Harold Williamson was a TV journalist well known for his interviews with children. One day he asked a young girl who she was painting, and she said, “God”. Williamson gently protested that no one knew what God looked like. “Well", she said, "They know now”.
And so do prospective BEV owners after What Car's tests on a range of models revealed that in real world conditions they do considerably fewer miles that the official tests claim. This is, sadly, unsurprising. Examples are:
BYD Dolphin Design 265 => 188
MG 4 Extended Range Trophy 323 => 227
Tesla Model 3 Long Range 390 => 293
Volkswagen ID 7 Pro Match 383 => 254
Existing BEV drivers know this already, of course; just as they know that you get fewer miles in Winter than in Summer.
What they also know is that travelling uphill takes more power than going downhill. Of course, all drivers know this must be true of any journey no matter what power you're using, it's just that in a BEV it can be dramatic.
I travel to Devizes every week; it's uphill and the 12 mile journey takes about 25 miles of charge if I drive carefully. Coming back, thanks to prudent regenerative braking, it takes ~0 miles of charge.
I fear that this range revelation is another blow to the government's dream of everyone driving a BEV sometime soon. A good job they relaxed the rules to a more realistic level.
Responses
You could have titled, 'Technocrats gone stupid' but that presupposes technocrats actually think (let alone think systemically) and not simply to resolve a problem as simply as possible based on faith based science. This absolute faith in modern technology as the absolute solution without actually compiling and evaluating real data may be just one of the many reasons that the social narrative is driven by ideology and not actual data.