Chizzang wrote:Electric Auto range is not a problem for 80% of Americans
They have a term for what John is expressing - it's a common enough neurosis they named it
"Range Anxiety"
It's not a neurosis because a neurosis involves irrational thought. Deciding that the all electric car situation isn't "there" yet as far as one's personal preference in terms of what one wants in a vehicle isn't irrational.
Like for instance the article at
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/elec ... explained/ actually calls "range anxiety" a "psychosis." Yet it lists very rational reasons for not wanting to get an all electric car. For instance:
Consequently, it’s important to leave yourself a little wiggle room when planning trips. If you can’t fully charge the car at a given stop, charge it to the point where you’ll have enough juice to reach your destination, and then some. On trips that push your car’s limits, make sure you’ll be able to reach charging stations along the way, but keep in mind that it will still take you longer to get from point A to point B because charging takes more time than filling up with gas.
And this:
For extra-long trips, consider using a different vehicle or mode of transportation altogether. See if it makes sense to fly or take the train, or even rent a gasoline car. BMW offers complimentary loans of internal-combustion cars to its i3 owners, for example. Or maybe keep a gas-powered car or plug-in hybrid around as a second vehicle for times when your all-electric car’s range won’t cut it.
Then this:
Owning an electric car can definitely be more challenging than owning an internal-combustion car. Shorter ranges and longer charging times shrink the margin of error for reaching a destination considerably.
It does reference the MIT study that estimated that "electric cars could replace 87 percent of the personal vehicles on the road and still get us where we need to go ." But what's basically going on there is looking at the proportion of trips that are short enough for using electric cars without substantial inconvenience. I think it largely comes down to this comment at the end of the article describing the study at
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/6021 ... overblown/:
“Every time I see a paper like this, the major takeaway is Hey, you don’t actually to be scared about these—the math works out,” he says. “But there is that issue when you are driving long-haul or vacation or whatever it happens to be.”
That issue isn't there with an internal combustion vehicle. A day will come when it won't be there with an all electric vehicle either. But it's not here yet.