What is a kilowatt hour?

A kilowatt hour is a measure of power used over time. For EVs, however, you’re most likely to encounter kilowatt hours (kWh) when looking at battery pack capacities. As you’d expect, the larger the kWh figure, the greater the energy storage capacity and, as a result, the longer the range.

Don’t expect this figure across the EV industry to keep growing indefinitely, however. Already, some EVs come with huge battery packs that can weigh more than half a tonne, so we expect carmakers will try to squeeze even more miles from current battery pack sizes without simply blindly adding more kWh, which would push the cost and weight up to unacceptable levels.