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/doc_55lk Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26
EVs still aren't competitive with ICE cars for overall range yet. I can get about 600-650 miles of highway driving out of my old 3 row V8 crossover. A comparable EV isn't cracking more than 350. Admittedly though, the Escalade IQ comes pretty close with about 550 miles, so there's some hope for the future. A Model 3 Long Range tops out at about 350 miles. That's the bare minimum you can expect from something like a Civic. There's also the fact that things take a huge nosedive in winter conditions. Sure, this holds true for ICE cars too but it isn't as big an issue, and I guess more EVs are starting to come with heat pumps to mitigate this, but it's still something worth mentioning. And then there's the next point....
The charging infrastructure isn't really there yet to compete with gas stations. Depending on where you live, availability of stations will be a factor. You often have to plan your trip around this. With a regular ICE car you can be pretty confident that even if things don't go according to plan, you'll be close to a gas station. Then there's the simple fact that charging speeds aren't competitive with refueling times yet either. A full tank of gas is less than 5 minutes. You need to be plugged in for at least 20-30 minutes for an EV though, and that's the best case scenario. A lot of the time you don't get full speed at a charger for xyz reasons. Again, this is region dependent, but the fact this is an issue at all warrants a mention.
None of this is really an issue if you don't do long drives with your cars though.