Range anxiety has always been the greatest hurdle to overcome in making the switch to an electric car.
Early EVs couldn’t go all that far on a single charge, and the options for topping up their batteries were often limited to draping a three-pin plug through your kitchen window. The first Nissan Leaf, for example, had a 100-mile range and took eight hours to charge from a home socket.
But thanks to a decade and a half of battery and motor development, the longest-range electric cars will now match their petrol counterparts for how far they’ll go on a ‘tank’.
Indeed, some of the cheapest electric cars currently on sale will easily deliver double the range of the original Leaf, and with much faster charging options to boot.
But even that gets nowhere near to the cars on this list, which all use big batteries, efficient motors and aerodynamic bodies to travel more than 380 miles per charge. Indeed, most entries have cracked the 400-mile barrier, and the longest-range electric car currently on sale does more than 500 miles between charges.
The figures we quote here are from the official WLTP testing routine. In real-world use, it’s unlikely that any of these cars will hit these promised figures consistently – although you might get close if you’re feather-footed and a keen hypermiler.
Let’s cut to the chase. Which cars offer the longest range? Read our top 10 list below to find out.
The longest-range electric cars
Range: 492 miles
American EV specialist Lucid’s grand ambition is that of efficiency, and its first car – the Lucid Air saloon – certainly delivers on that.
The Grand Touring version is highly efficient and has a whopping 112kWh battery pack, resulting in 492 miles per charge.
It’s capable of charging at 300kW to boot, so you’ll only be waiting 15 minutes for the battery to be replenished from 10-80%, at a suitably fast charge point.
There is one big catch: it’s not currently available in the UK, although sales have started in Europe, and company executives have hinted at an eventual UK launch.
Read our Lucid Air Grand Touring review
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No Tesla 3 long range with 390 miles range? Near-bankrupt Fisker at number 3...it's almost criminal you're recommending consumers should invest their money here right now. It's another embarrassing EV list. What's the agenda here, or is it just lazy journalism? Sorry to be harsh, but consumers come here for help and to be informed by the trusted professionals, instead they get served this tripe. Must try harder.
Certainly. A Passat. Cribbs to just South of Edinburgh and back to Cribbs. Little to no traffic. Happy to help.
Petrol or diesel?
Started reading with interest until I got to this piece of fiction
But thanks to a decade and a half of battery and motor development, the longest-range electric cars will now match their petrol counterparts for how far they’ll go on a ‘tank’.
I regularly get 700 miles plus out of my very ordinary VW, so that's obviously total crap before we even get going, and that's if we drive with no lights, radio, AC or winderscreen wipers. I can see that the future is electric but when people write this type of stuff it puts off fair minded folk.
I would be very interested to hear which model of VW petrol car has a range of 700 miles?