As I consider the ‘limited’ range of my new electric car, I find myself thinking that range-anxiety really isn’t anything of note. How many days a year do I drive longer than the 265-mile range on my new Polestar 2? Maybe a handful at best. So why should I choose to have anxiety over how far the car can drive? If I plug it in at night, I always should have enough juice to go where I need to go. When the exceptions arise and I need to drive a long distance, I’ll plan it out. Really not a big deal at all.
I liken it to the “need” that we seem to have with 3-row seating in SUVs. How many days in the year do you need those extra few seats? Once or twice? Granted my kids are in college, but our XC90 is two years old and the 3rd row hasn’t been used. Even when my kids were small the rear seats went unused 99% of the time. I utilize the storage capacity and the towing capability of our XC90, but in reality the 3rd row of seats is a total non-factor.
We Americans so often buy to the exception. We have to buy a bigger car, we have to have the extra seats, we absolutely have to buy a car which has the ability to go long distances. Maybe we should be buying cars based on how 99% of our days go, and manage the exceptions when they occur.