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> I feel that range-anxiety is a real concern The term "range anxiety" seems crafted to make people not take it seriously. The implication is pretty clearly th

> I feel that range-anxiety is a real concern The term "range anxiety" seems crafted to make people not take it seriously. The implication is pretty clearly that range is actually fine and it's your feelings about it that are the problem.

DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
It's both. My commute is 30 miles a day (15 miles each way) and about once or twice a week I'll drive further - perhaps 60 miles in a day - by that logic I would be happy with the Ford Focus Electric as in practice that car gets 70 miles per charge. But this assessment completely disregards the times, often at unpredictable occurrences, when I need to drive 100-200 miles (or more) at short notice and when there is not a time allotment to spend 4-8 hours to have the car recharge sufficiently. I would need to rent a car at very short notice in that case - which can be impossible. Things like a family emergency, a server crash at a data-center, a friend urgently needs a ride from Seattle to Portland and back, etc... Remember, even if an ICE car and an EV have the same range, if both have zero fuel/energy left, the ICE car can be refilled from a hand-portable gas-tank or AAA truck enough to get to the next fuelling station - and you're free to carry additional fuel in your storage space, an EV car does not have that option: there's the prospective of expensive towing and hours waiting for it to recharge. I'd be less concerned if Tesla made some kind of "towable" extended battery or drop-in for the frunk or trunk, or even a portable Honda generator - but it doesn't. I think it's naive to expect that while the majority of American car owners have no need to travel more than 100 miles per day - that they also have no expectation of travelling that distance - and you only need to travel that distance a few days in a whole year to make the purchase of an ICE vehicle worthwhile so long as EVs take longer to recharge without any kind of fast battery-swap feature. I'm in the market for an EV myself - I wish I had gotten on to the Model 3 waiting list sooner - but it would have to be a Model 3 because the range of the Chevy Bolt, Volt, Leaf and the Focus Electric is not sufficient for those occasional long-distance journeys, and I imagine that a plurality (if not the majority) of the car-owning public feel the same way I do.

DaiPlusPlus 9y ago

It's both. My commute is 30 miles a day (15 miles each way) and about once or twice a week I'll drive further - perhaps 60 miles in a day - by that logic I would be happy with the Ford Focus Electric as in practice that car gets 70 miles per charge. But this assessment completely disregards the times, often at unpredictable occurrences, when I need to drive 100-200 miles (or more) at short notice and when there is not a time allotment to spend 4-8 hours to have the car recharge sufficiently. I would need to rent a car at very short notice in that case - which can be impossible. Things like a family emergency, a server crash at a data-center, a friend urgently needs a ride from Seattle to Portland and back, etc... Remember, even if an ICE car and an EV have the same range, if both have zero fuel/energy left, the ICE car can be refilled from a hand-portable gas-tank or AAA truck enough to get to the next fuelling station - and you're free to carry additional fuel in your storage space, an EV car does not have that option: there's the prospective of expensive towing and hours waiting for it to recharge. I'd be less concerned if Tesla made some kind of "towable" extended battery or drop-in for the frunk or trunk, or even a portable Honda generator - but it doesn't. I think it's naive to expect that while the majority of American car owners have no need to travel more than 100 miles per day - that they also have no expectation of travelling that distance - and you only need to travel that distance a few days in a whole year to make the purchase of an ICE vehicle worthwhile so long as EVs take longer to recharge without any kind of fast battery-swap feature. I'm in the market for an EV myself - I wish I had gotten on to the Model 3 waiting list sooner - but it would have to be a Model 3 because the range of the Chevy Bolt, Volt, Leaf and the Focus Electric is not sufficient for those occasional long-distance journeys, and I imagine that a plurality (if not the majority) of the car-owning public feel the same way I do.