A new study shows that EVs have more than enough range to take care of our daily driving in the U.S.

Data from thousands of EVs shows the average daily driving distance is a small percentage of the EPA range of most EVs.

For years, range anxiety has been a major barrier to wider EV adoption in the U.S. It’s a common fear: imagine being in the middle of nowhere, with 5% juice remaining in your battery, and nowhere to charge. A nightmare nobody ever wants to experience, right? But a new study proves that in the real world, that’s a highly improbable scenario.

After analyzing information from 18,000 EVs across all 50 U.S. states, battery health and data start-up Recurrent found something we sort of knew but took for granted. The average distance Americans cover daily constitutes only a small percentage of what EVs are capable of covering thanks to modern-day battery and powertrain systems.

The study revealed that depending on the state, the average daily driving distance for EVs was between 20 and 45 miles, consuming only 8 to 16% of a battery’s EPA-rated range. Most EVs on sale today in the U.S. offer around 250 miles of range, and many models are capable of covering over 300 miles.

  • dragontamer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    56·
    9 months ago

    The concern is that you have basically two different drivetrains to worry about, where if either fail you’re (potentially, depending on what/where/etc fails) without an operational vehicle at worst.

    Meanwhile, the Toyota Prius has been sitting on the top reliable cars for the last 20+ years…

    There’s like, statistics… ya know? We don’t have to hypothesize the problems or “expected” problems. We can look at these cars and their long history now and see where the problems occurred.

    • cosmic_slate@dmv.socialEnglish
      52·
      9 months ago

      The Prius is a solid vehicle but let’s not pretend that you don’t have to replace the battery after several years… it’s a small battery, it gets a lot of wear. It’s also a few thousand dollars.

      Sure, a PHEV battery a bit larger and might postpone things a bit longer but why sign up for a future guaranteed replacement item?

      • dragontamer@lemmy.worldEnglish
        24·
        9 months ago

        Sure, a PHEV battery a bit larger and might postpone things a bit longer but why sign up for a future guaranteed replacement item?

        Because replacing a 200lb battery is easier than replacing a 1000lb battery in a full EV.

        You’re right. Battery packs have limited durability / cycles. Its just how the chemistry works. The question is if you want to have a 200lbs of it or if you want 1000lbs of it.