How to Manage Range Anxiety
October 7th, 2022
With petrol and diesel costs soaring, EU fleet emissions targets on the horizon for 2025 and the end of pure internal combustion engines not too far off in 2030, business fleets have many reasons to look at making the switch to electric vehicles.
Yet one thing that we often hear is a concern about EV range, and the anxiety fleet drivers have around it.
In this post, we share how to address range anxiety as a business, and how to help your drivers make the switch.
First, just what is the meaning of range anxiety?
Range anxiety is the worry drivers have about the distance electric vehicles (EVs) can travel before they need to be charged – and just how long the act of charging them might take drivers off the road. It’s rooted in a time where electric vehicles couldn’t travel long without needing to recharge, and charging itself took hours on end. Thankfully, neither of those things is necessarily true any longer!
Addressing the worry of range anxiety
Thinking about going electric for your own business car, or switching your entire fleet to greener drives? Automotive companies are already making giant strides towards addressing the worry of range anxiety in three key ways:
EV battery capacity is increasing all the time
As reported by The Express, the average range of electric vehicles in the United Kingdom in 2022 is 260 miles. That’s more than enough for your typical daily commute when charging up the battery to 100% overnight at home as recommended. And with many popular models nearing 300 miles of charge, EV batteries have effectively trebled in capacity in the space of only a decade – making them eminently usable for most people’s daily drives.
More encouragingly still, the impending cut-off for ICE vehicle production means automotive manufacturers the world over are highly invested in bringing that number up further, and in record time. Indeed, we’ve already seen the first 500-mile production electric car launch this year in the form of the Lucid Air
Now, with the Lucid Air having a ticket price of around £62,000 (when converted from US Dollars), it’s obviously not your average consumer or even business car model. Nonetheless, it bodes well for the future of production EVs as a whole, and with progress towards higher and higher capacity EV batteries ongoing, we’d expect further advancements to drive down the overall price of 500-mile capable electric vehicles by the time ICE production ceases altogether in 2030.
EV charge time is decreasing all the time
Another fact that can help in addressing the worry of range anxiety is that chargers are becoming ever faster. Sitting at the roadside for hours on end while the battery fills simply isn’t a realistic prospect for anyone, let alone someone driving for business purposes. So it’s encouraging that as petrol and diesel vehicles near their end, the speed and proliferation of rapid and super rapid public EV chargers is increasing.
As charge times go, Pod Point has the average EV charge time currently between 20-30 minutes. That might sound a lot when filling up a petrol motor takes two minutes, but that’s a misleading comparison. Remember; the guidelines are to always charge your EV to 100% overnight. If you do that, you’re only likely to need a public charger on especially long journeys. In those instances, a better comparison is a bathroom and fast food meal break – which comfortably fits the typical amount of time you might expect to stop off taking a comfort break and eating lunch at many a motorway service station.
And there are more public chargers now than ever!
Another valid part of range anxiety is the fear from drivers that they won’t be able to find a public charging point in time before their vehicle’s battery runs out. However, on that note we also have positive news!
In terms of sheer numbers of public chargers, there are now over 42,000 in the UK at more than 15,500 locations – which means there are more places to charge your EV than fill up on petrol or diesel. That includes fast, rapid and ultra-rapid charge points, which you can learn more about in our EV charging guide published on our sister site, GKL Electric.
Add to that the fact that the numbers of public chargers are set to sharply increase in the coming years, and it all helps with addressing the worry of range anxiety for drivers everywhere.
How do you overcome range anxiety in EVs for your fleet drivers?
1. Explain the ‘why’
The first part of addressing the worry of range anxiety means explaining to everyone why the switch to EVs is needed from an environmental perspective – and why it’s needed now from a financial one. You might be met with some push-back, but once they know there are pressing reasons to switch to EVs, they’ll be more on board with the change and the adaptations they might need to make.
2. Give them the facts
The stats we’ve presented in the post are pretty compelling and can be a big part of how you address range anxiety for your drivers. For instance, 20-30 minute rapid charge times, the presence of 42,000+ charge points in the UK and another 1,000 on the way soon, plus a 500-mile range vehicle already being available… these all point to a future where drivers can find EV chargers faster, charge EVs quicker, and drive further before needing to charge at in the first place.
There’s also the fact that, while range anxiety is still a valid concern all round, it’s far more so for long-distance delivery drivers. Many people who drive short-middle distances for business won’t need to worry too much about being caught without charge at the roadside – and should it happen, it’s easier than ever to find somewhere speedy to sort the problem.
3. Show them the tools they can use to overcome their range anxiety
There are two solutions that spring to mind here:
- First, you can show longer-distance drivers your route-planning tools to help them understand how you will be supporting them in planning journeys with optimal EV charge stops in mind.
- Second, point everybody else towards an EV charge point locator like Zap-Map, so they can always locate their nearest fast or rapid EV charging point in a pinch.
Are you looking to go electric with your business fleet?
We’ll be happy to answer your questions about moving to greener fuel and find you the EV that suits your needs – whether it’s a single vehicle, or an ambitious business fleet electric rollout.
Get in touch today to learn more.
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