Notes and Glossary about BEVs

Hello and welcome to our section about BEVs. And this will already take us to one of the entries below.

Purpose of our BEV List

When we hear of a new interesting sounding model of electric vehicle through any of the news channels, we want to know two things: 

(1) When will it come to Australia? and 

(2) What will it cost here in our local market? 

A simple currency conversion to AUD from an overseas price is not very helpful really, as there are so many steps on the way to obtaining a Driveway Price that we can expect to pay. 

So this is the primary reason for us publishing this BEV List: We endeavour to predict the Drive-away Price in Australia (NSW) for any vehicles announced on the world market.  

The other question that we ask ourselves - when it comes to actually paying for ours - is: After all the cost for transport and government duties and taxes are considered, is the local importer giving us a fair deal, when compared to purchasing the same vehicle from overseas? 

We endeavour to answer this question as well. We are and will be showing more such prices that are calculated based on overseas pricing, alongside the locally published pricing. 

So here is your secondary reason for this list. It will tell you if you are getting a fair deal in Australia. 

Prices 

All prices that we show in our list of BEVs are meant to be Drive-away Prices (where published locally), respectively an estimation or predication as close to that as possible. Our calculations are based on indicative or retail pricing obtained from overseas, factoring in VAT and/or government subsidies (BAFA Umweltbonus in Germany), allowing for transport from overseas and applying the various costs and taxes, as if the vehicle was sold locally, in NSW. The closer any BEV model is to its launch, the more accurate the pricing figures obtainable typically are. 

In any case you will need to make your own inquiries before purchasing any such vehicle. 

Range 

This is possibly the most discussed topic when it comes to electric vehicles, ahead even of price. There are several standards by which claimed range figures are expressed. Which standard has been used for deriving the range of a particular vehicle also has to do with the year of their appearance. Older European vehicles were measured against NEDC (NEFZ in German), whilst newer European cars are showing a range figure under WLTP. Outside of Europe, especially in Asia, NEDC figures are still published today. In the US, EPA is the standard by which range figures are expressed. 

So, how can we compare vehicles then if they are all measured under different rule sets? Unfortunately there aren't any "conversion" factors that can be applied  between NEDC and WLTP as you can do it between say miles and kilometres. Having said that, the following "fudge factors" seem to work reasonably well for the purpose of assessing BEVs. NEDC: Subtract 30% of claimed range; WLTP: Subtract 10% of claimed range. This is what we show you, alongside the "raw data" figures. 

Of course, this is still not necessarily a real world range. This one will depend on a number of factors, which all can all influence useable battery capacity and energy consumption, and thus actual range achievable on the day. We also opted out of issuing "Real World Range" figures sometimes seen, which have no relation to any of the published standards, and thus you don’t know how they have been derived.

It is our goal to set you up well for undertaking any comparisons between different models of battery electric vehicles - enjoy!  To the BEV List

Glossary

ADAC  Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club is Europe's largest motoring association and German for NRMA. Wiki

AMS  Auto Motor und Sport  auto-motor-und-sport.de

AU  Australia

BAFA  Bundesamt für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle - Federal Office for Economics and Export Control  bafa.de

BEV  Battery Electric Vehicle  Wiki

DE  Deutschland / Germany

NEDC  New European Driving Cycle  Wiki

EPA  Environmental Protection Agency  Wiki

WLTP  World harmonized Light-duty vehicles Test Procedure is a global, harmonized standard for determining the levels of pollutants, CO2 emissions and fuel consumption of traditional and hybrid cars, as well as the range of fully electric vehicles.  Wiki