[Electromotive]

Originally Posted by Early_Adopter

Instead, shouldn't we worry about more number of chargers along the highways? Shouldn't we worry more about if these chargers are in working condition? Shouldn't we worry about how fast we can charge our cars along the highways?

In summary, shouldn't the narrative shift from Range Anxiety to Highway Charging Anxiety?

Exactly. Range anxiety is mostly a result of lack of fast charging infrastructure along highways. The only reason people driving ICE vehicles do not suffer from range anxiety is because they know there will be a fuel pump every 10Km if it is a highway or every 2Km if it is a city.

Now go back a 100 years or so and range anxiety for ICE vehicles resembles the same scenario as BEVs of today. People used to carry cans of fuel with them just because network of fuel pumps did not exist between cities.

It is only a matter of time, as the installed base of BEVs increase fast charging as a business investment will become viable, thus fast chargers will crop up like weeds. Every commercial establishment with parking space will have fast chargers because capital requirements are quite low and fast chargers will generate additional revenue.

[silverado]

Highway Anxiety is for those people whose only car is a EV. IMO most people buying EV have another car which can do highway duties.

[anjan_c2007]

Thumb rules

-do not use EV's for long distance highway travel now, as the technology is still in its infancy. The required infrastructure is not even an infant but can be labelled as an embryo.

-for those who like think contrary to the above lines, please travel with lots and lots of will power, adequate time (days) in hand, adequate funds for prolonged hotel stay if need be, a few mobile power banks to stay connected with your banks, bedding and eatables to be able to sustain.

[iamahunter]

Rather than range anxiety it's the time taken for the vehicle to charge.

Even in a ICE age car whose full tank may take you 200 kms, you still have the option to continue within minutes of top-up.

If an EV does 500 kms, not necessary I will get tired driving that much. Secondly what if there are 2 drivers and we intend to drive much more than the given range. The freedom with ICE engine is literally unlimited range.

Another point about city dwellers and highway runners, I am sure 90% of Indian market do not have 2 different cars for these 2 purposes. My Ecosport takes me to work and to other parts of the country as well.

All said and done, this anxiety around an EV will continue to exist till we have super fast recharge time (wait for lunch and the car is charged for the next 300 kms in the mean while) and an infrastructure for charging which is equivalent to the fuel stations.

[praveen_v]

The EV journey has begun recently but gaining more momentum with each passing year. For highway chagrinning infrastructure, the EVs open up a lot of new avenues for the food stops located on highways. Unlike setting up fuel stations which needs a lot of regulatory approvals, setting up a EV charging point is much simpler and cheaper and not much space is needed.

Thinking about it, this is a perfect opportunity for hotels in highways. Having a charging infrastructure is going to be one of the major requirement for hotels to get additional business in a few years. Food + additional revenue from charging = more profit! The number of charging points is going to explode across the food outlets in highways. Imagine having 10-20 chargining outlets in each food stop on a highway compared to 1 fuel station every 20-30kms. I feel this will be a reality in the next 5-7 years.

[Kannan]

Originally Posted by praveen_v

Thinking about it, this is a perfect opportunity for hotels in highways. Having a charging infrastructure is going to be one of the major requirement for hotels to get additional business in a few years. Food + additional revenue from charging = more profit! The number of charging points is going to explode across the food outlets in highways. Imagine having 10-20 chargining outlets in each food stop on a highway compared to 1 fuel station every 20-30kms. I feel this will be a reality in the next 5-7 years.

Currently, Zeon Charging is already doing it in south India.
Take a look at the following map. Zeon has its chargers at major hotels.

[GutsyGibbon]

Originally Posted by kosjam

while in concept this is a good idea, but rather than having a separate physical battery, it is more space efficient and energy efficient to have the separation on the software side rather than the hardware side

A modern EV battery pack has thousands of physically distinct individual batteries. Tesla has been playing with individual sizes, the layout pattern, and the algorithm for a long time. I think my 75kwh car has 5800 small batteries. This way the batteries that is treated as reserve is rotated. You are not relying on the same battery to be reserve all the time.

BMW i3 has a range extension petrol engine, it is a dead weight you carry for very little range that one can add.

[sumeethaldankar]

For now the only way to beat the highway anxiety is to have another liquid powered car for the longer road. EV's are atleast for today and probably true even in developed countries for routine city driving. Yes one can be adventurous and take the EV on a long drive with plenty of planning ahead. Any decent EV will give atleast 100 kms to 150 kms on a full charge. Good enough for the average car owner for a city drive.

I on the hand am more concerned with charging anxiety. A chunk of the car population park on the road. How will these vehicles be charged overnight? An EV car for now is the playtool for the privileged few who have a designated parking slot and can have access to a dedicated charging device. For the rest gas fumes is the way to go for now.

[KPR]

Happened to meet an EV Nexon in my town that had come for a marriage function from KA. The car requires to be charged for return/onward journey. There's a caveat here.
In Hotels of stay or function halls the electric power unit rate is higher as they are commercial establishments. In case the owner wishes to charge the car how can one measure the actual units consumed given that not everyone can convert units and then do maths based on charger and battery rating! I'm sure none of the hotels will accept this headache. In India getting a closed parking itself is a problem. Add to that electric power source?
All the very best to those who want to buy electric cars. Be prepared to pay out of your pocket to hotels at commercial rates + convenience charges.

[rahulk2510]

I think more than the range anxiety, it is the battery tech evolution that looks to be an inhibitor to adopt EV. The battery charging time should be short & in lines with regular gas / CNG filling times (like say around 15-30 mins)

Also I think the current battery tech requires you to primarily charge via a slow charger and to use fast chargers only sparingly to prolong battery life. This must change for benefit of mass adoption of EV. I mean as someone said that not all prospective buyers can have a charger installed at their homes/ designated parking spaces.

Once this gets resolved I think there is no turning back and investments in charging stations will rise quicker than anticipated.

Regards,

[adisan]

Originally Posted by Early_Adopter

So, I wonder if the Range Anxiety is for real, especially in city driving conditions?

Whenever stuck in a major traffic jam, the kind when it takes an hour to cover 5 km, I used to wonder whether EV vehicles would run out of charge before they get to their destination. This thread made me to look for answers on the Net.

Unsurprisingly, someone had simulated the same scenario to find out what happens.

Their finding: in such scenarios an EV consumes very less power (barely a handful of %), even with accessories turned on.

If that is true, then no need to have any anxiety regarding city driving with EVs.

[jetsetgo08]

To keep it simple, currently EV's can only be suggested to those who don't tour at all. Either ways, given the current prices of EV's, I would assume, most of the EV owners are affluent enough to own or lease a second car for highways.

Range anxiety aside, EV's will only become mainstream once their prices duck under Rs.8L bracket. Market badly needs an EV under Rs.8L even if it has a driving range of only 100km (which IMHO is a good enough range for extended city usage). Till then better to buy the cheapest ICE car and make peace, even if it were meant only for city usage.

[vishwasvr]

About a year ago I had a chance to drive a friend's Tata Nexon EV. He had asked me to drop it off at his house after getting some work done. I was very excited to drive the car as it was the first time I had driven an electric car. I already have fairly palpable range anxiety and I wanted to test my nerves on the EV.

The battery range showed around 170 km and I only had to drive about 8-9 km. I knew this wouldn't be an issue at all but boy was I wrong!

Traffic at the famed Silk Bored (no pun intended) was crawling at a snail's pace and I obviously was very light footed on the gas (again, no pun intended) thinking I'll be frugal et al.

I noticed the range kept dropping at regular intervals and as expected I began shitting bricks! I turned off the AC, headlights etc thinking it'll save the battery to some extent.

I somehow managed to reach my friend's place almost 35 minutes later and the range showed 45 km!

Man that was such a rush! I guess I'm still not ready for an EV!

[Raghu M]

It's very simple. An EV cannot be used for long drives, period. If you want to use it, you need to become a tour planner. For city rides, it's fine but even if you want to do a 200 kms drive (100 up and 100 down), EVs are just not practical. I don't understand how people can do one pedal driving, use AC at 26 degrees and keep looking at the MID for range figures. It's just not peace of mind. Let the industry evolve, the charging time has to be under 30 mins (that's the max I can bear) and the range has to be definitely above 400 kms on a single charge. Without this, I think the EVs will be seen on the roads but in very few nos.

Originally Posted by vishwasvr

About a year ago I had a chance to drive a friend's Tata Nexon EV. He had asked me to drop it off at his house after getting some work done. I was very excited to drive the car as it was the first time I had driven an electric car. I already have fairly palpable range anxiety and I wanted to test my nerves on the EV.

The battery range showed around 170 km and I only had to drive about 8-9 km. I knew this wouldn't be an issue at all but boy was I wrong!

Oh boy! I get shivers when my fuel gauge shows 2 points of fuel left. I can only understand what you went through in the traffic. Let's just assume, you spent a little more time in the traffic and the car gave up. I just can't imagine what can be done after that. You not only have your car stranded, but also will be the cause for a mini traffic jam! Scary!!

[Kannan]

Originally Posted by vishwasvr

I noticed the range kept dropping at regular intervals and as expected I began shitting bricks! I turned off the AC, headlights etc thinking it'll save the battery to some extent.

I somehow managed to reach my friend's place almost 35 minutes later and the range showed 45 km!

Man that was such a rush! I guess I'm still not ready for an EV!

I guess many have said this regarding Nexon EV. The DTE meter seems to show the instantaneous value rather than average and that is one of the reasons why it keeps jumping around. But yeah, when something in a car changes the status quo, at times, it gives shivers.