Range anxiety is overblown. Electric vehicle owners only use 13 percent of their battery capacity a day, on average.
Range anxiety is overblown. Electric vehicle owners only use 13 percent of their battery capacity a day, on average.
insideevs.com
You Need Way Less Range Than You Think
I only use like 10% of the gas in my tank 95% of the time. That doesnt mean I dont want to be able to drive well over 400 miles without stopping for 30+ minutes the 5% of the time that I need to
My average stop time for gas or anything else on a road trip is less than 10 minutes every time. EVs cant do that, yet at least, plain and simple… If youre driving 10-15 hours then stop time makes a difference. Not to mention there is hardly gas available, let alone fast charging, in huge swaths of the country
Newer EVs Go further and charge much faster. Stopping for 15-20 minutes on a road trip to grab a drink and use the bathroom really is no big deal (and probably good for you after driving three hours).
My only complaint on road trips is finding a fast charger, and one without a line. We really do need more chargers. And it’s stupid for roadside restaurants like Starbucks and McDonald’s not to put some in at every location since it would bring in more business.
I don’t like stopping for five minutes to pump gas. I just want to go to the place and not stop.
Completely ignoring vehicles for a moment, it's quite the statement that being inconvenienced 5% of the time isn't worth having convenience 95% of the time.
Back to vehicles now, I feel like the time saved with an EV by not refueling in the regular day to day activity outweighs the time spent stretching legs for half an hour while recharging from 10-80%.
I've linked this before but it's relevant here too. Less than 5% of all trips are over 50 miles. Extrapolating from that, a vanishingly small percentage of trips are several hundred miles long.
I feel more people would benefit from watching technology connections "but sometimes" video. YouTube vid
Last summer I did a 1,200+ mile road trip, and found recharging time no big deal. The more important factor is availability of fast chargers. Maybe it’s the trip software, but it had me stopping about when I would have anyway, and scheduled stops 5-20 minutes. Actually, I screwed it up a couple times from eating lunch where even fast food takes more time than it recommended charging.
This was in the northeast US, where fast chargers are plentiful. However I did notice a difference. The way down following the big cities had fast chargers everywhere. However the way back, following a more rural route, was definitely a bit more worrisome. There ended up being plenty and admittedly I didn’t even look for level 2 chargers, but if you weren’t paying attention, it could go badly wrong. I don’t want to have to tow my car 40miles. And yes I do realize that’s still better than large sections of our country
I really wish that Plug Share or ABRP had options to stop every 2 hours. That would make it so much easier.
How often do you actually do that, though? Also, see BYD and megawatt charging for 5 minutes. Or the 15 minutes for the Hyundai Ioniq.
This sounds like the standard anti-EV talking points. I've taken a long trip in my older, very slow-charging EV. It's fine for the once per year need, or I can rent a (gas) car for the trip and still come out ahead.
So you'll pay a few thousand dollars a year for the privilege of occasionally saving 20 minutes? You do you.
If EV chargers were as prolific as gas stations you would have a point!
I pay $0k per year by just driving an ICE car that has no range issues? Its not like charging is any more free than gasoline