One day on from news of Kia’s PV5 Guinness World Record I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been asked about how realistic the attempt was.
The reaction to the record has been fantastic, with messages of congratulations coming from across the world, but it’s often been followed up with comments like “but of course it wouldn’t get that range normally” or “but not everyone’s is going to drive it like you did”.
Of course they’re right, this was a deliberate eco challenge. You wouldn’t turn up to a Guinness World Record attempt and simply blast your way around as quick as possible until the battery went flat. Would you? You’d make an effort. A lot of effort, it turns out.
So, the understandable question on everyone’s lips has been, how repeatable is the 430 mile / 693km range for ordinary drivers?
Well, if you’ve read my full account of the record attempt you’ll know that I went into this challenge with almost no preparation. I also wouldn’t class myself as a tremendous economy driver either.
It is my opinion that the full payload was a great leveller of abilities, because it meant that even my own gentle acceleration was limited by the weight of the vehicle. Had it been empty, controlling the critical stop and start moments may well have been a lot harder. I think the weight actually made it easier to drive economically.
Perhaps my only advantage over 'normal drivers' is that I’ve driven a lot of electric vans over the years, and I’m very aware of how to maximise the regenerative braking and make the most of coasting up to hazards. But if this was your own van, you'd soon familiarise yourself with the regen braking and eveything else. I dare say you'd put me to shame.
So, is the sort of energy efficiency my co-driver and I managed attainable to your ordinary delivery driver? I would definitely say yes.
Given the right circumstances it’s completely within anyone’s grasps, but I’ll caveat that with... it will depend where you’re driving.
Having spent 15 years driving in London traffic, I would say in a busy city where I’d often average less than 20mph it’s totally achievable. Careful throttle control, using the Eco mode and not blasting the air con will do most of the hard work and get your towards the 6 miles per kWh (10.5kWh/100km) we managed.
But, if you’re ordinary delivery or work jobs take you out on the open roads, unless you want to be slower than a tractor, you’re going to struggle.
Rather than the overall, quite frankly astonishing, fully loaded range of the Kia PV5, for me the Guinness World Record title is more a symbol of the usability of all electric vehicles and the changing dynamic of EV adoption.
The figures achieved in this record are attainable to anyone, but the record itself goes a long way to quashing range anxiety for electric vans.
That, I think, is the real message that this world record puts out there.
Electric vans are usable for any job or purpose, and the best things is that they’ll only get better.
