Figures show that in 2020 only 1% of vehicles on the road worldwide were electric cars, but if the 2030 climate targets are to be met, the share must rise to 12%, or 230 million units compared to 11 million today.
The low uptake of the electric car is not only due to technological barriers, but also to psychological ones that limit the EV boom. Think, for example, of cognitive biases that lead people not to buy an electric car and that do not disappear even with the expansion of the charging infrastructure. These include range anxiety, or the fear and anxiety of not having enough kilometres of range. However, this sentiment is unjustified, as the electric car specialists at DazeTechologyare well aware.
We can define range anxiety as the fear of not finding a charging station for the electric car before the battery runs out. This is a fear that concerns not only the lack of public charging infrastructure, but also the low mileage to be covered on a single charge.
The result is a strong ‘autonomy anxiety’, which also stems from the belief that charging alone does not cover the average daily commute. However, there is a tendency to underestimate the battery capacity of electric cars by at least 30 per cent, leading to increased range anxiety.
What is the range of electric cars?
In reality, the electric vehicles on the market today have a range from 160 km for the small city car to over 600 km for the top-of-the-range saloon, and thus far exceed the daily needs of the average user, who in 95 per cent of cases covers 40 to 200 km per day.
And that’s not all: a BEV model has a range of 290 km even without the support of the internal combustion engine, as is the case with plug-in hybrids, with two engines and a distance in electric mode of 42 km. In addition to this, several factors influence the range of electric cars:
- Speed and driving style of the driver;
- Type of route, outside temperature and weather conditions such as headwind;
- Vehicle weight;
- Heating or air conditioning.
Can range anxiety be eliminated?
Range anxiety is a cognitive bias that must make people rethink policies to incentivise e-mobility.At the University of Geneva, they point out that ‘to reassure people, the solution is not just to densify the network of charging stations or increase the size of batteries, which require scarcer resources such as lithium and cobalt. It is the provision of information tailored to the concrete needs of motorists that will reduce their concerns and increase their willingness to adopt an electric vehicle.
The best way to eliminate this range anxiety, however, is to install a home charging station that allows the vehicle to be recharged overnight. This is why DazeTechnology offers customers the DazeBox C, a wallbox for the home that allows the car to be charged at the highest possible speed without ever losing power thanks to the Dynamic Power Management system. DazeBox C is the simplest and most effective solution for charging your electric car at home, now also connected thanks to the dedicated smartphone app. Contact us for more information!