Energy
Estimate practical EV range from battery size, driving mix, weather, and cabin use.
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EV real-world range calculator guide
Rated range is measured in a lab at mild temperatures with no heater running; this calculator estimates what you will see on the road. Start with usable battery and a base consumption figure, then describe the drive: the share of city driving, a temperature adjustment, and the extra load from heating or cooling the cabin. The tool raises consumption by the temperature and climate percentages, trims it by a regenerative-braking credit worth up to 6% for all-city driving, and divides the battery by the result. Use it to compare summer and winter range, to sanity-check a manufacturer claim, or to decide whether a car meets your commute with room to spare. Rough guides for the temperature field: 0% at 15–25 °C, +10–20% around 0 °C, +30–40% at −10 °C with the heater working hard, and +10–15% above 35 °C with air conditioning. Sustained motorway speeds above 110 km/h add another 15–25% that you can fold into the same field.
Effective consumption (kWh/km) = base consumption × (1 + temperature % ÷ 100 + climate load % ÷ 100) × (1 − city share % ÷ 100 × 0.06). Real-world range (km) = usable battery (kWh) ÷ effective consumption (kWh/km).
Worked example: 75 kWh usable, 0.2 kWh/km base, 60% city driving, 0% temperature adjustment, and 8% climate load. Weather and cabin factor = 1 + 0 + 0.08 = 1.08. City regen credit = 1 − 0.60 × 0.06 = 0.964 (a 3.6% reduction). Effective consumption = 0.2 × 1.08 × 0.964 = 0.20822 kWh/km, shown as 0.208. Real-world range = 75 ÷ 0.20822 = 360.2 km, against a bare 75 ÷ 0.2 = 375 km rating. Set the temperature adjustment to +30% for a freezing day and the factor becomes 1.38: 0.2 × 1.38 × 0.964 = 0.266 kWh/km and range falls to about 281.9 km, roughly a quarter below the rated figure.
Battery is in kWh (Wh and MWh available in the unit menu) and consumption in kWh per kilometre: divide a kWh/100 km rating by 100, or for miles per kWh use 1 ÷ (mi/kWh × 1.609344), so 3.5 mi/kWh becomes 0.178 kWh/km. City share, temperature adjustment, and climate load are all percentages entered as whole numbers. Temperature accepts negative values down to −80% for the rare case where conditions beat your base figure, and positive values up to +200%. Range is reported in kilometres; multiply by 0.621 for miles.
This is a modelled estimate, not a meter reading. Real consumption moves with weather, occupancy, appliance age, standing charges, and tariff structure, and equipment rarely runs at its nameplate rating. Use the figure to compare options against each other, then confirm against your own bill and the manufacturer's specification before committing to a purchase. On this page the figure rests entirely on usable battery, base efficiency, city driving, temperature adjustment, climate load, market / jurisdiction, effective date, data source, update owner and review date, so start there if the ev real-world range calculator returns something you did not expect.
Good to know: the base consumption should already be your fair-weather average, so do not enter a winter trip-computer reading and then add a 30% temperature penalty on top of it. Climate load is the heater or air-conditioning share only; a heat-pump car might need 5% where a resistive-heater car needs 12–15% in the same cold. The city credit rewards stop-start regen, but crawling in traffic with the heater on for an hour still burns energy per hour, so a long slow commute can behave more like motorway driving than the percentage suggests.
Energy results depend on tariffs, equipment behavior, region, weather, and installation assumptions. Verify rates and electrical decisions with the utility, manufacturer, or qualified professional.
Sources
How it works
Estimate practical EV range from battery size, driving mix, weather, and cabin use. This tool explains the calculation so you can adjust the assumptions to match your situation.
Worked example
With Usable battery = 75 kWh · Base efficiency = 0.2 kWh/km · City driving = 60 % · Temperature adjustment = 0 % · Climate load = 8 % → 360.2 km (estimated real-world range). Change an input above and this example updates with your numbers.
Common questions
Testing by AAA found an average 41% range loss at −7 °C (20 °F) with the heater running and 12% with it off; large fleet datasets put the typical loss closer to 20–30% at freezing. With a +30% temperature adjustment and 8% climate load, the 75 kWh default car in this tool drops from 375 km rated to about 282 km.
Official WLTP and EPA cycles use moderate temperatures, modest speeds, and no cabin heating. Real driving adds aerodynamic drag at motorway speed, heater or air-conditioning load, and cold-battery losses. A 10–20% shortfall is normal even in summer; 30% or more is typical in a cold winter.
Usually, yes. Low speeds mean little aerodynamic drag, and regenerative braking recovers part of the energy spent accelerating. This calculator credits up to 6% for all-city driving, so 60% city gives a 3.6% cut in consumption. Heavy stop-start traffic with the heater on can erase that gain.
A resistive cabin heater can draw 3–6 kW when warming a cold car, which over an hour of driving is 3–6 kWh, or 15–30 km of range at 0.2 kWh/km. Heat pumps roughly halve that. Preconditioning while plugged in shifts the initial warm-up onto the grid instead of the battery.
Expect 14–17 kWh/100 km for a small efficient EV in mild weather, 18–22 for a family crossover, and 24–30 for a large SUV or pickup. Motorway speeds and winter add 20–40% to each. The default 0.2 kWh/km here equals 20 kWh/100 km.