The Death of my Range Anxiety

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Eastocean

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 11, 2016
Messages
70
I owned a Nissan Leaf for 3.5 years. Because of the area we live in, there are few chargers, other than my local small town. With the 84 mile range, almost any time I left town, I would need to plan for recharge time. Until recently, the nearest L2 charger (aside from the 16 in my beach town resort area, was 40 miles away in Dover, which I traveled to weekly and have to charge to make it home. The nearest L3 charger is 64 miles in a different direction. As a consequence, the longest daily drive I ever made was 145 miles. This required 2 charges, due to the spacing, and my driving and appointment needs. Thus, as many Leaf drivers do, before starting a drive, I would check the status of the chargers I might need to get there and back.

In early April, all this changed! I took delivery of my Bolt EV. My first trip was home from the dealership, 80 miles away. I had all of the Bolt specifications in mind, and “knew” there would be no range issues, but I still closely watched range remaining, just to verify the estimate, and not be unpleasantly surprised. I knew there were 3 new L3 chargers available along my route just in case. I was still in the Leaf trip planning mode. I drove home on the freeways, at my normal 5-10 mph over the posted speed limits (55 or 65). I made it home with about 70% of the battery left. But in my new car excitement, I didn’t check the numbers closely.

Yesterday, I had to return my daughters dog to her house, 82 miles away in Annapolis. The roads from here are mostly 2-lane country roads with speed limits of 50, 3 towns to go through of 1 mile at 25mph (Really strictly enforced), and an 18 mile stretch of 60+mph or get run over. It is a nice mix of town and highway driving on level ground. On paper, I “knew” the Bolt ev should make the roundtrip easily. But I also had a strong headwind to deal with, which usually dropped my Leaf miles/KWH in the leaf by 0.2-0.4. There was also rain, and running the AC (to keep the dog cool). All of these played with my planning thoughts.

Dropping back to my Leaf mindset, I checked the availability of the lone L3 along the road (which I would pass at about 100 total miles on the return). There are no L2 chargers on the route, and new L3 charger 12 miles from home. I saw a number of chargers in Annapolis area, but I wasn’t familiar of their level of use or comfort of the location. But they were potential backup stops if I thought I might need them.

I shouldn’t have worried. Even driving my normal 5-10 mph over the speed limit (except in the towns!), I arrived in Annapolis having used only 19.8 KWh from the 60 KWh battery. The return trip took 19.6 KWh. I arrived home with a 78 mile estimated range. In other words, the Bolt EV did exactly what it was designed to do, right down to the EPA estimate of 238 mile rage, which I had just replicated. Your real-life mileage may vary, but for this particular trip, the Bolt EV performed its job easily and comfortably. And exactly as advertised.

Needless to say, I am very happy with my new Bolt!
 
Great story..... mine is somewhat different. I have had two different Volts so NO range anxiety.
I traded in my 2014 Volt for the Bolt LT and traveled 168 miles to do so. The reason was that
Bolts have not been released in Florida yet but this one dealer trucked some in soooooo being
an "early adopter" I drove to St. Petersburg, Florida. The Bolt had 189 miles of estimated range
(168 mile trip) and off I went!! I had planned to DC charge about half way, just in case. Well, so
much for planning.... ;-) as I got there only to find the wrong plug on that machine.

Dejected, I just drove on home & guess what? I still had 34 miles of range on the meter & this was
traveling highway speeds with AC running in mid 80's weather. Do I love this car? You betcha!!!

33990507576_bcb178175b_b.jpg
 
I too am so pleasantly surprised about range on my Bolt. Have about 800 miles on it now and make a 210 mile (round trip) excursion every week. I use location based charging with full charge set at one location and hill top reserve mode configured for home with another L2 charger.
I probably will set both charging locations to hill top reserve when the weather gets hot but for now, I just want to see what real range capability exist with the Bolt.
Amazingly, my Bolt will charge to 251 miles when configured for a full charge and my wife and I can achieve up to 4.2 miles/kwh in driving efficiency. This is especially amazing since our trip covers some seriously hilly conditions. It was 85 degrees on my first trip home and even with A/C set to 73, we had 143 miles of charge left after traveling 105 miles. The next trip home, it was 65 degrees outside and we had 145 miles of range left after the 105 mile trip. The energy screens reveal that the Bolt really prefers hot weather and A/C typically takes less than a 5% hit on range. Many thanks to GM and LG Chem - job well done.
 

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Eastocean said:
I owned a Nissan Leaf for 3.5 years. Because of the area we live in, there are few chargers, other than my local small town. With the 84 mile range, almost any time I left town, I would need to plan for recharge time.

I just don't leave town...takes all the stress away. On the occasion we need to take a longer trip, we drive one of our other cars. We've put 9000 miles on our EV since last summer. No anxiety.

I think "range anxiety" is largely a self-inflicted condition.

Congratulations on your new car! I'm sure you're digging it.
 
We also have a ICE hybrid car, and I could have taken it, as i have in the past. But my wife hates readjusting the seats and mirriors after i drive it. The town I live in is a small beach resort on the Delaware coast.. When driving all over town, the beaches , and neighboring beach towns, it was hard to put even 20 miles on the Leaf. When i worked, my commute was 13 miles each way. My wife's job was 5 miles away.

The requirements for my new car were that it to the nearest airport, 110 miles from here, and be able to fast charge somewhere along the route, if necessary. A hatchback with a large cargo area rounded out the specifications.

The Bolt has exceeded my expectations.
 
I think it's fair to say range anxiety is a situational thing. There are people driving an EV today with 50 range who never feel range anxiety. And there are people who feel range anxiety in a 300 mile range EV. Range anxiety won't disappear completely until you can recharge your EV at any "gas" station in the world in 5 minutes.

I'd like to propose a new term: Range Annoyance. Range Annoyance is when you have plenty of recharging stations on your route, but you have to stop for 30 minutes or more (several times during your trip), and you're in a hurry and just want to get there. And you end up being late because the charger is broken or occupied. That's range annoyance for you.

By the way, what will we call gas stations in the future? And will children in 50 years ask their parents what gas is?
 
ScooterCT said:
I think it's fair to say range anxiety is a situational thing. There are people driving an EV today with 50 range who never feel range anxiety. And there are people who feel range anxiety in a 300 mile range EV. Range anxiety won't disappear completely until you can recharge your EV at any "gas" station in the world in 5 minutes.

I call it self-inflicted when we put ourselves in situations where range becomes an issue. Can happen with any car. My VW easily gets 600 miles on a tank, but that hasn't stopped me from pushing my luck on occasion thinking "I can make it" to the next fill up, or hypermiling it to 700 miles on fumes. It's a stupid thing to do, but judging by the number of guys we've all seen on the side of the road with jerry cans - I'm not the only one doing it.

For me, it's more than the absolute range number to an EV causing the anxiety... it's the planning for a charge when I get there (yes, I've heard of Plugshare). When staying with friends, do I beg for a plug? I've always felt a little embarrassed asking for that. A lot of us are perfectly happy to sacrifice their time. On a road trip, even a 30 minute charge is unacceptable for me. and having to seek these places out is something I really don't want to be concerned with. I want to plan my trips, not plan my charges. There are only so many coffee and lunch breaks I want to take during a day on the road. The charging time can make the difference between getting to the destination, and having to lay up in a hotel.

I think it's the driver that causes the anxiety, not the car. I'll continue to recognize the limits of my car's range and stay within those limits. That wouldn't change if I owned a Bolt.
 
I am also very happy with the range of the Bolt.

One of the best things about it is that virtually every time I leave the house, I have a full "tank."
I don't think this attribute is emphasized enough.

I drive it quite a bit, but often don't get below 3/4 full.



I use a 220V juicebox (with wifi) for charging at home. Plug it in after running 50 miles of errands and about the time I need Bolt again there is a full charge.

If you return to your "home base" often, it is the perfect car. And even with the occasional long round trip to the city, I have yet to need an outside charging station - with a comfortable margin.


2300 miles on the odometer and I am very pleased.
 
regenD said:
I am also very happy with the range of the Bolt.

One of the best things about it is that virtually every time I leave the house, I have a full "tank."
I don't think this attribute is emphasized enough.

I drive it quite a bit, but often don't get below 3/4 full.

Reading between the lines, this is your first experience with an electric car. No doubt one of the biggest benefits to driving electric is charging at home. I think most of us that drive EV's often don't get below 3/4 full, including the ones driving 87 mile cars (like me).

Something that doesn't get emphasized enough is how far we drive in a day, and how much range we actually require. Of course there are exceptions, but the national average is ~40 miles per day / 14,600 miles per year. In the last 11 months, I've put 9000 miles on my car - works out to about 27 miles per day.

It took me a couple of weeks to reset my personal range "guess-o-meter" because throughout my life, when the gas tank was down to 1/4 - my brain was telling me "danger, time to fill up". Now, I start my day with that equivalent (gasoline) range, and I'm comfortable that it's more than enough. I think people looking into an EV for the first time have a tough time wrapping their heads around that.

Again, congratulations on your new Bolt. I'm sure you're loving it.
 
oilerlord said:
Reading between the lines, this is your first experience with an electric car. No doubt one of the biggest benefits to driving electric is charging at home. I think most of us that drive EV's often don't get below 3/4 full, including the ones driving 87 mile cars (like me).

My driving tends to have a lot of 50 and 70 mile days, with destinations that do not have chargers. So an 80 mile EV would leave me very little margin for side trips, heat/AC use, high winds, battery degradation, etc.. Having to recharge to 100% after every day of driving would probably worsen battery degradation.

A 100-120 mile EV would probably be the minimum for my use, though it would still require recharging after every day of driving.

The Bolt's 200+ mile range means that I can usually go three driving days between recharges, and never worry about it being so low that I have to worry about side trips, heat/AC use, high winds, etc.. Even with worst case battery degradation after many years, the range will still be more than enough. But less frequent recharging (and only to 90% in hilltop mode) probably means less battery degradation.

I would not recommend an EV owner with low (relative to range) daily mileage to top up from 75% to 100% every day, since charging the battery at high states of charge is probably worse for battery degradation. Instead, just wait until the battery is below your next day's driving mileage plus whatever buffer you need against range anxiety. This is not conceptually different from deciding when to refuel a gasoline or diesel powered vehicle.
 
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