Electric car range is one of the top concerns car buyers have when considering whether to switch to EVs – a concern so profound, the term “range anxiety” was added to the dictionary to describe it. But just how much EV range is enough? How many ranges do you really need? The answer is different for everyone, and we’re here to help you figure it out.
The point is, like most things in life, we judge a situation based on our past life experiences. We often think of cars in terms of internal combustion. With a gas-powered car, you drive for a week or two, get into a station, spend five minutes refueling, and then you’ll be good for another week or two – with that full tank capacity, you’ll be fine. made dozens of trips. plus hundreds of miles. That’s “normal” for us. So one tram With the range of anything smaller, well, a few hundred miles it seems… scary, unrealistic.
But that is using the wrong yardstick to measure electric cars. Can’t think of them that way, because they don’t behave like gasoline cars – “several hundred miles” is out of context. Even with internal combustion, we rarely used all that range in one sitting.
A gasoline-powered car has a great convenience factor: the ability to store large amounts of energy in the tank so it can be quickly and occasionally replenished. But EVs also have an element of convenience, it’s just different: You add the battery in multiple sips instead of one big gulp of gas, and you do it in the comfort of your own garage. That doesn’t sound like an advantage – until you experience the complacent joy of driving in the past the gas stationsave $50 or $100 on extras you don’t need anymore.
When Nissan Leaf (seen above) introduced to the world in the 2011 model year, it has a EPA Rated range is only 73 miles – and as a matter of fact, the operating range is less than when charged by only 80% as recommended to prolong the life of the battery. Nissan indicates that the average daily commute at the time was less than 35 miles, which could easily be replenished on an overnight charge. But aside from those early adopters of granola-munching, people definitely think the first generation Leaf sounds like a science experiment – 73 miles away, why, that’s crazy!
Except it’s not. It just requires a different perspective, a different view of what a car can be.
We Americans tend to buy car based on extreme use cases. We bought an SUV but we don’t go off-road. We buy truck but use them like cars. We wanted to be able to take a long road trip across the country, but maybe only do it once a year. That original 73-mile-long leaf obviously can’t walk, but it’s a smart commuter. When buying an electric car – really when buying any car – it’s important to face your actual use case, not what you hope or imagine.
So how much electric car is enough? For you? These are questions to ask yourself.
How far are you? really drive for a day?
If you’re considering an EV, do some research first – about yourself. Get a notebook and pen, and record your mileage for a few days. In a week. In a month. How much do you actually drive in a day? Is it the same as the commuter average that Nissan cited? Or more like 100 miles? Even 200 miles? Do you really drive that many days? Be honest.
For some broader context, Americans drive 14,263 miles per year on average, according to Federal Highway Administration. That drops to 1,188 miles a month — or 40 miles a day. (An index that has skyrocketed since Nissan quoted 35, but now it may have shrunk once again due to our post-pandemic work-from-home habits.) But suppose the average is 40.
So is your daily mileage below that average, or at that? Then you’ll love an EV. Are you above average? An electric car will probably still work just fine for you. Continue reading.
Try this recipe
Many car manufacturers recommend charging your EV to 80% for everyday use, and for the sake of battery life, reserve a 100% charge for times when you know you’ll need range. maximum. Likewise, generally not letting your battery percentage drop below 20% is also good battery life hygiene and it ensures you have some reserve if needed, which provides peace of mind. . So removing that ceiling and floor aside leaves a typical day-to-day range of 60% of battery capacity.
Now, pick an EV that interests you and look up its EPA range estimate at fueleconomy.gov. Ignore the government “MPGe” number, which for many buyers isn’t particularly helpful and focus on range ratings. Now let’s use a Mustang Mach-E AWD in GT trim for this example. Its EPA rating is 270 miles, so 60% of that is 162 miles. If your daily driving is less than this, you’ll be perfectly fine with that option.
Also, keep in mind that many EVs these days excel at meeting or even exceeding their EPA range, thanks to their resilience. brake (Mach-E is a good example of this). But the EPA number is a suitable basis for calculation.
Follow-up question: Do you have a garage?
Yes, do you have a garage, parking, etc.? Sweet. By contrast, charging an EV is clearly a lot harder for apartment dwellers who don’t have their own space or access to a 240-volt outlet, and may not be the right time yet. suitable for those people to buy an EV.
There’s a lot of talk these days about public charging infrastructure (or lack thereof). It sounds like we want DC fast chargers to be as plentiful as gas stations (we’re applying the internal combustion context to EVs again). And we want to be able to charge fast, fast, fast. But ideally, you’ll only want/rarely use public charging, as it has the downside of time, will be more expensive than home charging, and fast charging probably has a lasting impact on your battery’s lifespan. the battery. Supplementing at home is an EV side trick. Continue reading.
How long is your car usually parked?
We’ll go back to the Nissan Leaf for this example, in this case the Nissan Leaf S. 2022, the Leaf is one of the most affordable EVs currently on the market, at $28,895. (That price includes arrival fees but doesn’t include the existing $7,500 federal tax credit. Though that offer is about to get more complicated with new restrictions under the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act.) .
The Leaf S has a relatively modest 149 miles (for daily driving, like 90 miles based on our 60% formula) with a relatively modest 40 kWh battery pack. Plugged into a 240-volt outlet, the Leaf S will be fully charged in about eight hours and add 60% of even less usage. In other words, it is easily refreshed while you sleep. One Tesla The same will take about 8-10 hours. Park your car at night, turn on the charger, enjoy your evening, and in the morning you’re ready and ready to go. What could be easier?
But bigger is not always better with EV batteries
There’s an important reason why you should be realistic about your daily driving needs and overall use case. If you tell yourself you want hundreds of miles of range on a single charge, you’ll have to pay a lot more money to buy your car. Just 5 or 6 years ago, battery costs accounted for almost half the cost of an electric vehicle. Now they are closer to about one a third of the cost, and is expected to continue to decline in the coming years. But if you don’t need the range of hundreds of miles a day, then why pay for it? In addition to the cost of buying unnecessary capacity, larger batteries will require longer charging times.
Now, let’s talk about long highway trips
How often do you travel, for example on vacation? Once a year? Twice a year? Five times? In a 2018 study, the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute found that electric vehicle owners save about $600 a year power their cars, spending $485 on electricity compared to $1,117 on a gas-powered car. But that research is based on gas price four years ago – the savings would have been much greater when gas prices were higher than they are today. And this doesn’t even take into account the savings EV owners enjoy from reduced maintenance costs when compared to an internal combustion engine. Ask yourself if you should drive an EV most of the time, then use all the money you save to rent an ICE car for that rare long haul. road trip.
Public chargers are becoming a lot more common along major highway corridors, if you’re willing to make longer trips and plan your route carefully. But this is a situation where “range anxiety” is still a reality.
The best of both worlds
You don’t have to jump into the EV world without looking back. You may find that you can alleviate your range concerns by hedging your bet risk.
More than half of American households own two or more cars. The best situation to buy an EV is if you are among the majority of them. We believe that virtually every two-car family in the US should be able to replace one of their ICE vehicles with an EV, and they’ll have a powerful combination of capabilities. One car saves gas, the other can be used when range is a concern. We can practically promise you, you’ll find yourself driving an EV most of the time. And you will never have to ask about how much EV is enough.
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