Maybe GM didn't invent it, but they certainly popularized it outside of the EV conversion community and brought it into the mainstream, and it's documented that they applied for a trademark on it. It has such a pro-hybrid, anti-EV connotation (thanks to GM) that we should avoid using the term.
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The wrong focus on range anxiety?
- Thread starter gpetti
- Start date
mknox
Well-Known Member
I never thought of it that way, and would have never attributed it to GM, but that's just me. I've had serious "range anxiety" in ICE cars when, for instance, I'm driving late at night in a sparsely populated area and find the gas station I was counting on closed.
I did used to have occasional "charge anxiety". When I first had my car, I only had a 20 amp / 240 volt circuit in the garage (hijacked from an unused hot tub circuit). I could easily recover my 100 mile round trip commute if I plugged in by 7:00 PM (when my rates go down), but if I was out late, came back from a vacation late Sunday night etc., I may not have been able to recover enough for the next day. Installing charging stations at work and upgrading my wiring eventually alleviated my "charge anxiety" !
ToddRLockwood
Active Member
I completely agree with your take on Range Anxiety. I see it as an imagined problem, not a real problem, and it is mostly imagined by people viewing electric cars from a distance. When divers of gasoline cars try to imagine life with an electric car, they tend to conflate gasoline and electricity. A more useful analog to an electric car is a cell phone. Unlike a gasoline car, you don't wait until your cell phone's battery is down to 10% before charging it. You simply plug it in every night, whether it needs charging or not.
Tesla's Superchargers have probably done more to allay the fears of non-EV drivers than they have actually impacted Tesla owners. Obviously, Superchargers are nice to have when you need them, but for most owners, Superchargers provide only a small fraction of their monthly charging.
In my experience, the only time RA can become a factor in a Tesla is when the outside temperature drops below 0F. While Tesla has improved its range prediction capabilities, there is still a little bit of human intervention required. What people in gasoline cars are unaware of is that their cars also use more fuel in the cold.
A gas gauge is a very crude measurement device. How do you really know how many gallons are left? An EV gives you real data to work with.
Tesla's Superchargers have probably done more to allay the fears of non-EV drivers than they have actually impacted Tesla owners. Obviously, Superchargers are nice to have when you need them, but for most owners, Superchargers provide only a small fraction of their monthly charging.
In my experience, the only time RA can become a factor in a Tesla is when the outside temperature drops below 0F. While Tesla has improved its range prediction capabilities, there is still a little bit of human intervention required. What people in gasoline cars are unaware of is that their cars also use more fuel in the cold.
A gas gauge is a very crude measurement device. How do you really know how many gallons are left? An EV gives you real data to work with.
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Very true. And for we Tesla owners, this is quite acceptable (maybe even enjoyable for those who like to geek out with evtripplanner and such). I've encountered people, however, for whom any level of required awareness is unacceptable. I was speaking to someone (ICE owner) recently on this very subject and her reaction to the Tesla (and any BEV, for that matter) is that she wouldn't ever own a car that required "planning and worrying about every long trip from home." Reasonable or not, that sort of mindset is a huge barrier. I talked about always waking up fully charged, the Supercharger network, Plugshare, etc. to no avail. I could see that the mere discussion of researching a trip in advance was causing her anxiety and it quickly became obvious that trip planning any more involved than "we're getting low on gas, stop at the next gas station" was a show stopper for her.
I'm sure that in any large enough sampling of people there will be those for whom the perceived change to a BEV is just too much, no matter how trivial the actual change is. Until the charging process is literally as effortless as noticing a gas gauge and finding the next gas station, there will be holdouts like these who just can't handle the paradigm shift.
MichFin
Member
I completely agree with the OP. Range anxiety does not exist for most Tesla owners because every day we start with a full charge. On a few occasions you have to plan your stops on the highway when going cross country. This of course will work itself out when the Model 3, Bolt and the other long range EV's come out. With more customers you'll see more fast charging stations for fee.
Today we need to plan our stops between 75 -100 miles because there's only one supercharger on route but that number will shrink to 50 miles then 30 miles then it won't require a second thought.
Today we need to plan our stops between 75 -100 miles because there's only one supercharger on route but that number will shrink to 50 miles then 30 miles then it won't require a second thought.
mknox
Well-Known Member
Way and by far the most common question I'm asked is "How far will it go?" and "How long does it take to charge?" I was hearing this so much it was driving me nuts. Then I realized people asking this are coming from a gas car paradigm where you drive to a special place, fuel your car, drive around until it's near empty, then repeat. In this model, "how far it goes" and "how long it takes to fuel" would matter. Knowing this, I can modify my answer to things such as "it's like having someone sneak in to your garage every night and top up your gas tank". If that was the case, you wouldn't be as worried about range and fueling time.
But long distance travel, even in a Tesla, is still tricky to answer. It can be done, but not as effortlessly as in a gasoline car. You have to stay on the Supercharger route, which may not be optimal, and may not even exist depending on your destination. You really need to plan your meal / rest stops with your charging stops if you don't want to add significant time to your trip. (My wife complains about having to eat when the car is hungry, or not liking the restaurants nearby).
So on long distance travel "range awareness" is a thing and trips do take a bit of planning.
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