The EPA is starting to release its ratings on 2021 electric cars and Tesla is again showing its efficiency supremacy.
2021 Tesla Model 3 Long Range is getting an impressive 134 MPGe efficiency rating.
Earlier this month, we reported on how Tesla has made an early model year change to its entire vehicle lineup for the second year in a row.
The automaker introduced several new 2021 model year vehicles with many changes to some, especially Model 3, which received a refresh.
Most variants of every vehicle in Tesla’s lineup has receive a range increase through new efficiency improvements.
The EPA is now starting to release its ratings for 2021 model-year electric cars – confirming some of those improvements.
Tesla is again showing its efficiency lead and has took an early lead with the results of the first 2021 models tested by the EPA:
The 2021 Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD is getting a 134 MPGe rating for combined city and highway driving.
This represents a significant increase in efficiency in just a year for the same model, which was getting 121 MPGe a year ago.
Model Y received a smaller bump in efficiency, but Tesla started deliveries of the vehicle just in March 2020:
The EPA has also released a few other 2021 model-year ratings.
For example, they have released ratings for the Polestar 2 and Volvo XC40, who compete with Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y respectively.
Even though all these vehicles have battery packs with similar energy capacities, Tesla is able to get a lot more miles per kWh out of them thanks to its expertise in efficiency.
It’s something that Tesla highlighted in its Impact Report earlier this year:
Those results are based on the efficiency prior to the 2021 model year changes.
Electrek’s Take
This is an area where Tesla truly seems to be 3 or 4 years ahead of the competition.
The rest of the industry really needs to be paying attention to these metrics and try to improve because efficiency has a great impact on many levels.
It not only allows to get more range on less energy capacity, but it also means that for the same charging output, your vehicle charge faster in terms of miles per hour of charging.
Therefore, efficiency gives you advantages in 3 of the most important aspects of electric vehicles: range, charging speed, and charging cost.
I am really hoping that it becomes the focus of other automakers in the coming years in order for the industry average to improve. Otherwise, I just see Tesla increasing its already significant lead.
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