Electric vehicles may be able to travel farther on a single charge than the government's official figures suggest, according to new research from Consumer Reports. The organization tested every EV on the market and found that some now perform significantly better than the range ratings issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. As the technology matures, the findings indicate that real-world range has been increasing over time.
The distinction matters because of how buyers shop for electric cars. The EPA rating is the number people see most often when they are looking to purchase a vehicle, and it shapes expectations about how far a car can go. When independent testing shows a model beating that figure, it suggests shoppers may be getting more usable range than the sticker implies.
One clear example highlighted in the research is the BMW i4. The EPA rates the i4 to have a range of 267 miles on a single charge. But Consumer Reports' independent testing showed the car actually went 318 miles, an extra 51 miles beyond its official rating. That gap is large enough to change how far a driver could realistically plan to travel between charges.
The BMW was not an isolated case. Consumer Reports found that certain brands, particularly some of the German manufacturers such as BMW and Mercedes, had vehicles going much longer distances than their ratings would suggest. The pattern pointed to specific automakers whose electric models tend to outperform the range numbers assigned to them.
The testing also upended a familiar assumption about size and efficiency. With gas-powered vehicles, smaller cars typically get the best mileage. But with electric vehicles, Consumer Reports' research showed that bigger is often better, because so much of an EV's range comes down to how large its battery is. The biggest models, with the biggest batteries, frequently went the farthest.
That trend showed up at the top of the rankings. Among the EVs tested, the Rivian R1S, a large SUV, logged 358 miles on a charge, while the Tesla Model S managed 366 miles. Both are sizable vehicles, and both landed near the top of the list for the distance they could cover before needing to recharge.
The standout, however, was a pickup truck. The Chevrolet Silverado EV logged an astounding 472 miles on a single charge in the testing, the longest range of the group. For drivers weighing whether an electric vehicle can handle long distances, results like these suggest that some of the largest EVs on the market are now going significantly farther than their official numbers promise.