The transition to electric vehicles poses real challenges to fleet managers, things like the creation of the right internal infrastructure. But there are also all sorts of imagined challenges associated with the process, things that turn out to be nothing more than electro myths or half-truths when you take a closer look at them. Here are some facts that we would like to share with you.

Claim: The vehicles lack the range for everyday use

Fact: Today’s electric vehicles have a range of more than 500 kilometres – some can even cover more than 600 kilometres, vehicles like Volkswagen’s new ID.7 (German language).
The distance that an e-car can travel on a single charge depends on a number of factors, including battery performance, the vehicle’s load and an individual’s driving style. But most drivers rarely travel more than 100 kilometres a day: The German Motor Transport Authority even reports that, on average, cars in Germany travel less than 50 kilometres a day.

Claim: Vehicle range declines when temperatures fall

Fact: The energy usage of electric cars does in fact rise during the winter. The main reason for this is heating. Petrol and diesel vehicles can use the waste heat of their engines for this purpose. But e-cars have to use electricity to heat air. As a result, this energy cannot be used to power the vehicle. When outdoor temperatures fall, the battery must be brought up to an operating temperature.
But electric cars warm up quickly and are equipped with auxiliary heaters that can usually be controlled with a smartphone app. Drivers who pre-heat their vehicles at charging stations or wallboxes before they set off do not use any battery power during the initial warming process and can improve their range in the process.

Claim: Electric cars will run out of power in traffic jams

Fact: The batteries used in e-cars are designed in such a way that they will have enough power to spend several hours tied up in traffic – even during the winter.

The German automotive club ADAC has tested the cold-weather capability of various electric vehicles: E-cars require about 1.5 kW to 2 kW of power to keep the temperature of the interior at a constant 20 degrees Celsius when the outside temperature is minus 10 degrees. If a car spent 12 hours in a traffic jam – an extremely unusual event – you could expect to use 18 to 24 kilowatt hours of power. But most of today’s electric cars are equipped with batteries that have significantly more capacity.

The heater can continue to produce a comfortable temperature for several hours during such a traffic-filled winter night even without requiring the driver to take any special power-saving steps. Naturally, this depends on whether the battery was sufficiently charged when the traffic jam developed – but this is also the case for the fuel tanks of petrol vehicles. By the way, petrol and diesel vehicles use 1 litre to 1.5 litre of fuel an hour when they idle in traffic.

Claim: Electric cars produce more CO₂ than petrol vehicles

Fact: It does indeed require more energy to make electric vehicles, particularly their batteries, than it does to produce petrol vehicles. During their life cycle, though, they will produce much lower CO₂ emissions than conventional drive systems. Two key questions come into play here: How environmentally friendly was the energy that was used to make the vehicles? And do the electric vehicles use green power or not?

Claim: Not enough charging stations all over europe

Fact: A look at the figures of the European Alternative Fuels Observatory regarding the electric charging infrastructure shows the following status: In the fourth quarter of 2023, the countries of the European Union – according to the AFIR classification – had a total of 543,602 alternating current (AC) charging points and 77,293 direct current (DC) charging points.