According to Mark Twain, what you don’t know won’t harm you nearly as much as what you do know is false. Drivers of electric vehicles frequently experience range anxiety, but some of it is psychological in nature. I recently came upon an thread on the reddit EV forum created by someone who had a recent epiphany about range anxiety.
Please take note that it is common to link to each poster’s profile when mentioning a forum thread. To make things easier to read and be clear, I decided against doing that. However, the discussion’s link is provided above so that any reader wishing to do so may access the forum and get that material. I appreciate your indulgence.
The thread’s creator goes by the screen handle MrMusAddict, but we’ll refer to him as Poster A claimed to have bought a 2020 Kia eNiro two years prior, but he always preferred to take his Toyota RAV 4 Hybrid on road vacations out of fear of the Kia’s battery dying.
My phone has trained me to believe that whenever I notice a low battery, I should stop using this and plug it in till I have an useable SOC. My phone has also taught me to always unplug at 100% when I wake up. The issue is that I classify 30% of a phone’s battery as low, and 20% as severely low.
In order to use battery-operated equipment, I thought it necessary to charge my automobile to 100% since I was concerned about dipping below 30%. (which takes 4 as long since charging at high SOC slows down significantly). I’ve never tried to take a road trip because of this. I estimate that my range would be decreased by about 70 miles and that each recharge would take well over an hour. In my defense, I assumed I would need that much buffer because I reside at the bottom of a valley and have to drive across mountains in either direction, messing up range estimations.
Poster A has been worried about running out of battery power while away from home like many other people up to this point. That is very normal and most likely has occurred to every person who has ever driven a battery-powered vehicle at some point.
What caused him to reconsider? A Better Routeplanner , sometimes referred to as ABRP. Similar to the route planning tool that Tesla provides its clients to plan their trips, it is an app-based service. Plug in your location and tell the app where you are heading, and the program will advise you where and how long to charge. Poster A was astonished to learn that he didn’t need to stop every hour and charge for 90 minutes with the ABRP app. He could have driven for three hours and stopped for just thirty. major difference
A trip that ordinarily takes me 9 hours in an ICE car, with time for food stops, will now only take me 9 hours in an EV because I can schedule my charging stops with my food stops. Therefore, utilizing my EV only adds roughly 30 minutes to my overall time loss (mind you, I have a 2020 Kia eNiro, which peaks at only 70kW I believe).
Most importantly, though, using A Better Route Planner on my journey taught me that my desire for 100% and dread of 30% are both irrational. By draining my battery to an 8% objective (20-mile buffer) and disconnecting my car at roughly 70% to 10%, I was able to complete my trip with only 30 minutes of lost time.
I had 100% when I left the house, but after 3 hours of driving, I had only 5% left. Although it was exceedingly unpleasant and difficult, this forced me to pass a significant threshold. Now that 8% was suddenly comfortable, if I aim for that and the estimations are inaccurate, I can drop back to 5% and know I’ll be okay.
Poster A completed a 10-hour travel in his electric Kia that would have required him 9.5 hours in his Toyota thanks to ABRP. In retrospect, I’m not sure what I was terrified of. There were just two pauses for charging during a 10-hour driving day, and one of those was for lunch.
THE KEY TO REDUCING RANGE ANXIETY IS INFORMATION Some of you might find Poster As’ driving style objectionable. On a road trip, not everyone would take an hour for lunch. The “gas and go” crowd takes great delight in using the restroom, devouring a hamburger, and then getting back behind the wheel as though there is some sort of reward in store for them if they arrive at their destination as soon as possible. (I freely admit that I contracted this illness when I was naive and young. Sadly, I am no longer youthful.) But it’s okay to move a little more slowly. Instead of being uptight and grumpy, you come rejuvenated and relaxed.
Not all cases of range anxiety can be cured by ABRP. The following Reddit thread comments may be of interest to you:
I have no range anxiety. I worry a lot about the infrastructure. and worry in turtle mode. I worry a lot about getting lost when there is just one charging site available, especially if it hasn’t had many recent reviews on Plugshare. similar here The very first stop after getting my Leaf was a local fast charger, which did not function. I traveled 20 kilometers to a slow charger, but it was likewise defective. I eventually located a store with a level 2 charger, spent four hours there, and then went home. The following comment appears to be the perfect fit for the conversation;
People who haven’t made the switch don’t understand this (and will adamantly deny even if you show them the numbers). Not having to watch over your automobile while it fills up with gas means that you don’t lose all that much time. Additionally, you are charging for time that you would have otherwise spent eating and taking bathroom or coffee breaks. Furthermore, it has no bearing on how the rest of the day will go whether you take a 9- or 9.5-hour trip. In either way, the day is finished. It’s not as if someone will accomplish something worthwhile after a nine-hour trip that he couldn’t or wouldn’t accomplish after a 9.5-hour travel.
THE CONCLUSION We’re sharing this conversation with you because we believe it’s one that’s taking place right now everywhere. My wife and I remember being a little alarmed when our Model Y’s SOC plummeted to 8% on our first road trip. When we blogged about our experience, other Tesla owners reassured us that we had nothing to be concerned about. The most effective technique to dispel myths and concerns is through knowledge sharing. (There are still certain cases where individuals have gas anxiety!)
Electric automobiles are unique, and unique is frequently frightening. People require some time to become accustomed to new technology. Congratulation to ABRP for assisting more of us in achieving the level of comfort required to make the switch to electric vehicles.
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