No. of Recommendations: 8
The whole range anxiety thing is largely obviated at this point.
I think this rather misses what "range anxiety" actually is. Though that term isn't a great descriptor.
I live a mile or so from my office, and I also only have to make long trips a few times a year. But I would never consider an EV. To lift heavily from a post I made on the Fool, I can’t charge at home and can nearly never charge at work. I would have to be super conscientious about keeping that ‘tank’ topped off at third-party chargers in order to avoid an issue. And I don’t want to have to worry about that.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked down at the dash in the morning and only just then realized I was down to a quarter tank or so. That’s never a problem if you have an ICE car - that’s about 100 miles of “range” in my particular car, and it’s super fast to fill the tank if needs must. But if you lose track of your charging in an EV and you look down to see you’ve only got a quarter ‘tank,’ about 60 miles, then that can present more of an issue. Especially if you’ve got a schedule of dropping kids to school, hitting some meetings out of the office, making it back for a phone conference, and just don’t have the space in your day to stop for 20 minutes to refuel.
I don’t want the possibility of facing an unanticipated lengthy delay in my day if events (or even my own lack of attention) have led me into a situation where I start the morning without enough charge to get through the day. With an ICE, that’s no more than a few minutes delay - easy enough to fill in without being late to anything. With an EV, it could really cause a problem for me.
Similarly, if I'm driving from Miami to Orlando or Tampa for a long weekend (or whatever), I don't want to have to limit my accommodation choices to somewhere with a charger. I don't want to have to have to worry about finding an extra 20 minutes at some time (with wife and dog and two kids in the car) to fill up the tank. I don't want to worry about whether my need to charge lines up with everyone's need to use the bathroom or have lunch.
It's not that there's any real likelihood of me running out of electrons and being stranded on the side of the road if I'm diligent and plan. It's that it puts the burden on me to be diligent and plan. I don't want to have to have that extra thing to worry about. That's the anxiety - the feeling that you have to be sort of paying attention to your fuel levels in a way that's greater than with an ICE.
