Range anxiety

Range anxiety is the fear that a vehicle has insufficient range to reach its destination and would thus strand the vehicle's occupants. The term, which is primarily used in reference to battery electric vehicles (BEVs), is considered to be one of the major barriers to large scale adoption of all-electric cars. The term range anxiety was first reported in the press on September 1, 1997 in the San Diego Business Journal by Richard Acello referring to worries of GM EV1 electric car drivers. On July 6, 2010, General Motors filed to trademark the term, stating it was for the purpose of 'promoting public awareness of electric vehicle capabilities'. The Norwegian equivalent rekkeviddeangst was assigned second place in a list of Norwegian 'words of the year' for 2013 by the Norwegian Language Council.Range anxiety may be exaggerated, as recent studies have concluded that most daily trips can be accomplished within the range of an inexpensive electric vehicle.Battery swapping is a strategy to avoid range anxiety that allows electric cars to extend their range through a battery switch station. At the station, the depleted battery is swapped for fully charged battery in about the same time that it takes to fill up a car with gasoline. Battery swapping is common in warehouses using electric forklift trucks.Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), as opposed to pure electric cars, eliminate the range anxiety concerns because the gasoline engine serves as a back-up to recharge the battery to provide electric power to the electric motor, or to provide propulsion directly. Access to a regular fuel station guarantees that a PHEV has similar driving ranges as conventional gasoline-powered automobile when required. Nevertheless, a study conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Transport Economics published in June 2016 found that plug-in hybrid owners in Norway drive on average 55% of their annual kilometers in charge-depleting or all-electric mode (EV mode), and the share goes up to about 63% for work trips.As a mitigation to range anxiety issues, some carmakers are offering the use of gasoline-powered standard car for free with the purchase of an electric vehicle to mitigate, thus allowing their customers to cover long trips on a certain number of days per year.