Why US drivers may be thinking about EVs all wrong.... BBC article....

[CaliPorsche]

Some interesting reading .... I know the likely response ... but I think this is a little more than click bait, some good data ..... and some of the links are an equally interesting read also....

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20231204-why-us-drivers-may-be-thinking-about-evs-all-wrong

Sponsored

 

[ShiftyWolf]

I can tell you my own hesitation with replacing my ICE SUV, which we use for "more than a tankful" trips. There are so many stories of people going to charge locations and finding many or all the fast chargers non-functional, leaving only slower DC chargers and lines forming. Since chargers don't provide live updates of their status, I think there is some hesitation about relying on them. With gas stations, if one isn't working properly there is another just up the road and another branded station within 5-10 miles.

It seems like a lot of the fear is that you plan to charge at a particular stop and arrive to find it is either broken or unavailable until the four cars ahead of you finish charging.

Not saying this is reality, but it seems to be among the larger concerns of people in the US setting out for a multi-state trip in an EV. I think branded, clearly marked EV "filling sites" might help with acceptance of EVs as ICE replacements rather than many of us simply using them as ICE supplements.

YMMV

 

[CaliPorsche]

What struck me in the link-through FOTW article - are the relatively few trips that are more than 50 miles in the US - I know as well as anyone reading this how stats can be misread and repurposed to fit a story.... so I can work through all of the ah's and but's .... in reality when you look at that and ask how many people do not have chargers at home ....... it feels the degree of range concern in the US is totally irrational.

Also - I keep meaning to write this up here .... but I did the reverse trip to me "Noobie" trip documented on here in November .... namely a 1500 mile trip from the PNW to SoCal ..... stopping overnight at Ashland (thanks @daveo4EV for the hotel recommendation) .... and that trip was an absolutely breeze and went perfectly ...... I planned a little differently .... I had contingencies .... But I saw 250kw charging on three occasions and had the most peasant road trip with my wife that I have had in a long time .... including in all the luxury ICE cars we used to do it in.....

I know the whole of the US is not as well covered with charging infrastructure .... but up and down the west coast .... even when using EA (which all worked flawlessly for me) ... I say ........ pack up your troubles in an old kit bag ..........

 

[Jonathan S.]

So what if the percent of trips beyond the real range (i.e., at highway speeds, and often at lower than optimal temperatures, which for many models is far less than the EPA rating) is somewhere in the single digits -- does that means potential purchasers are "wrong" to be reluctant to buy an EV that they effectively can't use (without many add'l hours of delay) on several big family trips each year?
How well would an ICE model sell if despite offering various attractive attributes it would require many add'l hours of refueling for any trip beyond ~250 miles in many regions?

 

[violuma]

There's a company called Recurrent Auto that is apparently attempting to be some sort of secondhand marketplace for EVs. I can't speak to the methodology, but they present a study that argues "range anxiety" represents a larger concern for people shopping for a future purchase than it does for people with actual EV ownership experience.

 

[Jonathan S.]

There's a company called Recurrent Auto that is apparently attempting to be some sort of secondhand marketplace for EVs. I can't speak to the methodology, but they present a study that argues "range anxiety" represents a larger concern for people shopping for a future purchase than it does for people with actual EV ownership experience.

Yes, upon actually owning a CCS1 EV, drivers realize that Range Anxiety is not a concern, but CCS1 DCFC Anxiety sure is.

 

[violuma]

Yes, upon actually owning a CCS1 EV, drivers realize that Range Anxiety is not a concern, but CCS1 DCFC Anxiety sure is.

I should have known that one was inbound. Be that as it may, it would not surprise me that there is a relatively significant component of this that is just "generic fear of the unknown", regardless of the target of the anxiety.

Hopefully I will be able to gauge this for myself fairly soon.

 

[MAPC]

My Taycan is my 4th EV. When I ordered my first Tesla model S, I debated between the 45, 60, and 85 batteries. At that point in time, buying the Tesla was the most expensive vehicle I had ever purchased. I wondered which battery would be “enough“ until I read some similar research that showed how few trips in the US are typically over 100 miles. Once I saw that, the lightbulb went off, and I decided that all I needed was the 60. I never regretted that decision.

In the four years that I owned my two Model S’s, other than taking advantage of some free charging while parking at the airport, I can count the number of times I charged somewhere other than in my home on one hand

 

[Zcd1]

The results of the survey speak to the reputation and current state of non-Tesla EV DCFC infrastructure in the US much moreso they do to potential EV buyers' attitudes towards EVs themselves.

 

[gtm]

I should have known that one was inbound. Be that as it may, it would not surprise me that there is a relatively significant component of this that is just "generic fear of the unknown", regardless of the target of the anxiety.

Hopefully I will be able to gauge this for myself fairly soon.

Most people look upon a vehicle as an appliance. I realize this is a heretical idea to Porsche owners but with many years of keeping my customers' cars on the road I've learned that most just don't care a whole lot about their cars. They expect it to fulfill a purpose without any extra work. Right now EVs do not function well as an every day appliance. Most of the driving public just doesn't want to deal with the extra work EV driving entails, particularly on a road trip. Add on the "generic fear of the unknown" and wide spread adoption is a ways off. The reliable, convenient, charging infrastructure has to extend beyond Tesla for mass adoption to happen.

 

[irrelevant]

Baby Boomers are resistant to change? Who’d have thought?

We have two EV’s, and two ICE vehicles. Neither of the ICE vehicles have been considered, even for a moment, for the few road trips we do.

if we lived in some parts of the US, or in a city where we had to park on the street or in an apartment complex, EV’s wouldn’t be suitable. Adequate Level 2 charging at home is a game changer for EV ownership. I think so far we’ve saved at least five hours that would otherwise have been wasted at gas stations.

 

[violuma]

Most people look upon a vehicle as an appliance.

Perhaps what you are saying suggests an alternative interpretation for the Recurrent study: selection bias. The set of people who are contemplating an EV purchase in the next 12-24 months includes people who will succumb to Chargerange Anxiety and not go through with the purchase; whereas the ones who went ahead and bought the EV anyway are naturally going to include way more of the people who decided other factors were more important to them.

 

[gtm]

Perhaps what you are saying suggests an alternative interpretation for the Recurrent study: selection bias. The set of people who are contemplating an EV purchase in the next 12-24 months includes people who will succumb to Chargerange Anxiety and not go through with the purchase; whereas the ones who went ahead and bought the EV anyway are naturally going to include way more of the people who decided other factors were more important to them.

"range anxiety" represents a larger concern for people shopping for a future purchase than it does for people with actual EV ownership experience.

If the question is limited to "range anxiety" then selection bias is real. Almost everyone owning an EV forgets range anxiety very quickly. A "full tank" every day in the garage is great for dispelling any anxiety. One road trip and you realize your battery has more capacity than your bladder. Range anxiety morphs into charger anxiety only after you have purchased the EV. So who you ask, and when, skews the results.

 

[f1eng]

Everybody asks me about the range of my car and are surprised when i say I don't really know since I have never used it all with my current lifestyle.
Nobody ever asked me what the range of my IC engined cars was yet when I was living in France coming home for the weekend in 1991 Mercedes 500E which only did about 11mpg when pressing on, it was a serious concern.

In the end it is ALL about infrastructure. Poor infrastructure investment can ruin the experience whereas good investment removes concern.

 

[Jhenson29]

One road trip and you realize your battery has more capacity than your bladder.

Speak for yourself.

Sponsored