Range worriers - objective evidence

TundraEV

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Friends who worry about electric car range, I have objective evidence for you.

In January 2021, we purchased the Chrysler Pacifica minivan. It’s a plug in hybrid (PHEV) that gets 32 miles of battery powered range on full charge.
After 6 full months of my wife commuting to work 5 days a week and general use this is the split between electric and gas power (two longer trips of about 200 miles round trip).

About 75% of my wife’s driving has been electric driving with a vehicle that only gets 32 miles per charge.

I think this is really interesting to people who are worried about range of the Mach e or other electric vehicles.

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Mach-Lee

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Yes, hybrids offer the best range of vehicles on the road, and plug-ins allow you to do most of your driving electrically without range anxiety when plugged in nightly.

Going full electric is not a decision to be taken lightly. If you are worried about the range then you should definitely consider a plug-in hybrid as an option before making your final decision. Progress is being made, but outside of a few select areas of the world with extensive charging infrastructure (e.g. Bay Area, CA) most people will still need a gas powered vehicle to travel some places. If you can only have one vehicle, then a plug-in is the best option. I would think that most electric car buyers have access to some kind of gas vehicle as a backup or for remote trips. I'd be very cautious having electric as my only vehicle, and you should consider cold weather range decrease and battery aging carefully to make sure you can safely make it to your necessary destinations with range to spare before going the all-electric route.

EV road tripping is still something that takes careful planning, which I think is beyond the range of effort an average person wants to put in nowadays. The idea of just driving somewhere without worrying about finding places to recharge is still a ways off. I've accepted the limitations, done all of the calculations, and have a gas vehicle as a backup. Choose wisely.

Range is still the #1 most talked about thing with EVs, and it probably will be for some time. Everyone is used to a gas vehicle that gets about 350 miles per tank, so that's the psychological threshold we choose to subscribe to. We have to get used to the idea that different vehicles will have different ranges and that's okay depending on how they're intended to be used (e.g. an EV in a city only need 100 miles of range for 99% of trips). If you have a very long commute in freezing cold temps a full EV might not be the best choice in those conditions.

So in summary, don't impulse buy an electric car even though it looks pretty. ? You might be adding unnecessary stress to your life! Accept the range for what it is, know that it will vary/decrease, and decide if it will work for you or not considering where you can charge and the amount of time it takes. Consider other vehicle technologies like plug-in and if they would be a better match.
 
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JoeDimwit

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Friends who worry about electric car range, I have objective evidence for you.

In January 2021, we purchased the Chrysler Pacifica minivan. It’s a plug in hybrid (PHEV) that gets 32 miles of battery powered range on full charge.
After 6 full months of my wife commuting to work 5 days a week and general use this is the split between electric and gas power (two longer trips of about 200 miles round trip).

About 75% of my wife’s driving has been electric driving with a vehicle that only gets 32 miles per charge.

I think this is really interesting to people who are worried about range of the Mach e or other electric vehicles.
I think it’s interesting that people assume that everyone’s use case is the same as their own. I would never consider a vehicle with only 32 miles battery range because my commute to work is 35 miles each way. I wouldn’t pay the premium for electric power if I was going to need to rely on ICE on a regular basis.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy that the Pacifica works for your use case, and your points about range being not as much an issue for people new to BEv’s are valid.

Personally, I think it comes down to a couple things… before coming to the Mach-E, I had been conditioned, by over 30 years experience, to refueling my car 2-3 times per week, in about 5 minutes per incident. Even though I KNEW I would be able to recharge to ”full” every day while I was doing other things, I needed time for my subconscious to be reprogrammed. The thought of taking 30-60 minutes out of my week (3 times) to fast charge, or even worse 8-10 hours (3 times) to slow charge is still untenable to me. But, I am now pretty secure in the understanding of home and work being my refueling stations. It does take time and experience. It gets so that now I feel sorry for people that have to stop what they’re doing to go refuel their vehicle, and then get gasoline on themselves while doing so.
 
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TundraEV

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I think it’s interesting that people assume that everyone’s use case is the same as their own. I would never consider a vehicle with only 32 miles battery range because my commute to work is et miles each way. I wouldn’t pay the premium for electric power if I was going to need to rely on ICE on a regular basis.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy that the Pacifica works for your use case, and your points about range being not as much an issue for people new to BEv’s are valid.

Personally, I think it comes down to a couple things… before coming to the Mach-E, I had been conditioned, by over 30 years experience, to refueling my car 2-3 times per week, in about 5 minutes per incident. Even though I KNEW I would be able to recharge to ”full” every day while I was doing other things, I needed time for my subconscious to be reprogrammed. The thought of taking 30-60 minutes out of my week (3 times) to fast charge, or even worse 8-10 hours (3 times) to slow charge is still untenable to me. But, I am now pretty secure in the understanding of home and work being my refueling stations. It does take time and experience. It gets so that now I feel sorry for people that have to stop what they’re doing to go refuel their vehicle, and then get gasoline on themselves while doing so.
You are assuming that I am assuming my use case works for everyone. ?

What I did do was provide objective evidence that a daily commuting vehicle with only a 32 mile battery range and sometimes used for longer trips can deliver sufficiently to meet the needs of my family and perhaps some other people who don’t drive from Philadelphia to San Diego on a weekly basis.
 


MG101

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You are assuming that I am assuming my use case works for everyone. ?
Yeah, "your mileage may vary" right?. I could commute for 3 days with that 32 mile range. Works for me, works for you and I get what you're trying to say, but your original post comes across like "See! What is everyone so worried about?"

drive from Philadelphia to San Diego on a weekly basis
Seriously though, New Englanders be spoiled with their proximity to multiple Targets and Depots!?
 
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TundraEV

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Range anxiety is for that 2 trips a year for most people. I will be in town for about 98% of the trips.
This is how I feel as well and research shows this is how most drivers accumulate their mileage. Of course there are exceptions.
 

HuntingPudel

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I seriously won’t have rnge anxiety with the exceptions of going on hunts and track days. EA and CP supposedly have chargers between home and the track. Hunting? I always have range anxiety because you never know what quality fuel you can get in some podunk gas station.
 

generaltso

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This is exactly why PHEVs can be a good gateway drug into a full EV. In 2018, I didn't think I could handle a BEV, so I bought an Outlander PHEV. In the 3 years that I owned it, I topped off the gas tank 4 times. And that only had 22 miles of EV range! That was enough to show me that my concerns about range with a BEV were completely unwarranted, and I had no reason to be carting around the extra weight of an engine and gas that I wasn't using. It's been so nice to not have to plug in constantly to stay in EV mode with the MME.
 

praxiscat

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In all honesty this is why I have the extended range. Range anxiety usually melts off over 250. When taking longer trips you can usually manage the trips with some planning.
 

JoeDimwit

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Yeah, "your mileage may vary" right?. I could commute for 3 days with that 32 mile range. Works for me, works for you and I get what you're trying to say, but your original post comes across like "See! What is everyone so worried about?"
This is exactly the point I was trying to make. The original post, along with most “range anxiety is dumb” posts very often come across as “it works for me, it’ll work for you”, and there are many use cases where that simply is not true.
 

Jimrpa

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Personally, I never even thought of a hybrid. I always considered them the worst of both worlds. You still had all of the maintenance costs and headaches of an internal combustion engine and you had to put in the infrastructure and begin dealing with the additional “care and feeding” of an electric vehicle. I preferred to wait until an electric vehicle came along that had specifications which met/exceeded my normal use cases and was at a price point I could afford.
 

HuntingPudel

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As I have said in other threads, I love my Fusion Energi. I hate its tiny little battery. If they got rid of all of the ICE crap and gave it another 90 miles of range, I wouldn’t have been looking at an MME, at least not yet.
 
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TundraEV

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This is exactly the point I was trying to make. The original post, along with most “range anxiety is dumb” posts very often come across as “it works for me, it’ll work for you”, and there are many use cases where that simply is not true.
I hear you although that is not the intent. It is to provide objective data that some people who worry about range can use.

On the other hand, the “range anxiety is REAL” posts are the same vein, no? Only a small cross section of the public takes huge trips multiple times per month.
 

RickMachE

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I think it’s interesting that people assume that everyone’s use case is the same as their own. I would never consider a vehicle with only 32 miles battery range because my commute to work is 35 miles each way. I wouldn’t pay the premium for electric power if I was going to need to rely on ICE on a regular basis.
You're assuming a premium. In many cases you'd be wrong. The PHEV may have a tax credit, whereas a hybrid or gas engine wouldn't.

By the way, people are referring to the OP's vehicle as a hybrid. It is not - it's a PHEV.

When we leased our Fusion Energi PHEV, it was thousands less than a Fusion Hybrid, and less than a gas powered Fusion. In other words, we saved money AND got PHEV capability. This was largely due to the tax credit of $4,007, which Ford spread over the lease.
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