Why Is Range Such a Big Deal?

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JoeS

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After over 50K miles driving the i-MiEV, neither my wife nor I have ever seen 'turtle' (I just touched wood). All this, in a car with the lowest EPA-rated 'Range' of 62 miles.

Bear with me while I muse a bit -

Being retired, we have pretty good control over our lives. Rarely are we in a position whereby we don't know EXACTLY where (and thus how far) we will be traveling in our i-MiEV, before we leave home. Sure, we've had unexpected changes in our daily plans while on the road, but if such changes would result in possibly pushing the car's range limit then we make sure to stop somewhere and opportunity charge (we're lucky to live in an area sprinkled with public EVSEs), even at friends' homes. I've had a few emergency situations (such as having to take a neighbor's wife to the hospital unexpectedly), but in each case I had sufficient charge to get to the destination and I took off knowing that I would have to scrounge for a charge afterwards. We've also had situations whereby we forgot to plug the car in or set the charging timer, but that's quickly self-correcting. All this leads to me saying that the only time our long-distance vehicle (77mpg Gen1 Honda Insight) gets used is for trips outside of the greater San Francisco Bay Area - typically a 400-mile (one-way) trip to Medford Oregon every couple of months) - and the rest of the time it sits under a car cover in the garage.

In reflecting on my pre-i-MiEV life before I retired, I tend to think that my life was even more organized: the daily commute one-way 17-mile distance was unvarying and in my case the i-MiEV would have been a perfect vehicle. Going out for lunch or diversions along the way home could easily have been accommodated, and I wouldn't have needed any workplace charging (which, incidentally, I'm sure I could have had my company provide to everyone as needed). Raising a son and catering to kids' needs, as best I recall, would also not have introduced many unknown distance variables into our lives. The difference between being retired and working is that retired life is less time-constrained.

Which brings me to trying to understand the reasons why Range continues to be the number one question asked by non-EV drivers, followed by a disapproving head-shaking when a number is provided (no matter whether it's 62 miles per charge or 50-100 miles per charge or "easy 200 miles/day"). Peeling back the onion skin on the questioner's own driving habits usually reveals a compete ignorance of the distances involved in their daily driving. They fail to understand the concept of leaving the house every morning with a 'full tank', and the fact that this full tank can give them at least 50 miles of worry-free driving, which is usually more than enough to accommodate at least a one-way drive to wherever they're going. What is even worse, when I try to lead them by the hand and go through their everyday scenario, I meet typically with not only a total lack of numeracy but also no desire to even attempt to do the math - and these are the very people whose first question was "What's the Range?"! Pointing out that there is a very accurate Range Remaining dashboard instrument doesn't seem to penetrate.

They also fail to understand that we EV drivers spend significantly less personal time charging than they do going to gas stations and filling their tanks, but for some reason they're impressed when I tell them that I can "fill up the tank" in 20 minutes using DCQC.

I've posted this before, but perhaps it's worth pointing out the analyses of the National Household Travel Survey (now somewhat dated) based on close to 750,000 vehicles
http://www.solarjourneyusa.com/EVdistanceAnalysis.php

Anyway, I opened up this thread to pose a few questions (feel free to add your own):

1. What percentage of your family'r driving needs are, or could be (if you had more than one), met by the i-MiEV?
2. What is your everyday i-MiEV driving scenario?
3. If your round-trip distance exceeds, say, 50 miles, do you work the problem to figure out how to do it in the i-MiEV with opportunity charging, or do you turn to another car?
4. At what limits do you throw in the towel and take another vehicle?
 
1. 100% of our family, daily commuting, shopping, and kids stuff is done with the 'Miev.
2. 32-35 miles per day at 35-40 mph (sometimes higher mph). Occasional freeway driving (rare).
3. We have no RTs exceeding 50 miles.
4. Travel (by driving rather than flying) for distances greater than 100 miles and hauling heavy stuff, in which case we take the van.

Range anxiety is self-induced based on a lack of a clear understanding of one's personal driving circumstances.

If we traveled a lot, say over 75 (or maybe 100) miles per day, we'd buy a bigger EV, probably a Tesla.
 
1. ~99%

2. typical daily commutation-- unplug the Lvl 2 charge cable and head to the rink, then to work, quick trip for lunch, pick up two kids after school or head over to happy hour and drunk-drive back home, plug in the cable.

3. daily trip 50 to 60 miles, 50% on highway, only charge at home, start full and end with 3 bars. Never turtled but down to 1-2 bars a couple of times, longest single charge day 78 miles. i slow down if i have an extra trip come up, otherwise never worry about trying to find a place to charge. i quit carrying the level 1 adapter, too much weight...

4. i use the pickup truck when needing to carry large heavy loads or motorsickles.
 
1. 85%
2. 16 round trip work. I plug in to a wall socket at work.
3.I try and see if there are chargers if I am going shopping. If there is nothing feasible I take the truck
4. Driving to the Cape and possibly New Hampshire
 
1. All car driving must be done by either the C-Zero our my DIY conversion, which has even less range. I do have gas motorcycle which I can take during the summer if I'm in a hurry and the trip is longer.

2. Mostly it's driving the kids to school, myself to work and back, then the kids to their hobbies.

3. I need to switch towns once a week and the trip is about 150 miles. It's a about three hours of driving, but with the C-Zero I need to make two quick charges and a two hour slow charge, so with the car it takes six hours. I still do it regularly, but if I'm in a hurry I take the bus or the motorcycle in the summer.

4. I'll borrow the neighbour's Honda Accord if there are no quick chargers and/or we have to travel with the kids on a longer trip. It's actually a 1999 US model, made in Japan, that the wifey imported to Finland from Texas where she worked for a while. Still chugging along.
 
We use our Miev 99% of the time

Being Retired having a flexible schedule I often travel
2 -3 times a week 150km (90 + miles).


Very familiar with the Charger locations in our travel radius.

Mostly use L3 if my trajectory lands me close to one if I need it.
if not L2 at family visits.

Last years mileage recap

We put 37,000km (23,000 miles)on the i Miev last year.

And only 5,000 km ( 3,000 mile) on the Eclipse convertible Ice -
mostly for mini road trips or leisurely sunny day ride.
 
Hi, and thanks for your answers so far. I see that I mis-phrased my question:

What I wrote: What percentage of your family'r driving needs...

Recognizing that one 1000-mile vacation ICE trip can skew the answer, perhaps I should have asked what I meant which was focusing on number of trips rather than mileage: What percentage of your family's TRIP needs...

Thus, in my own family's case, considering that we jointly do at least a half-dozen trips/day, our percentage is greater than 99%.

PS. Wow, sandange, you have us all beat, no matter how we count!
 
I'm a bit perplexed as to why non-EV'ers are as concerned with max range as they are - I suspect very few have ever sat down and anyalyzed their daily commuting needs or they would have a better idea how far they need a vehicle to go for their daily use. If you know next to nothing, about all you can think of is . . . . "more is better"

We're probably in a worst case scenario here - Virtually no public charging of any kind available anywhere and yet in 3+ years of driving iMiEV's, neither the wife or I have ever had a single occurrence where we didn't think we would make it home . . . . and we regularly leave home with much less than a full charge. If you know where you're going, have been there before and know how far your car goes depending on how you drive it, there is virtually zero 'range anxiety' in driving one of these, even if you don't have the opportunity to charge away from home

To answer Joe's questions:

1.) About 95% of our trips - Only take the gas burner when needing 5 seats (pretty rare) or when going out of the local area

2.) We're retired also, so it's at least 90% local trips and since we live within 5 miles of regular shopping, most trips are pretty short - The 35 mile round trip to Sam's Club is the longest regular drive we usually make, but we do occasionally make a 55 mile round trip to a favorite eatery

3.) Since we have zero public charging stations, if the trip is more than 50 miles or so, we take another car - A pretty rare occurrence though

4.) For any trip out of town - We sometimes don't do it often enough to keep the battery in the 'conventional' car charged though

Don
 
1.What percentage of your family'r driving needs are, or could be (if you had more than one), met by the i-MiEV?
About 75%; often we need two cars and take the iOn for the longest journey. If we have another e-car, will cover near 95%.

2. What is your everyday i-MiEV driving scenario?
A 32 km (20 mi) trip, with several slopes of 10% and motorway sections 100-120 km/h (60-75 mph). Climb a strong slope at 100 km/h is a very heavy scenario; the needle mark full power several minutes every day. Many days add one small 8 km (5 mi) trip.
This 32 km trip, two or three days/week it is performed twice. I can't do it three without intermediate recharging.
The weekend typically made 60 km (40 mi)/day, but in less demanding roads.

3. If your round-trip distance exceeds, say, 50 miles, do you work the problem to figure out how to do it in the i-MiEV with opportunity charging, or do you turn to another car?
80 km (50 mi) is the reading in the range indicator each morning (all days is full charged); if I have to do more, I take another car. However, I made (carefully and slowly) 110 km (69 mi) with a charge and 220 km (138 mi) in one day only with the standard charger (several short trips with intermediate recharges)

4. At what limits do you throw in the towel and take another vehicle?
Those 80 km/50 mi.

Last year the e-car do 20.000 km (12.500 mi) and the oil-burner 8.000 km (5.000 mi)... many of them towing a caravan!
 
JoeS said:
1.What percentage of your family's driving needs are, or could be (if you had more than one), met by the i-MiEV?
70%. Most short trips are done in the i-MiEV (me personally is near 100% i-MiEV). We tend to take a lot of 100-200 mile day trips, so that is reserved for the hybrid (46 MPG average when I drive).

2. What is your everyday i-MiEV driving scenario?
Commuting to work, which is roughly 23 miles at an average of 40 MPH. Depending on the route I take, one is pretty level, and the other has some hills.

3. If your round-trip distance exceeds, say, 50 miles, do you work the problem to figure out how to do it in the i-MiEV with opportunity charging, or do you turn to another car?
A trip to Pittsburgh and back is 61 miles, and I will do that without blinking an eye most times of the year. Most places I've driven to, I have charging already worked out. First time doing those trips required some playing around on Plugshare.

4. At what limits do you throw in the towel and take another vehicle?
If a new route seems to be limited in charging or there is no charging and it is longer than 55 miles between opportunities to charge, then we fall back to the hybrid. This almost never happens when I drive alone, though. Things don't always seem to work out properly with the family in the car.

Yep, range is always the second question. The first is, "No gas?" And after the range question, "What happens if you run out?" I'm tempted to say, "I don't know. I've never run out", but people quit listening after the first three words (in fear, I guess) and don't pick up on the joke. Most of the time, I just counter with, "What happens when you run out of gas?" That usually opens their minds up a bit.
 
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