27 Feb How to Eliminate Electric Car Range Anxiety
One of the factors that we know puts people off switching to an electric car is concerns about how far they can go between charging and how long they might be held up if they are caught out. This new phenomenon has been aptly named ‘range anxiety’. Even those who have chosen to switch to electric cars can suffer from range anxiety. It is one of the reasons that people opt for hybrid cars, despite feeling guilty that they are not doing as much as they could have to help the environment. Owning a zero emissions car does not need to be an anxious experience – here are some great tips to help you overcome range anxiety and embrace electric car ownership.
Know Your Range
The range of distance depends on the make and model of the electric car. 100 miles is about the minimum one would expect to get from an electric car, however, with technology continually advancing many manufacturers are now boasting ranges over 200 miles. Make sure you know the range of your car when it is fully charged.
Develop a Charging Routine
Getting into the habit of making sure your car is fully charged before any journey that may come close to range is always a good idea. It can be easy to forget when you are busy, but really it is no different than making sure we have petrol or diesel in a traditional engine.
Know Your Charging Times
Charging points can offer different charging times, so it is useful to also be familiar with these. If you have a 3.7kW charger at home, you are looking at about 15 miles per hour of charge, so about 7-8 hours to be fully charged. A 7kW charge offers about 30 miles per hour, so a full charge of about 4 hours. However, the rapid chargers, normally offering 80kW or more, that you find at motorway service stations and other locations can fully charge a vehicle in a much faster time, sometimes only half an hour. Perfect for popping in and having a cup of tea and using the facilities whilst you wait. Charging times do vary dependent on the make of the vehicle so again you need to get to know your car to make sure you have accurate information.
There is an App For That
Unsurprisingly, it hasn’t taken long for the app market to become populated with a range of charging station location apps. These can be found for UK maps and European maps, making a holiday abroad perfectly viable with an electric car. These apps offer awesome piece of mind, and can be downloaded in a lot of cases for free, from your app store provider. Even if you have to pay a few pounds, you are looking at a valuable piece of technology. A lot of these apps accept submissions from drivers, so if you happen to come across a charging point not listed on their database you can easily submit the details, and help the electric car community develop. As of February 2017, one app was listing 12161 connection points in 4294 locations with 2180 of these being rapid – that is quite a lot and there are more being installed all the time.
All of these tips should help eradicate range anxiety and hopefully convince you that electric cars are not as scary as you may have first thought.
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