EV Buying advice blog: Range

[Bam Bam]

Based on questions from a friend and a recent post on here I've written a post on my personal blog about how to think about EV Range when buying a first EV.

How should you think about EV Range?

Historically, "Range anxiety" has been a major barrier to Battery Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption. Early Nissan Leafs (Leaves?) only had abou...

dougstaxappeal.blogspot.com

Thoughts, comments and suggestions welcome!

 

[Gomev]

I like having range. My first EV was the Gen 1 ZS EV with WLTP c.160 miles and I changed that for 5 LR with WLTP of 250. I now have a Kona with WLTP c.300.
I rarely need that much range but there is a certain comfort in knowing I have a greater choice of where to stop, and living in Leeds I can more or less get anywhere in the UK with just 1 stop if I want (extremities of Scotland excepted).
Also reduces my charge count at home as I usually keep it between about 30-80% and at 80% it lasts forever.
For me it gives a comfortable feeling. I have just been this last weekend to North Wales and back, near Rhyl total 230 miles travelled and did not need to top up despite low temperatures (max 5 degrees), snow, rain, and the M62 to contend with, also the heater on full time there and back. That's what more range gives you. (no heat pump either)

 

[Bam Bam]

Thanks for the thoughts!

I like having range.

Of course, more range is always nice to have, all else equal.

However, if the price difference was significant then range shouldn't be seen as a dealbreaker as long as charging speed is high enough.

Living in Oxfordshire I can get to most of the population centres in England and Wales in one charge.

It is quite possible that people in Cornwall, the Highlands or East Anglia might be more needful of range than we do at the bottom of the central triangle.

And people who do lots of long-distance journeys for work or family reasons will definitely want to look at a much longer range model, ideally an efficient model too!

 

[Anon70]

I think one of the main things is people believe an EV is just another type of car when it is not.

The points you raise are all valid, with an EV journey you are thinking charge to charge not start to end.

Most ICE cars have a minimum range of 300 miles and take less than 10 minutes to refuel. There are also more refuelling stations and they tend to have fewer faults (although you can still pull up to a forecourt with some of the pumps out of order (or empty).

You need to think more about your car use with an EV, my wife has a Mini EV with a 100 mile range and for the journeys that she does it is more than adequate and never gives any cause for concern that the car will run out of charge.

I guess you could think about it like a watch, some have rechargeable batteries, some are solar powered, some the battery needs to be replaced every so often and others you just manually wind up. They all tell the time, just require different amounts of user intervention to allow them to do that.

 

[Gomev]

I think one of the main things is people believe an EV is just another type of car when it is not.

The points you raise are all valid, with an EV journey you are thinking charge to charge not start to end.

Most ICE cars have a minimum range of 300 miles and take less than 10 minutes to refuel. There are also more refuelling stations and they tend to have fewer faults (although you can still pull up to a forecourt with some of the pumps out of order (or empty).

You need to think more about your car use with an EV, my wife has a Mini EV with a 100 mile range and for the journeys that she does it is more than adequate and never gives any cause for concern that the car will run out of charge.

I guess you could think about it like a watch, some have rechargeable batteries, some are solar powered, some the battery needs to be replaced every so often and others you just manually wind up. They all tell the time, just require different amounts of user intervention to allow them to do that.

I quite agree, particularly your last paragraph.
However when my wife and I retired we felt we no longer needed 2 cars so only having the one it sort of needs to do the job of the 2 for us. One the economic around town car and the second the comfortable long range cruiser.
Now I have a car with a longer range I no longer have to think charge to charge and can think start to end again for the majority of my longer distance journeys.
We do stop en-route and we do charge when we stop because we want a break and to get a bite to eat or a coffee. So in practical terms it makes little difference but I am enjoying the subtle difference.
Surprisingly I didn't make this latest change for the range reason, but because I needed easier access and exit than the 5 which had which had become a little low for me. The difference in feeling from having the extra range came as a pleasant and unexpected bonus.
I never had range anxiety even with the 100-150 real range of my first EV, the planning was part of the fun but now the vastly improved infrastructure would make long journeys in that easy.
I think we are rapidly reaching the point where planning is no longer required, if we haven't already reached that.

 

[Bam Bam]

I think we are rapidly reaching the point where planning is no longer required, if we haven't already reached that.

Yeah I think the planning now is usually just to save money on charging rather than to make it to the destination.

Other than cost just let ABRP decide on the stops.

 

[Gadget Geek]

These days I just put the destination in the sat-nav and go. Google maps shows me nearby chargers when I need one.

 

[Gomev]

Yeah I think the planning now is usually just to save money on charging rather than to make it to the destination.

Other than cost just let ABRP decide on the stops.

Agree with what you say apart from ABRP, it's hopeless at estimating range, I know my car and it's range better than any app. I decide which area/miles or time travelled that I want to stop, and look there for hubs before setting off.