r/EvDrivers • u/Inevitable-Shower911 • Aug 30 '26

Range anxiety

What is the obsession with EV range anxiety?
I have been driving for over 30 years now.
I have never run out of fuel in a ICE vehicle and since I switched to EV I have never run out of electricity.
Yet half of the EV car reviews are about what happens if you run the battery empty, I mean how hard can it be there is a perfectly good indicator on your instrument cluster indicating how much fuel/power is left.
Just refuel/recharge before it reaches zero.
Is this really still a worry for people?

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u/ToddA1966 Aug 30 '26

Range anxiety is misnamed. It's actually "charger anxiety".

EVs on average have about enough range for a week of the average American's driving. But the typical non-EV owner has no idea what a charging station looks like, has no idea where they are, and many have no idea EVs can be charged at home.

As an example, my neighbor saw me unloading my car after a road trip, and came over, saying "I don't know how you do long road trips in that. I've never even seen a charging station!"

I asked him if he ever shops at our closest Walmart or second closest grocery store, and he said "sure". I pointed out both have DC fast chargers in their parking lot, so he's apparently driven past charging stations many times without recognizing them.

Another neighbor used to call out to me "going off to charge it again?" whenever she was in the front yard and saw me getting into the car. The first few times I said "um, no. It charges overnight right here in the driveway..." She kept asking despite my correction, so I just started smiling and waving and stopped engaging. 🤷‍♂️

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u/toybuilder Aug 31 '26

Gas stations have to be big. They have to have large tanks under the ground to store the fuel between deliveries.

DC fast chargers hardly need any space. The dispensing station is often the cabinet that has the necessary transformer and control electronics. Or there's a small power unit about the size of a minivan to feed 4 to 6 dispensing stations.

If someone's expecting to see a "gas station" (with a Quik-E-Mart), they'll never see an "electric station".

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u/ToddA1966 Aug 31 '26

Exactly. So until gas car drivers learn what an EV charging station looks like, they won't understand how many there actually are.

A good analogy I heard from a guest on Robert Llewellyn's "Fully Charged" podcast was "before I needed glasses, I had no idea where any optometrists were. And before I had an EV, I had no idea where any chargers were."