I got an ev on New Year’s Eve.
I have had some mild range anxiety. Perhaps that is because it is new and I am still getting used to it. Perhaps it is because the range promised on the car appears to be different - considerably less - to the amount of miles left shown on the car. Mostly I think it is because I haven’t had my home charge point fitted yet.
The first two days I had the car were New Years Eve and New Years Day and the mileage and charge were reducing as expected. These were warm (relatively) days. After that it has come in much colder and the battery gauge on the car has shown, at least it feels, like only a small drop in charge, but the mileage remaining has dropped off a cliff.
The mileage is supposed to be 201. Real world the reviews were saying 170-180. Might drop to 150 on motorways and might drop when it is cold. Actually, for the first couple of warm days - warm for January not necessarily compared to the rest of the year - I was pleased that the range was if anything better than expected.
The first really cold night I woke up to find that overnight the remaining range had dropped by 30 miles. 30 miles is a lot! What’s more once I set off the mileage remaining was dropping way more than the mileage I was travelling.
I do about 50 miles a day, so I’d worked on probably charging up every three days. The way the mileage appears to drop and if it was going to drop 30 miles overnight just sat there, then I have been charging sometimes every day, sometimes every other. Of course, if I had my home charger this all disappears but when you are scared to go anywhere near your limit because you have to travel to a charger, which could in theory be in use or broken, it doesn’t.
What I haven’t had is charger anxiety. Well, I did because I’d heard of it and knew that the nearest one to me is sometimes out. However I haven’t actually had any difficulties and have only once found the fast charger I wanted to use already in use. It is a 30 minute charge but so far it’s something I’ve anticipated and spent the time either doing things in my car, shopping or grabbing a bite to eat. Once I have the home charger I doubt I will ever use them except on long journeys or an emergency. There is quite a price difference mind you, but they are all a lot less than petrol.
The charging is easy, but the way the battery and mileage increase during charging is still taking me a bit of getting used to.
When the battery is low and remaining miles low and you start charging the battery charge increases rapidly, but the mileage far less so. As the charge approaches 80%, the increase in charge slows per minute but the mileage shoots up. I don’t know if this will settle, I’m told over time the software adapts as it gets to know you and driving patterns. The dealer said to focus on the charge remaining rather than the miles, but that is not intuitively easy.
So, not perfect for me anxiety wise, but not bad.
I’m not a car person, so it surprises me how much I really like driving this car. Wouldn’t want to go back.
Right now I don’t think I would recommend someone get one if they couldn’t get a home charger unless the range of the car was over 300 miles real world. Maybe hang on two more years for the battery range and affordability equation shifts even more and the charging network develops even more, but the change is coming, you won’t regret it, won’t go back.
As an aside, I see the new Merc revealed this week, developed with the F1 team, has a real world mileage range of 620 miles, so range anxiety will soon never be an issue for anyone as the technology trickles down.