Part 9 in Peter Aubourg’s Diary of an EV Driver

I am convinced that range anxiety is something you have before you buy an EV. Or at least before the first week of owning an EV. I had range anxiety on day one when I drove out of the showroom with only 30% charge, 40km from home. The dashboard showed that I had over 100km of range available, but somehow it seemed like going out on a limb.

You soon get used to being more relaxed about it, just like you become relaxed about not having to have your mobile phone fully charged before you leave home. You do not have to be fully charged; you just need to have comfortably enough. So it is just getting used to a slightly new way of thinking.

The thing is, almost all the charging of EVs is done at home with your own charger. So, your personal service station is open 24/7, and all you have to do is take 30 seconds to plug the car into the charger when you get home. Easy!

Imagine you were around 100 years ago when cars were starting to take over from horses. You would probably have range anxiety. If the car starts to run out of petrol, will I be able to find a petrol station? You could, of course, have a bob each way and buy a model T, but tow a float with a horse, just in case. I guess you could call it a hybrid, with both sides of the hybrid being a bit smelly.

Now the hybrid EV with a petrol engine is not quite as ridiculous as a Model T towing a horse float, but there are a lot of similarities.

The reason you buy a hybrid EV instead of a full Battery EV is that you are anxious about running out of electrical power away from home and without access to a charger. This range anxiety is the driving force that is nudging you towards the decision to buy a car that has all the complexity and service issues of a petrol car. This overwrites the simplicity and low maintenance of an electric car. The hybrid just does not give the savings that the Battery EVs give, in fuel savings or maintenance. The long and the short, if you want to reduce emissions and save money, a hybrid is not going to cut it.

My MG4 has just rolled over 10,000km and has cost $269 in electricity from my home charger. (with help from our solar panels). Pretty impressive compared to the $1380 it would have cost to run our old Nissan Qashqai diesel the same distance. And, the first service for the MG is in 15 months and will cost less than $300.

So, for me, I am much better off reducing my cost-of-living anxiety and learning to avoid range anxiety.