars from the VW e-Up to the Renault Zoe to the Tesla Model 3 and checked how much the actual ranges differ in our tests with the WLTP ranges.
How far do e-cars really go: WLTP desire and reality
This article was written by Karl Lüdecke
The original of this article “Auto-Boss puts the cards on the table for e-cars” comes from EFAHRER.com.
