Electric Vehicles Editing and Proofreading Services

A window sticker states an EPA-estimated range of 310 miles. A customer buys the car expecting something close to that number on their daily commute, which happens to be mostly highway driving at 75 mph in a climate with real winters. Their actual observed range that first January is closer to 200 miles, and they feel misled, even though the EPA figure was accurate for the test it was measured under. Nothing the customer read before buying told them that highway speed and cold weather are the two single biggest factors that separate the sticker number from the number they would actually see, or by roughly how much.

We edit what electric vehicle manufacturers and dealers produce to communicate range and charging expectations — range estimate disclosures and real-world driving factors, charging time and rate explanations, battery degradation and warranty documentation, and the customer-facing responses to a range or charging question. Our editors work on the number a customer plans their actual driving life around.

The real-world factor disclosure is what turns an EPA range figure from a number that produces disappointment into one that sets an accurate expectation, and its failure is a single figure presented without the conditions it was measured under or the factors known to change it substantially. 310 miles, EPA-estimated describes a specific test cycle; it does not describe a customer's actual commute, and the gap between the two is not a defect in the car, it is information the sticker did not provide. We work through these so the specific factors that most affect real-world range are named with their approximate impact, since highway speed above the test cycle's average and cold weather are well-documented, substantial factors, and a customer who knows to expect meaningfully less range at 75mph in January is not disappointed by exactly the outcome they were warned about; so charging time is stated for the conditions that actually affect it, given that a charging time quoted for an ideal fast-charger and battery temperature is a different number from what a customer sees at a slower charger or in cold weather, and a single quoted time collapses this into a figure that will not match most actual experiences; so battery degradation is explained with what is actually covered under warranty and what capacity loss would trigger a claim, rather than a general assurance that the battery is built to last, because a customer needs to know the specific threshold that matters to them; so a customer's specific question about their own likely range, given their actual driving pattern and climate, receives a specific answer rather than a repetition of the EPA figure; and so any comparison to a gasoline vehicle's range or refuelling time is stated with its actual basis, given that these comparisons are frequently the source of an expectation the vehicle was never going to meet under real conditions. Disclosures written this way mean a customer's first winter matches what they were told to expect rather than contradicting it.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including technical specifications, testing data and customer correspondence. We are editors rather than automotive engineers, battery specialists or EPA testing authorities, and we offer no view on range figures, testing methodology or battery performance. What we can do is make sure the number comes with the context that explains it.