1) They generally have lower drag numbers than gas cars.
2) Diastances in Germany are less than in the US, so you're probably not going to bomb along for as long of a time.
Yes, 15000 looks about right. That being said, it feels quite low.
About a third of the contiguous US has almost no people relative to the rest except for a few population centers (Intermountain West and Great Plains). There are several states with population densities higher than Germany, and quite a few within a factor of three, and naturally those will tend to have more people than the others.
So I'm not sure the median surrounding population density for an individual in the US would be that much different from Germany -- I'd think cultural factors, including public transportation availability, would have at least as much an effect on average distances driven.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/07/convoy-se...
But, backing up a bit. What percentage of the German auto market cares little for high-speed performance characteristics? I don't know, but I suspect it's enough to keep the whole formula in the 'worry zone' for German auto makers.
I'm not saying German carmakers shouldn't worry. I'm saying that they have a bulwark in their domestic market for a little while longer.
No, but the German expectation is of a 200kph car. So a 4 fold increase in the power consumption over American cars is quite reasonable. (Americans are just a bit north of 100kph on the highway. 100-120)
Higher speed/power consumption over shorter distances/times is actually bad for EVs, because the time spent waiting for recharge vs. driving is proportionately worse.
(In fact, you could probably work out the approximate timing of this occurring using graphs of industry-wide improvements in Li-ion batteries and extrapolating when it will reach 4x today's capacity/weight and capacity/cost as a back of the envelope calc.)