User:Skierpage/Electric Car Range


 * New start for Electric car The current section jumps straight into "Range anxiety" without motivation

Range
The gas tank of a typical passenger car holds 10 impgal or more of gasoline sufficient to travel over 400 mi, and can be refuelled in minutes at ubiquitous filling stations. Conventional cars have effectively unlimited range. The equivalent "storage tank" in an electric car is its batteries. The low energy density of batteries means the weight and cost limit the amount of on-board energy storage manufactures put in an electric car, so despite its efficient use of energy the distance an electric car can travel before it must be recharged is low, for example 50 mi in the RevaI and 100 mi in a Nissan Leaf. Then, the

"Range anxiety" is a reason that many automakers marketed EVs as "daily drivers" suitable for city trips and other short hauls. The average American drives less than 40 mi per day; so the GM EV1 would have been adequate for the daily driving needs of about 90% of U.S. consumers.

There are several ways to address range anxiety:
 * increase the battery capacity
 * by improving battery chemistry
 * by reducing battery cost and/or weight allowing more batteries in the car
 * reduce recharging time by
 * faster charging
 * swapping the battery for a fully-charged one