This is how efficient electric cars are
Electricity consumption compared to petrol consumption
If you can charge your electric car cheaply at home, you can travel 100 kilometres much more cheaply than with a combustion engine. For example, charging an Opel Corsa-e with a 50 kWh battery will cost you around €15.95 at the current electricity prices in 2021 - and is thus significantly cheaper than filling up a combustion engine.
In general, the electric car is much more efficient than a petrol engine. The latter requires about three times the amount of energy for the same distance. This is mainly due to the fact that combustion engines have a much lower efficiency - much of the energy generated during combustion in the car is simply lost.
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This is how you can reduce the energy consumption of your electric car
The consumption of an electric car is given in kilowatt hours (kWh) per 100 km. For the Opel Corsa-e, the average power consumption (WLTP) is 16.8 kWh, for the Opel Mokka-e 18 - 17.4 kWh.
However, the actual consumption depends on various factors: your personal driving style (how often you accelerate), the nature of the route (mountain road or flat country), the outside temperature (winter or summer), the use of heating and air conditioning and any additional weight (how many people are in the car).
The good thing is that you can see the current consumption at any time during the journey - and there are various ways to reduce it and thus save on electricity costs. By the way, the WLTP valid in the EU - or the EPA data in the USA - provide a realistic estimate of the range.
Heating and energy consumption
Electricity consumption in battery production
In the production of electric cars, the production of the battery is the most important factor. Apart from that, however, they are undeniably more environmentally and climate-friendly than petrol or diesel vehicles: when using the German electricity mix, electric cars can quickly fully exploit their climate advantages over conventional powertrains.
However, as green electricity becomes more widespread, the energy balance in production will become increasingly better in the future. The second life and subsequent recycling of the batteries also contributes to their positive climate balance. And if you charge your Opel electric car exclusively with green electricity, you can even make your own positive contribution.
Highest energy density: the lithium-ion battery
The range of an electric car is determined primarily by the capacity of the battery. All Opel electric cars are equipped with lithium-ion batteries because they have the highest energy density compared to other batteries. This means that they can store the most energy per kilogram of battery. By the way, the capacity of our lithium-ion batteries varies from 50 to 75 kWh.
Since the energy density in electric car batteries has already doubled in the last 10 years, we can expect electric cars to be able to drive even further in the future.
