EV Range Anxiety: ‘Mister, Can You Spare a Charge?’

In recent months, I’ve enjoyed many miles behind the wheel of cars propelled by electric drive. This wheel time has been in a variety of electric vehicles (EVs) offering a good cross sampling of various approaches and technologies. The cars included the fun and sporty MINI E, TH!NK City, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, AMP Saturn Sky, a Chevy Volt test mule, and most recently the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid.

Electric Vehicles are big news, but they’re not for everybody or every driving situation. Recently, Green Car Journal and the New York International Auto Show hosted the EV Pavilion, a pubic electric car ride-along that enabled over 10,000 people to experience the smooth, quiet, and peppy performance provided by electric drive. It was enlightening to hear the very intelligent questions posed by the New York crowd. Clearly, the most asked question was, “What happens when you run out of electricity?” Though we rely on battery power every day for consumer products ranging from cell phones to laptop computers, grasping the capabilities and limitations of a battery-powered car is a different matter.

The fear of being stranded is a very real consumer concern when it comes to electric vehicles. Though the very same thing will happen if you let the gas tank run dry in any car, a dead electric car can’t be quickly revived with a can of gas from a handy station down the road. Quick charge strategies are under development, but at present they can be costly, hard on the battery pack, and require considerable juice.

In the meantime, creating a widespread public charging infrastructure using conventional charging technology will go a long way toward easing range anxiety. One example of the effort to create a modern and user-friendly charging network was showcased at the EV Pavilion by PEP Stations, with charging stations that allow EV drivers to access electricity using a credit or access card, just like gas stations today.

It’s interesting that the car company with the biggest investment in hybrid electric drive is still cautious about taking the next step to plug-in power. Toyota is projecting that a plug-in version of the Prius may be offered for public consumption sometime in the 2012 time frame. A test fleet of 500 Prius Plug-In Hybrid models is currently undergoing field evaluations in Japan, Europe, and here in the United States.

Green Car Journal sampled one of the 150 plug-in variants fresh off the boat from Japan and found it to be up to expectations. Electric range is a little over 13 miles before the car reverts to standard gasoline-electric hybrid power. When the EV mode is selected, the Prius Plug-In Hybrid is very easy to drive on electric-only power and we saw freeway speeds well over 60 mph on electric.

Battery electric vehicles are making progress and will be a promising part of our clean transportation mix moving forward, but they aren’t the only answer as some promote. The current examples are great for mission-specific driving, where you know the driving distances involved and can plan your drives, and charging, accordingly. To be truly ready for prime time mass-market consumption, battery costs will also need to come down so EVs can stand on their own without requiring long-term federal or state incentives, and we’re simply not there yet…as much as we would all like to be.