Listening to relaxing music can make you go further in your electric vehicle

The type of music you listen to can affect how far your electric vehicle travels between charges, according to new research.

A study found that drivers who listened to ambient classical pieces and famous symphonic-form compositions from the likes of Beethoven would see their EV battery go further between charges than those who listened to artists such as The Weeknd, Kanye West and Adele.

Kia teamed up with Dr Duncan Williams, a leading authority in acoustics, noise, psychoacoustics and sounds science to see if the type of music being played to the driver could have an effect on real-world range.

The test was carried out in the Kia EV6, which has a real-world range of 328 miles. Participants were put behind the wheel of the EV – with none having driven an electric vehicle before – and asked to drive a long a predetermined route.

On the 18-mile route, different types of music were played through the car’s sound system, with a wearable biometric measuring device recording information such as shifting skin temperature.

Dr Williams said: “What we found from only two days of testing was that music really can have a dramatic influence on the real-world driving range of an electric vehicle.

“Different songs resulted in varying electrodermal activity and blood volume increase for each of the participants.

“This had a knock-on effect on driving style, and ultimately influenced the real-world driving range of the EV6.”

Classical music created a calm, focused environment for the driver, which resulted in a more relaxed driving style. This had a knock-on effect of making the vehicle’s range go further because speeds were lower and acceleration/deceleration was less severe.

Meanwhile, up-tempo pop songs had the opposite effect, inspiring more spirited driving that made them twice as inefficient as when listening to the classical genre.