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Are e-car and going on vacation a good combination?

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Source: Pixabay/ luggage-611004_1280

Are e-car and going on vacation a good combination?


As is generally known, a car consumes more fuel when it is heavier. So if the e-car is fully loaded and also fitted with a roof box or bicycle racks, for example, consumption can increase. How this actually looks was determined in a small investigation. A small research team compared two e-cars with an internal combustion engine. They had the cars (SUV (e-car), sedan (e-car) and station wagon (combustion engine)) drive over a test track under the same conditions to have optimal comparison conditions. In particular, the speeds of 80, 100 and 130 km/h were to be examined, with special attention paid to the latter. The cars were tested without any load, then with an empty roof box, and in the third run with a bike rack and two bikes. In the final run, both roof racks and bike racks were fitted to the cars. The SUV regularly started with a range of about 380 kilometers at a speed of 130 km/h. Both the roof box and bike rack had little influence on this. In combination with the roof box and bike rack, however, the range dropped to around 300 kilometers. Nevertheless, the SUV is ahead in the comparison. The sedan was behind the SUV at 130 km/h and a range of 290 kilometers. In this case, both the bike rack and the roof box had made a much bigger difference and in combination of the two, the range dropped by almost 100 kilometers. The diesel station wagon had a range of approximately 1,250 kilometers at a speed of 130 km/h. Both configurations increased consumption considerably and reduced the range by almost 400 kilometers - the biggest loss in comparison. Overall, both the roof box and the bike rack have a significant impact on the fuel consumption of the car, regardless of whether it is a combustion engine or an electric car. Various people had a concern about finding a solution for this. It started with simply mounting the roof box upside down, saving an extra 16.4%. Inspired by this idea, manufacturers developed a model that was aerodynamic and traffic compliant, which also reduced consumption again. As a result, another well-known manufacturer developed a roof box that could no longer be mounted on the roof but at the rear. The result was an almost 7% increase in range.

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