Range anxiety

[Villamark]

Is range anxiety a thing ? And is it common place? As I’m constantly checking battery percentage and planning when I need to charge next ! Hope it’s not just me

 

[Diggsy]

Think it settles with experience of driving an EV. It barely enters my mind any longer unless I have a long journey to make, but even then, just use a decent planner (I use ZapMap) and you’ll be able to relax and just go.

 

[ReintjeWA]

I had that the first week of driving my first EV, now I don’t really think about it unless I’m doing long trips to areas where charging isn’t widely available.

The first long trip was a bit of an anxious drive as I planned my trip based on the GOM, which then got more accurate over the trip, and I realised I wasn’t going to make it to the charger I had chosen for my return. But it all worked out (with a different fast charger). It pays to be aware of where chargers are, and you’ll figure that out over time.

Of course charging at home will see you start trips at 100% more easily, and should help with any anxiety you might have

 

[JonnyG]

As above, there's much less anxiety if you plan ahead for longer trips. I've used ZapMap and stored all rapid and ultrarapid chargers along my common long distance routes as "Favourites" in Google Maps. I then have a first, second and third choice all planned for around 150 miles from home and at the destination if required. Once you've done it a few times the "range" anxiety will go. All I'm left with now is "will the chargers be free & work" anxiety

 

[Jomarkh]

As above it's not range anxiety as the GOM is very good if you don't reset the trip counters. If you plan to stop at a Rapid after 150-170 miles and have a back up charger too then you will be fine.

 

[Ferretusmaximus]

Should really be called charger anxiety. Is there one where I want it and will it work when I get there? In peak fossil fuel usage you knew there would be a fuel station within reach and just had to hope it would be open. Petrol stations are becoming thinner on the ground now so that might just induce anxiety in the ICE users. New public chargers are being installed at the rate of one every 25 minutes so there will be more chargers than petrol stations before long (if we're not already there). As an example, in Carmarthenshire there is a charger every 7 miles. Don't worry about it, just plan long journeys as you would do for an ICE car.

 

[NickHeynes]

Yes it is a "thing", however as the others have said it becomes less of a "thing" the more you get to know your car .
I'm getting increasingly annoyed with the media who bang on about it like there's no tomorrow and highlight the slow rate at which the charger network is expanding while not talking to existing owners who have not had terrible experiences .
I've done a number of long trips in my SE SR and not once have I had an issue with chargers not working ( I actually did with MFG just recently but that was my own fault ) or had to wait for one.
Route planning maybe a little more important than before ,making scheduled stops rather than ad hoc ones but it's really been no biggie.

 

[Villamark]

I had that the first week of driving my first EV, now I don’t really think about it unless I’m doing long trips to areas where charging isn’t widely available.

The first long trip was a bit of an anxious drive as I planned my trip based on the GOM, which then got more accurate over the trip, and I realised I wasn’t going to make it to the charger I had chosen for my return. But it all worked out (with a different fast charger). It pays to be aware of where chargers are, and you’ll figure that out over time.

Of course charging at home will see you start trips at 100% more easily, and should help with any anxiety you might have

Should really be called charger anxiety. Is there one where I want it and will it work when I get there? In peak fossil fuel usage you knew there would be a fuel station within reach and just had to hope it would be open. Petrol stations are becoming thinner on the ground now so that might just induce anxiety in the ICE users. New public chargers are being installed at the rate of one every 25 minutes so there will be more chargers than petrol stations before long (if we're not already there). As an example, in Carmarthenshire there is a charger every 7 miles. Don't worry about it, just plan long journeys as you would do for an ICE car.

You’re right it’s absolutely charger anxiety

 

[Gadget Geek]

Range anxiety quickly becomes just range awareness. The last long drive I did, I didn't even plan it. I just used the "nearby chargers" option in Google Maps when I needed a charge.

 

[5teep]

Yeah, your eyes will be glued to the battery level/range counter for the first few days (we were all the same). After that you'll go back to just driving. If you don't do very long runs you will never even think about it, if you do then you just get into the habit of checking for a charger on route.
I do average 200 miles a day, 5 days a week and most times I can do that and just plug in when I get home, be ready for the morning.

 

[Robf]

My first EV was a 22kW Zoe, did just under 100 miles in the summer with a good tail wind . Our MG4 LR can get 230 average at 100% in the summer. I do not suffer from range anxiety.

 

[JIS]

We've had our MG4 64kw for three weeks now. We have solar panels so I like to take advantage. One aspect that I ahve noticed is that, whilst chargers are generally easily to find around me (SW France) they are nearly always the slow chargers at 22 kw whereas the fast ones (100 kw+) are on the Autoroute; the autoroutes are quite costly though, so my preference is to use ordinary roads. So, range anxiety isn't an issue (yet) but perhaps charger anxiety might be, especially when we drive to Madrid this Xmas !!

 

[Anon70]

It's just a different way of thinking about fuelling the car. With an ICE car you would plan when to fuel based on how far you had left to go and what was left in the tank. Pretty much the same with an EV except you can refuel at home and you don't have to stand by the car while it is topping up.

For longer trips you may be looking at little and often charging (which means you don't really notice) as the car is refuelling while you are in a cafe/service area doing the same thing to your body.

 

[Rolfe]

Is range anxiety a thing ? And is it common place? As I’m constantly checking battery percentage and planning when I need to charge next ! Hope it’s not just me

Are you anxious, though? There should be no need to be anxious if you have a decent amount of charge and chargers are reasonably available. Awareness of how much charge you have and where might be a good place to charge is just normal. As you get more used to the car you'll be more relaxed about it.

Bear in mind that if you do become concerned about whether you'll make it to the next charger, the most effective thing you can do is to slow down. Even taking 5 mph off your speed will give you significantly more range to play with.

 

[ReintjeWA]

Bear in mind that if you do become concerned about whether you'll make it to the next charger, the most effective thing you can do is to slow down. Even taking 5 mph off your speed will give you significantly more range to play with.

This advice really helped me out last weekend when the GOM decided to be more accurate after I drove past the last fast charger before our destination in woop woop. I knew of another fast charger that was about 30km closer than my originally planned for return charger, but the longer that drive went on, and the lower my charge got, the slower I went. And it totally saved our bacon that day.

 

[Rolfe]

I find my GOM is really stable. I've never seen any unexpected drop near the end of the battery. My stragegy is just to titrate the range against the distance to the charger, and hopefully get to the charger with 10 miles or so to spare. I have the charger as my destination on the central screen and of course the remaining range on the driver's screen, and if I don't like the way they're matching up, I take 5 mph off my speed till they do. Sometimes I just let it happen, because I know there's either a congestion warning ahead, which will do the job anyway, or a downhill stretch, or (at the end) a stretch of A road where I won't be doing motorway speeds.

I only once had to re-route. I was going south on the M6 in August and expecting to get to Forton. I had 30 miles in hand when I started but by Carlisle that was all gone due to bad weather and a headwind. Forton was obviously something that was not fated to happen to me that day. So I just said "Tebay" to Android Auto and it showed me the miles to that service station and I could see it was within range. Still made it to Brighton with only three stops.

 

[ReintjeWA]

Yeah I think the GOM changed more than I expected because it was the first long stretch of highway speeds, also more people in the car than usual, and the first time the battery came close to the bottom of the well. It seems to have really adjusted now, interesting to see if the total range will creep up again being back to just commuter traffic again.

 

[Gadget Geek]

One thing to watch out for is traffic jams. I was on the M5 southbound once near Easton-in-Gordano. I would have had enough charge to get home but the stop-start traffic sent my range over a cliff. I made it to Gordano Services and topped up enough to get home.

 

[Mickandsej]

Having only had mine since late September I’ve not had the pleasure of warm weather running. Working permanent lates I usually have heater, lights, demister all on and a semi fast drive home, I’m getting 3.5 at the moment so 3 days on one charge. That seems fine for now so expecting good things when it warms up!

 

[Villamark]

Basically from my point of view I need to plan better from now on and it’s only my first week with my new MG4 but I love the car, especially the handling thanks for all the feedback it’s been invaluable