WLTP range vs real range: how big the gap is, and who measured it

WLTP is a lab number, rated by the maker in an approved test. heise gives the conditions: 23 °C and a driving profile with little motorway. So the question is how far your driving sits from that.

I don't measure anything myself. The real figures below are ADAC's, Germany's motoring club, which runs cars on a test bench on a mixed profile.

The gap on real cars

Two caveats. Skoda's figure is its best WLTP number, and ADAC's Kia was an Earth trim while my WLTP figure is the Air on 17-inch wheels. Trim and wheels move the rated figure, so read these as rough gaps. ADAC also changed its procedure in early 2026 and says newer results aren't directly comparable with these.

The Renault 5 with the 40 kWh battery isn't in ADAC's table. Its 52 kWh sister managed 345 km in April 2025. I wouldn't transfer that to the small one.

The rule I use

Add 25% to WLTP consumption. That's the default in the running-cost calculator, and it's my judgement, not a test result. It works out at a fifth off range.

Take the Renault 5 at 14.4 kWh/100 km and 317 km. Multiply the consumption by 1.25 and you get 18 kWh/100 km. Divide the range by 1.25 and you get about 254 km. Treat that as my estimate for mixed driving, since no outlet I read has measured this version. It's a touch more cautious than the ADAC gaps above, on purpose.

At €26,290 in Germany, list, checked 2 November 2026, that's the number I'd judge the car on. Prices differ by country.

Why it gets much worse

Speed and cold stack up. In ADAC's winter test, published in January 2026, 14 family EVs ran a simulated Munich to Berlin at 0 °C, at up to 130 km/h. Consumption came out 57% above WLTP on average, Elektroauto-News and heise both report, and CleanThinking gives the date. The Tesla Model Y was closest at 40%, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 furthest at 69%.

That's a stress case, and winter range loss breaks it down. If most of your range worries are about a holiday run, it's also why I'd look at the longest-range cars under €60,000 with a fifth off and then some.

Petrol has a gap too

The European Commission published fuel meter data from cars first registered in 2021 and 2022 on 26 July 2024. Real use by petrol and diesel cars ran about 20% above WLTP. These are measured numbers, from on-board meters in millions of cars. So the allowance is similar on both sides of the comparison: 20% more fuel, 25% more electricity.

Plug-in hybrids are the outlier. Those registered in 2021 came out 3.5 times above their lab values, which the Commission puts down largely to not being charged as often as assumed.

Don't count charging losses twice

You pay for what leaves the wall, not what reaches the battery. ADAC's table shows the difference: 87.1 kWh to fill the Elroq 85's 77 kWh usable pack, and 65.6 kWh for the EV3's 58.3 kWh. ADAC says losses explain much of that, alongside things like temperature and battery age.

Dashboards leave these out, says ADAC, and its own figures include them. WLTP consumption already includes them as well, EVDB NZ explains, because the test includes a recharge; it puts typical losses at 7 to 12%. So add losses to a dashboard reading if you're doing your own sums. Never add them to a WLTP figure.