EV Range Anxiety

EV Range Anxiety

Electric Vehicle range anxiety (EVRA - I'm pretty sure I just made up this acronym) is the term applied to drivers of electric vehicles who get anxious when they see their battery level meter (as opposed to the gas gauge) drop without an ev charging station in range.  Unlike a gasoline powered vehicle, you can't just walk to the gas station in a worse-case scenario (unless they have a really, really long extension cord).  Only people who have a battery electric vehicle will experience EVRA, because a plug-in hybrid alleviates these fears by relying on a gasoline engine for backup.  An example of a plug-in hybrid is the Chevy Volt, while an example of a battery electric vehicle is the Nissan Leaf, or the Tesla Roadster, invented by Elon Musk and Tesla Motors.

But fear not fossil-fuel-free drivers, Mapawatt has created the three steps necessary to prevent Electric Vehicle Range Anxiety:

  1. As in any period of anxiousness, take a deep breath (If immediately after this step, you release a manic scream, you probably need to make sure you have a plug-in hybrid electric, and not just a plug-in battery electric vehicle.  You aren't cut out for all-battery cowboy/cowgirl.)
  2. Highlight on a map or make a custom Google Map you can access on your smart phone of all the locations around you with charging stations. Or just view the Electric Vehicle Charging Stations map put together by the Department of Energy.
  3. Drive efficiently to the nearest charging station and breathe a sigh of relief once you arrive.

CNN recent had a great article on Electric Vehicle range anxiety and I noticed a great idea in the pictures at the top of the article for an EV charging station/parking meter.  What are parking meters good for anyway?  Why not have them do something useful (like charge your car) instead of just sit there and suck down all your money.   The city still makes money from selling the electricity instead of just spelling road space.

And yet there are those who will never want any type of electric vehicle, because the payback just isn't there and they don't want to deal with EVRA.  I say to them, there is more to the payback of an electric vehicle than just the straight economic one. My text from the earlier EV payback post:

People don’t buy Lexus because it saves them money.  They buy Lexus because they want heated leather seats, and wood-grain, and xenon headlights, and nice sound systems, and navigation, and etc. etc. etc.  The first electric car buyers aren’t simply buying them to save money; they are buying an electric car because they value having a car that uses less gas for the way it makes them feel.  They view an electric car or plug-in hybrid as a luxury; just like some people see chrome wheels as a luxury.

The quote at the end of the CNN EVRA article addresses those who may worry too much about range anxiety:

While the general public may still look at the electric car as a novelty, its advocates see the coming wave of new models and stations as a big step toward eliminating this country's use of oil, especially foreign oil, and helping the planet. Stopping to get a charge away from home is a small price to pay, said Scott, the Plug In America vice president.

"If you care about the environment, if it bothers you that you are polluting everybody's air, if it bothers you that you are sending lots of money out of the country," he said, "then it's worth it to you to spend 20 minutes" recharging.

So what do you think?  What is a bigger impediment for you to buy an electric vehicle: the cost or the range anxiety?  And if it is the range anxiety, has it convinced you to buy a plug-in hybrid as opposed to an all-electric?

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Comments

"3.Drive efficiently to the nearest charging station and breathe a sigh of relief once you arrive" Sadly my anxiety may not be over at this point. Filling up a gasoline car's tank takes just a few minutes, so running low on fuel will only make me slightly late to whatever I was driving to. But recharging an electric vehicle is going to take a while (with some models and charging stations it may be several hours). Hope I remembered to put a good book in the car to read while I wait. Right now the only viable solution to this appears to be exchangable battery packs at the charging station. There's some work in this area, but to become viable would need some standardization of battery packs.
I DONT WANT TO BRAGG OR LET THE SECRET OUT YET SO I WILL JUST TELL YOU FOLKS THIS I PALN TO DRIVE MU NEWLY CONSTRUCTED ELECTRIC POWERED VEHICLE CROSS COUNTRY NONSTOP FROM ATLANTA,GA TO LOS ANGELES ,CALIF WITH ONLY STOPS FOR FUEL FOR THE DRIVER I MEAN FOOD AND POTTY STOPS OK.THIS A COMPLETELY NEW CONCEPT SO I CAN GO INTO DETAIL TARGET DATE TO START JOURNEY IS 11/20/2010-- I WANTED TO DO IT ON 10-20-2010 YOU SEE THE SIGNIFICANCE , BUT CASH FLOW DELAYED THE JOURNEY. THE TROUBLE WITH THE CAR COMPANIES IS THEY HAVE THEIR NOSES STUCK IN THE BOX AND THE AND THE NORM. I DONT EVEN HAVE A BOX TO THINK OUTSIDE OF SO MY MIND IS FREE TO CREATE FROM SCRATCH WITH NO PRECONCEIVED IDEAS OF WHAT A PEOPLE TRANSPORT SHOULD LOOOK LIKE . EVEN THOUGH THIS COULD MAKE ME RICH THAT IS NOT THE FORCE THAT DRIVES ME.BUT THE GOOD IT WILL DO FOR MANKIND AND THE ENVIRONMENT IS WHAT COMPELS ME TO SUCCEED.NOW I HAVE BEEN INVOLVED WITH AUTOMOTIVE AND MECHANICS ALL MY LIFE SO I AM NOT SOME HALFBAKED CRACKPOT . NOR DO I CLAIM TO BE A GENIUS JUSAT A MAN WITH A MISSION AND DETERMINATION TO SUCCEED- -PAL-O-->TOM
For me it is not range anxiety, my commute is ~7 miles round trip, but size anxiety. I have to be able to fit 3 car seats in the back of my car. I can do this with my 2004 Prius but it is not possible in the Chevy Volt or Nissan Leaf. For me, the upcoming plug in Prius with an EV range of 14 miles is perfect. The Prius has the space I need and while it's electric range is rather small it is fine for me.
Yes, my review has been up for a while on the autopia site: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/08/guy-marsden-chevrolet-volt-review/ I also wrote a review for Home Power Magazine that will be in the Dec/Jan issue coming out in November. http://homepower.com Guy
Well GM has the perfect solution for this issue, an electric vehicle that has a built in gas generator that they call a "range extender". The Chevy Volt will be on the market in November. I have test driven it on the GM Milford proving grounds - and it is totally awesome! It is a full luxury sedan and at $41K a bit pricey for my wallet -- even minus the $7K tax break. But -- NO range anxiety. The generator kicks in transparently just like it does in a hybrid. You can run over 300 miles on a full tank of gas, electric range is a nominal 40 miles - the average US commute. Test drivers have been getting closer to 50 miles recently by driving carefully.
ckmapawatt's picture
Guy, I saw the post you had in your local paper about test driving the Volt, but has the Wired article come out yet?

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