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How to reduce range anxiety

Follow our top tips to help you overcome the fear of range anxiety when driving an electric vehicle.

Infographic: Electric vehicles and their ranges

Infographic: Electric vehicles and their ranges

The introduction of electric vehicles has brought with it a new term, range anxiety. What exactly is range anxiety? According to Wikipedia it is the fear that a vehicle has insufficient range to reach its destination and would thus strand the vehicle’s occupants. This is one of the biggest barriers to the adoption of electric cars for mainstream vehicle usage, so we’ve provided a few tips to help you overcome the fear.

Smart route planning

By planning your route and knowing where charge points are before you set off on your journey, you can rest assured you won’t be stuck without any charge. You can use websites such as open charge map – a non-commercial, electric vehicle data service, where you can search for electric vehicle charge point locations by country.

Full charge ahead

Before you set off on your journey make sure your car is charged to its maximum capacity.

Carry a spare

Leave one charging cable at home and carry a spare cable in the car, you can pick one up from one of our Parts departments.

Don’t use power unnecessarily

Reduce your power outage. The battery powers the air conditioning, radio and windows as well as the engine, if you can limit their use you will limit the amount of energy used up. Don’t carry unnecessary weight in the car either; this will use up power too.

Pick a hybrid

Hybrid vehicles combine the power of two sources, usually electricity and petrol. Most hybrids use regenerative charging. The kinetic energy generated by applying the brakes is recovered and transferred to the battery.

Choose a car with a high range

There are more EVs on the market than ever before; as of October 2014 there were 30 on the market. Listed above are nine popular options and their ranges.

Electric car history

Electric cars were first produced in the 1880s, although they have come a long way since then and continual research is undertaken to find a better longer-lasting battery alternative, such as Stanford’s aluminium battery.

Uptake is ever increasing due to the environmental impact fossil fuelled vehicles have. Statistics released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed there was an increase in electric vehicle registrations of 6% compared to March 2014.

According to SMMT, since the government scheme was launched there have been 28,512 eligible cars registered. The plug-in car grant, launched in 2011, is guaranteed until 2017.

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About the Author

Nicole Ferguson

Staff writer at Arnold Clark

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