You may well sit in the 1% for whom an EV doesn’t have enough range. Other thoughts are that the speed limit is 70, and you need to reorganise your job. I also hope you take adequate breaks in that journey as it’s a long way, and autopilot would be a big benefit to you

BMW iX is a beauty by the way. 🙂 Take an MG and make it worse

how far would it go at 90mph?

Straight to the police station hopefully.. 🙄

Straight to the police station hopefully..

Not really a big deal doing 85-90mph in a modern car in good condition on a fairly clear motorway. The point being whenever I see Teslas on the motorway they are often slip streaming lorries at 55mph.

Tesla quote 360 miles for the M3 long range, but how far would it go at 90mph?

About 35-40% less than at 70 mph, might be even greater impact if raining, so I’d say less than 200 miles at those sort of speeds.

You get about 300 miles range out of a tank of electricity at 70mph, but given that most people start at about 90% charge, you’re looking at 270 to empty, and realistically 200 between charging stops.

Yeah reorganise your day. I dunno who you work for but we’re only allowed to drive so far for work without taking breaks. And we certainly aren’t asked to be somewhere at a certain time that demands we speed.

There are longer range cars available, but really, don’t drive that fast and certainly don’t plan your day around needing to drive that fast. It’s antisocial for the rest of us along with all the safety and environmental issues.

You may claim it’s not a big deal but it is, in ways you’re apparently unaware of.

You may claim it’s not a big deal but it is, in ways you’re apparently unaware of.

For the record my preference is to leave a bit earlier and have a more relaxed drive, but sometimes unexpected hold ups mean you have to go a bit faster to avoid missing a meeting. Yes, I know it uses more fuel but you should still be able to get 40mpg+ in a diesel at those speeds, but I think the efficiency drops off a lot faster in an EV with increasing speed.

Took my model 3 to Germany. It goes fast and happily. You get a bit less range at 130-150kph but it calculates where you’ve got to charge and German speeds hasn’t meant extra stops.

I think of all the EVs it has the truest range for motorway driving – others will be accurate for stop start city stuff but it’s still the only one that does distance. Weather can make a difference. Range reduces in hefty winds and cold. Looks are based on being aero I think but even design doesn’t save you much when it’s lashing down and filthy.

On UK motorways I usually put it on 70mph and it keeps its distance from the car in front but if traffic in your lane slows significantly you sometimes end up slowing with it. Less of a problem in Germany where lane discipline is tight so regularly pull out, overtake and back in. Here you can be wondering what the rest of the traffic is thinking because it seems really difficult to do (hatchbacks in the middle lane, I’m looking at you). I then just accept it’s all going to take rather longer.

@mudmuncher I have done 170 mile round trip and arrived back with 30% battery. Guess that would equate to around 240 miles on an sr+. That wa driving normal with cruise set around 76. Was some 50s on the M6 though.

Recently did a 500 mile round trip. Similar driving and charged for 10mins and 20 mins near destination allowing for just a 15 min charge on way home. Would have stopped any way so no longer than petrol really. Also showed ease of supercharger network. Really does take all stress out of long journeys

Out of interest what happens if the super chargers are fully occupied, is there a queuing etiquette or can the app handle that for you?

The great British ability to queue kicks in.

Mudmuncher, my Mercedes GLC would get about 35mpg doing a long journey at the speeds you mention. Since I’ve had it I average 40.6mpg (23,000 miles) But once I get foot heavy it eats diesel. Mine is the GLC 250 coupe.
If I was just sat at a constant speed it may be ok, but the accelerations to fast speeds is what eats the diesel in mine.
I don’t drive at those speeds, but have done occasionally by accident.
Completely off topic but I took my T6 camper up to North Wales this weekend. Driving back this morning I just stuck it into Cruise Control and ACC (front vehicle detection) – sat at about 55mph on the M6 sitting behind trucks and managed to save close to 10mpg and had the most relaxing trip ever! (First fine I’ve ever used CC or ACC in over a year of owning the van)
And on topic, I think the Model S looks good still, the 3 series less so. But would still get one.

Not really a big deal doing 85-90mph in a modern car in good condition on a fairly clear motorway.

Hopefully a troll, rather than a wilful criminal.

🙄 😂

I think of all the EVs it has the truest range for motorway driving – others will be accurate for stop start city stuff but it’s still the only one that does distance.

All cars?

Inside EV got 306 miles from a Model 3 long range at 70mph, whereas the WTLP range is 360 miles. That’s 85% of the WTLP range on the motorway. My Hyundai does about 4.5m/kWh on the motorway in my experience vs the WTLP range which I think equates to about 4.8m/kWh so if my maths is right that’s 94% of its WTLP in the real world.

They did a test of many cars vs their EPA ranges, the Hyundai Ioniq was right on the money, Ford got a bit better than EPA, Tesla got a bit worse, but for some reason Porsches scored way more than their EPA..?

https://insideevs.com/reviews/443791/ev-range-test-results/

Hopefully a troll, rather than a wilful criminal.

Have you ever driven on a motorway? Not unusual for a third to half of the cars to be doing that kind speed in good conditions and a small amount doing 3 figures, though it does seem to vary between motorways.

As I said I usually try and leave extra time so I can relax but if you are trying to get a colleague back to the airport to catch a flight sometimes you need to put your foot down.

That range testing demonstrates that despite it’s age the Tesla is still the reference in terms of range and efficiency. OK the Hyundai does a tiny bit better on efficiency but whilst hauling around much less battery and with less accomodation.

but if you are trying to get a colleague back to the airport to catch a flight sometimes you need to put your foot down

Or leave earlier.

And yes I’ve driven on motorways, autobahnen, Autoroutes, Autopistas etc.. The ones I’ve seen the most Beamers, Mercs, Audis etc burried under the back of trucks or being cut into by firemen is on the unlimited sections. I’ve spent so much time stationary waiting for victims/hooligan drivers to be helicoptered away and the wreckage removed I’ve come to the conclusion that people would on average get to their destinations reliably faster if they had more speed limits. Think yourselves lucky you have a 70 limit.

That range testing demonstrates that

It demonstrates that the difference between the quoted and the real world motorway range figures are surprising and not what you might expect.

It is largely as I would have expected – that the more aero the car the better it performs on motorways. The official tests out too much weight on low speed driving IMO. After all, no-one is concerned about urban range except maybe taxi drivers, because most people don’t do 300 miles of urban driving in one go, I don’t think range anxiety applies in that situation. It applies on long trips where you’re going to be driving faster.

Not unusual for a third to half of the cars to be doing that kind speed in good conditions and a small amount doing 3 figures

Yes and this is a bad thing IMO because of the 30-40mpg speed differential between different vehicles.

Ever driven on a French motorway? It’s easier because the speed differential is less. And vice versa an Autobahn.

 unexpected hold ups mean you have to go a bit faster to avoid missing a meeting.

There are these things called phones; “Hi there, sorry there’s been a hold up on the motorway, satnav thinks I’ll be 20 minutes later, apologies”

After last nights top gear I was having a look at the polestar website, they have a range calculator

https://www.polestar.com/uk/ownership/tools/range/?road=2&version=standard-range-single-motor&temperature=1

Where you can play with variables and it will estimate the range.

A standard range polestar 2 single motor is estimated to do 186 miles at 70mph at 5 deg celcius.

That sounds pretty low , when you take into account a safety margin of 30 or 40 miles.

“Hi there, sorry there’s been a hold up on the motorway, satnav thinks I’ll be 20 minutes later, apologies”

Done this many times, never been an issue, and rarely if ever been the last one in. When people come from distance for meetings no-one ever expects things to kick off on time, it’s factored in.

Love to know where 85-90mph chappie thinks he can do that (edit) consistently rather than the odd squirt these days in UK?!

In my younger, less responsible days I had a job with big UK miles and would thrash around at those speeds (on the company fuel card as diesels still have to obey the laws of aerodynamics so 30% drop in efficiency remember). But the world has changed – the amount of motorway that is smart now (the gantry cameras can still be clocking you when nothing is displayed) is v significant. It’s one of the reasons I’m going for an EV :

speed limits + getting older + clever cruise control + cost of fuel = slower av speeds and being more chilled out.

Going Ioniq 5 so mega charging speeds on the right chargers when needed and I’ve read/think that there’s going to be a transformation in the next 12 months in the number of 350kw chargers being rolled out.

Also querying those lease prices for unlimited mileage above?! I thought you pretty much always had to provide a lease company with estimated mileage for them to provide a quote otherwise how do they know what the residual price of the vehicle on return would be?

So much clutching of the pearls at the very idea of doing 85mph on the motorway.

I guess they live in some kind of parallel universe when they aren’t being constantly over-taken doing 70 down the M4.

So much clutching of the pearls at the very idea of doing 85mph on the motorway.

It’s not pearl clutching. You are not meant to do it so why do it?

I don’t care if someone does 90 mph on the motorway but I do have to suppress the urge to murder them to death when they do 90+ between gantries but throw out the anchors and slow down to 65 at every single one.

I have no input on EV’s, but as a regular motorway user, I can’t remember the last time you could have driven at 90mph for more than 5. To say that 1/3 to 1/2 of the cars on the road are sometimes doing that is complete and total rubbish.

So much clutching of the pearls at the very idea of doing 85mph on the motorway.

Frankly there’s so many cameras on motorway gantries these days that you’d soon rack up the points anyway.

I have no input on EV’s, but as a regular motorway user, I can’t remember the last time you could have driven at 90mph for more than 5. To say that 1/3 to 1/2 of the cars on the road are sometimes doing that is complete and total rubbish.

It very much depends on where and when you are. It’s easy enough on the M6 north of Preston and plenty of other Northern motorways outside of peak times. You’ve of course got to take into account the risk of speed cameras so I prefer to set the cruise at 78. I’m still passed by plenty of people but the average speed has reduced noticeably in the last 10 years.

I guess they live in some kind of parallel universe when they aren’t being constantly over-taken doing 70 down the M4.

No, I am o ertaken on the M4 doing 70. But that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to be doing.