GetOffYourGas said:
Before I owned/drove an EV, I thought I'd need 300+ miles of range (in all conditions, including the depth of a Northeast winter) and <15 minute recharge time.
Now that I own an EV, I am thinking that 125 miles (assuming Tesla-Supercharger-like availability of QC infrastructure) would do just fine.
This is why almost every survey on this topic asked from general public is worthless.
It's just based on imagination and everybody has their own, mostly unrealistic or incorrect imagination.
Those who have not lived 1 month with EV + EVSE at home, are not allowed to vote as their vote represents their imagination and not real requirements.
Main misapprehension is due to assumption that
"range" as a value is something that determines the maximum commute length.
Some suppose that it is "one way maximum limit", some suppose it is "round trip maximum limit" - both are wrong.
It was true years ago when it was not possible to fast or supercharge an EV.
Actual limitations are complex and explaining that to general public is unwise.
Real limitation is charge acceptance rate multiplied with charging availability. First one is mostly based on battery capacity.
My signature has basic explanation of the thing I'm talking about.
-- There are short range EV-s that are not suitable for long range commutes (measured in hundreds of miles) due to the fact that they
hardly charge at "fast" rate and charging frequency would be unreasonable.
-- There are medium range EV-s that are suitable for above-average commutes but are not well-suited for long range commutes (measured in hundreds of miles) due to the fact that they can charge at fast rate but average speed of very long trips will be noticeable slower compared to ICE. Still, due to cheaper price, this shortcoming is acceptable if long-range commutes happen rarely. Few hours lost annually does not justify additional investment in battery capacity (for example $5000).
-- There are long range EV-s that are suitable for occasional long commutes (measured in many hundreds of miles) due to the fact that they can accept charge at "supercharging" rate. Even with very long trip average speed hardly suffers compared to ICE vehicles.
It's true that it is not jet possible to fast/super charge eveywhere. And this is the true limitation. Not pack capacity.
200kWh pack will not solve a lot compared to 70kWh
if there is nowhere to charge rapidly on the way.
One will be limited to 300 mile radius, another to 100 mile radius.
Percentage-wise it is something like this: One vehicle is good for 95.5% daily commutes, another is good for only 94.4%.
Both are better results compared to, let's say 30kWh Leaf, good for 91.1% daily commutes.
Let's suppose those numbers are based on worldwide average daily commute length. I'd add that ICE vehicles are good for 97.7% of all daily commutes. Hint: cars can't fly nor swim. Numbers don't represent reality - just estimations.
For me, 24kWh pack is good for 92% of daily commutes (whenever I get home I charge at Level2). If I had only 110V Level1 this number would fall below 80%. If I had 6.6kWh charger I might get 1% more.
With the help of fast charging infrastructure that covers 100% of the whole country, this number goes up from 92% to 96%.
I'm not able to comfortably travel more than 130 miles nonstop highway due to charge acceptance limitation. On average 24kWh Leaf can accept 5kWh per 10 minutes. In bad weather conditions average travelling speed is going down.
For me, ICE vehicle is good for 99,5% of commutes (I hardly need to travel by sea/air).
I still have my ICE due to those 3,5% I can't do with Leaf.