It is only recently after driving a Tesla for several months and occasionally having to drive our other (ICE) vehicle that I realize that the reality of range anxiety is the opposite of most people's perception. That is to say, I think that range anxiety is a much more common problem with an ICE than it is with an electric vehicle. I believe that this will be true for FCVs as well.
In this forum and virtually anywhere that Tesla is being discussed, solving the "range problem" is one of the most common topics. This is understandable to some extent as the ability to drive electric cars for long distances seems to be the main chink in the armor. As Tesla (and to a lesser extent other manufacturers) solve this particular issue, one of the final barriers to Electric Vehicles will come down. Unfortunately the continued focus on this issues tends to distort the fact that for most drivers, for most of their car usage, the electric vehicle is vastly more convenient and virtually removes range anxiety. Obviously I have no stats to back this up but I think it is pretty evident that most people can easily manage their daily driving mileage, even in a Nissan Leaf, let alone a Tesla. For someone like myself, the highway driving case is less than once every 2 months whereas I drive every single other day of the year over easily manageable distances that end with a return to my charger at home. I understand that there are drivers for whom this is not true - and clearly Tesla must continue to remove the long distance barrier; however, I would venture to say that there is a much larger percentage of drivers who only need range driving every few months or so. The electric vehicle completely changes the driving paradigm in a way that has made daily driving much more convenient while (initially anyway) making long distance driving slightly less convenient. I feel that we lose the fact that for the largest proportion of use cases - electric cars completely remove the need to search out gas stations every few days and spend however much time is required lining up and gassing up etc. This was brought home to me recently when my wife was picking me up from a venue in our ICE vehicle. The car had been low on fuel the night before but she didn't have time to fill it. When it was time to come out and pick me up she had forgotten that she was low on fuel and did not have time to "gas up" before picking me up. Thus by the time she picked me up we had the fun of sitting in traffic wondering if we would make it to the gas station. Then it hit me that this was the first range anxiety I had felt in months. Had she been driving the Tesla it would have had ample power as it does every time we leave home.
This weekend we had a National Drive Electric Event and I spent several hours talking to people about driving electric. While I'm proud to tell people about superchargers and that even without them I've driven distances of several hundred miles in my electric car, I'm increasingly pushing home the point that one of the key features of my electric car is that it reduces range anxiety.
In this forum and virtually anywhere that Tesla is being discussed, solving the "range problem" is one of the most common topics. This is understandable to some extent as the ability to drive electric cars for long distances seems to be the main chink in the armor. As Tesla (and to a lesser extent other manufacturers) solve this particular issue, one of the final barriers to Electric Vehicles will come down. Unfortunately the continued focus on this issues tends to distort the fact that for most drivers, for most of their car usage, the electric vehicle is vastly more convenient and virtually removes range anxiety. Obviously I have no stats to back this up but I think it is pretty evident that most people can easily manage their daily driving mileage, even in a Nissan Leaf, let alone a Tesla. For someone like myself, the highway driving case is less than once every 2 months whereas I drive every single other day of the year over easily manageable distances that end with a return to my charger at home. I understand that there are drivers for whom this is not true - and clearly Tesla must continue to remove the long distance barrier; however, I would venture to say that there is a much larger percentage of drivers who only need range driving every few months or so. The electric vehicle completely changes the driving paradigm in a way that has made daily driving much more convenient while (initially anyway) making long distance driving slightly less convenient. I feel that we lose the fact that for the largest proportion of use cases - electric cars completely remove the need to search out gas stations every few days and spend however much time is required lining up and gassing up etc. This was brought home to me recently when my wife was picking me up from a venue in our ICE vehicle. The car had been low on fuel the night before but she didn't have time to fill it. When it was time to come out and pick me up she had forgotten that she was low on fuel and did not have time to "gas up" before picking me up. Thus by the time she picked me up we had the fun of sitting in traffic wondering if we would make it to the gas station. Then it hit me that this was the first range anxiety I had felt in months. Had she been driving the Tesla it would have had ample power as it does every time we leave home.
This weekend we had a National Drive Electric Event and I spent several hours talking to people about driving electric. While I'm proud to tell people about superchargers and that even without them I've driven distances of several hundred miles in my electric car, I'm increasingly pushing home the point that one of the key features of my electric car is that it reduces range anxiety.
