Data from thousands of EVs shows the average daily driving distance is a small percentage of the EPA range of most EVs.
For years, range anxiety has been a major barrier to wider EV adoption in the U.S. It’s a common fear: imagine being in the middle of nowhere, with 5% juice remaining in your battery, and nowhere to charge. A nightmare nobody ever wants to experience, right? But a new study proves that in the real world, that’s a highly improbable scenario.
After analyzing information from 18,000 EVs across all 50 U.S. states, battery health and data start-up Recurrent found something we sort of knew but took for granted. The average distance Americans cover daily constitutes only a small percentage of what EVs are capable of covering thanks to modern-day battery and powertrain systems.
The study revealed that depending on the state, the average daily driving distance for EVs was between 20 and 45 miles, consuming only 8 to 16% of a battery’s EPA-rated range. Most EVs on sale today in the U.S. offer around 250 miles of range, and many models are capable of covering over 300 miles.
I think owning a commuter car with shorter range and renting anytime you need longer range makes a lot of sense. I don’t know why more people don’t do it.
Because it doesn’t make sense, if a rental car is $59 a day, and you leave town one day a month, an take 1 week of vacation, that’s 18 days a year, or $1062 extra cost per year, over the life of the car that’s $10-15k so unless the commuter car is at least $10,000 cheaper it doesn’t make sense.
And if you need it more than one day a month the math falls apart really quick, 2 weekends a month is $3k a year or at least $30,000 over the life of the car.
Your selective math is not doing you any favors and I’m not sure you fully understand what I’m suggesting. Do you know what TCO is?
I actually did this for a while and it worked out well for me. My divorcemobile was a very old and very used 1st generation Prius. I rented pickup trucks for vacations. I didn’t leave town 1x/month, not sure why that is a need. But this points out that everyone has very different scenarios and needs.
More recently I’ve took a vacation by train and rented a car at my destination which worked out well.
When the day comes where we can buy econobox EVs this seems like a viable solution to me. But it does depend on a person’s transportation needs.
once a month was a conservative estimate for me, and $59 is a low end car rental, I’m living in a small town if you cant get it at Walmart or the grocery store it’s 100 miles to the nearest city. also medical resources are limited so anything more then a GP visit or an ER means the same drive.
If you have an EV and regularly rent a car for longer drives it completely eats the TCO savings of an EV. https://nickelinstitute.org/media/8d993d0fd3dfd5b/tco-north-american-automotive-final.pdf
I don’t where you live but it’s over 200 miles for me to get to a passenger rail terminal.
Rural living does come with challenges that urban living does not. A hybrid might be the best solution for that situation.
I don’t think EV is the solution for everyone everywhere in its current state. Perhaps one day it will be as the tech improves.
I do think that most urban commuting could and should be done in EVs.