Average electric car consumption: is it 17 kWh?

The average electric car uses around 17 kWh per 100 km at the battery, or close to 19 kWh at the meter once charging losses are added. A city car drops to 13.5, an SUV climbs to 20, and the motorway in winter goes past 25.

What is the average consumption of an electric car?

On 26 July 2026, Automobile Propre published a portrait of the average electric car, built on its market database and its road measurements. WLTP consumption: 16.9 kWh per 100 km, of which 2.4 kWh is charging losses. Usable capacity: 72.4 kWh. Measured mixed-use range: 421 km.

I redo the division, which the article does not spell out. 72.4 kWh divided by 421 km gives 17.2 kWh per 100 km at the battery, the figure your dashboard will show in mild weather. Add 10% of losses and the meter at home reads 18.9 kWh.

So remember two numbers, not one: 17 at the battery, 19 at the meter.

A Kia EV3 shows 14.9, 17.5 or 19.3 kWh: which one to believe?

All of them, and that is exactly the problem. These three figures describe the same car, measured in three different places. I redid the calculation on the Kia EV3 81.4 kWh, whose sheet on this site relies on Kia Belgium's official price list, with a WLTP range of 605 km.

Between the brochure and the meter, the gap reaches 29%. Charging losses have nothing to do with it. The homologated figure already contains them: 14.9 divided by 13.5 makes 11%, the same order of magnitude Automobile Propre gives, putting these losses at 2.4 kWh out of 14.5. The 29% comes from real use, roughly 30% more at the battery than on paper. The class 3 WLTC lasts 1,800 seconds and averages 46.5 km/h, according to Wikipedia's description, whereas a Belgian journey mixes the ring road, the main roads and the E411, with a loaded boot and the heating on six months out of twelve.

One caveat on losses. Automobile Propre counts 2.4 kWh out of 14.5, or 17%, while the Kia shows 11%. I take 10% throughout, the low end of the range, which makes my costs more optimistic than pessimistic.

Twingo, Model Y, EV3, IONIQ 5: from 13.5 to 19.9 kWh per 100 km

I applied the same method to the four sheets on this site that carry both a real-world range and a battery capacity. The price per kWh is the CREG cap for the fourth quarter of 2026: 32.25 c€ in Flanders, 36.88 c€ in Brussels, 37.79 c€ in Wallonia, as Securex publishes them for the period from 1 October to 31 December 2026.

Real-world ranges in mixed use in mild weather, as used on this site's model sheets; consumption at the battery = capacity ÷ real-world range. Charging losses of 10%, our own assumption. Calculated on 1 November 2026. The IONIQ 5 is the 77.4 kWh version on its sheet.

My amounts run about 10% above those on our model sheets, since those count consumption without losses and at the third-quarter cap. For a Model Y, our sheets say 17.0 kWh, this table 18.7: both are right, they just do not measure the same thing.

Another discrepancy is worth flagging. Moniteur Automobile quotes 13.0 kWh per 100 km WLTP for the Twingo in the 18 September 2026 survey. Yet 27.5 kWh over 263 km makes 10.5 kWh at the battery, and 11.5 with 10% losses. No reasonable combination reaches 13.0. When a sheet does not add up on its own terms, I do not use its figure. For the same reason I left the Dacia Spring aside: our sheet still describes the pre-2026-facelift version, and mixing two model years breaks any division.

City car, compact, SUV: from 12 to 23 kWh depending on size

Electra sorts WLTP consumption by category in its 19 June 2026 breakdown, and the gaps come almost entirely down to weight and aerodynamics.

My four sheets fall, unsurprisingly, where this grid expects them. The Twingo, at 1,210 kg, lives in the city-car band. The Model Y (1,921 kg) and the EV3 (1,850 kg) sit in the middle of the SUVs. The IONIQ 5, at 2,012 kg and a drag coefficient of 0.288 according to our article on real-world motorway range, brings up the rear with 19.9 kWh. 160 kilos more than the EV3 and a squarer nose: that is 2.4 kWh per 100 km, or 14% more consumption for a comparable size.

The practical consequence fits in one sentence: at equal size, the biggest battery says nothing about consumption, and yet it is the first figure you read on a brochure.

How much does 100 km cost in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia?

Between €4.79 and €8.25, depending on the car and the region.

For an identical car, the region decides 17% of the price: a Model Y costs €6.03 per 100 km in Flanders and €7.07 in Wallonia. Over 15,000 km a year, that makes €905 at the Flemish socket, €1,034 in Brussels and €1,060 in Wallonia, a gap of €155 for strictly identical driving. The same exercise on an EV3 gives €931, €1,065 and €1,091; on a Twingo, €718, €822 and €842. For the comparison with petrol, my article on the cost of home charging sets out the same calculations against a tank of fuel.

Charging an EV3 from 10 to 80%: 63 kWh and €23.69 in Wallonia

How many kWh does it take to charge a car? That depends on the battery, not on the 100 km.

A charge is counted as kWh of battery to fill, multiplied by 1.10 for losses. Take the same Kia EV3 from 10 to 80%: 70% of 81.4 kWh makes 57 kWh in the battery, so about 63 kWh drawn from the grid. At 37.79 c€ in Wallonia, the bill is €23.69. At Fastned on the standard rate surveyed on 1 November 2026 (€0.77/kWh), the same charge climbs to €43.87.

The kW, for its part, measures the charger's power, never a quantity of energy: the confusion is common enough that I devoted a whole article to the difference between kW and kWh. An 11 kW wallbox does not "consume" 11 kWh per kilometre, obviously, it delivers 11 kWh during each hour of charging.

Speed, cold, motorway: what pushes the figure up

The 17 kWh figure holds for a mixed journey at 15 or 20 °C. As soon as the situation drifts from that, it moves fast.

Going from 120 to 130 km/h costs 2.7 kWh per 100 km on the SUV in our article, 13% more consumption to save under four minutes over 100 km. Belgium caps most of its motorways at 120 km/h, which gives it an energy advantage nobody mentions when grumbling about the limit.

One conversion is worth knowing, because it fools everyone: a 20% loss of range corresponds to consumption 25% higher, not 20%. A battery that now offers only 80% of the kilometres needs 1/0.8 times more energy for each of them. When a car "loses 30% in winter", it actually uses 43% more.

Buying: €395 a year of electricity separates a Twingo from an IONIQ 5

Over 15,000 km at home in Wallonia, the Twingo costs €842 of electricity a year and the IONIQ 5 €1,237. The €395 gap weighs €1,580 over four years, more than three times the price of the Twingo's Advanced Charge pack (€500). That is not decisive against a list-price difference of more than €22,000, but it changes the comparison when two models are within €1,000 of each other.

Three habits to keep when visiting a dealer:

• Ask for consumption in kWh per 100 km at 120 km/h, not the WLTP range, which the salesperson will quote unprompted.
• Compare consumption at the same measuring point, battery against battery or plug against plug, never one against the other.
• Multiply by your own mileage and by the real price of your kWh, which can fall well below the CREG cap with a dual-rate contract or solar panels.

Measuring your own consumption without fooling yourself

Three places give three different figures, and you need to know which one you are reading.

• The dashboard shows consumption at the battery, reset on demand: it is the lowest figure, and the only one to compare with WLTP at the battery.
• The wallbox meter, when it has one, gives the kWh drawn from the grid for each session. Divide by the kilometres driven since the previous charge.
• The bill remains the final judge, provided you separate charging from the household's consumption, with a sub-meter or a contract that distinguishes it.

Measure over 1,000 km, not over one journey: weather and the battery level on arrival distort short distances.

Any change to the fuse board or the grid connection, including fitting a sub-meter, goes to a certified electrician, followed by an inspection of the installation by an approved body.

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