Photo: Lucid
One of the factors stifling EV adoption was considered to be the limited range of electric vehicles. While this might be true for some people, depending on their driving habits, the situation has improved tremendously in the past year.
An electric vehicle with a long-enough range can alleviate people’s range anxiety. This is true even though, most of the time, they don’t need to travel that far on a single charge. Fast-charging stations and the charging performance of modern EVs make replenishing an EV’s battery a breeze. Basically, while the driver seeps a coffee, the EV can recover more range than it needs to drive until the driver’s next break. And yet, people still want to buy the longest-range EVs they can afford.
When Lucid got the 520-mile (837-km) EPA rating for the Air, Elon Musk stated that such a range is unnecessary and would only make an EV worse. That’s because most of the time, you don’t need such a big range, and the car would needlessly drive a huge battery mass around, wasting resources. Musk believes that even a 400-mile (644-km) EV is more than most people need in everyday life. Even so, electric vehicles in the market can now travel on a charge a lot more than years ago.
According to a DoE study, only one vehicle (the Tesla Model S AWD P100D) had a more than 300-mile EPA range in 2016. Over the next five years, the number of EV models achieving a certified range of 300 miles (483 km) or more slowly increased, reaching just five in 2021. Then the offer nearly tripled for the 2022 model year, with no less than 14 EV models exceeding the 300-mile mark.
All Tesla models are in this select club, along with the Rivian and Lucid models. Ford entered the list with the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E, while BMW scored the same with the i4 and iX. Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, and Mercedes-Benz EQS also have a more than a 300-mile range. The list could be longer since not all 2022 models got their EPA rates. What do you think? Is the longer range important to you, or could you live with a shorter-range EV?
When Lucid got the 520-mile (837-km) EPA rating for the Air, Elon Musk stated that such a range is unnecessary and would only make an EV worse. That’s because most of the time, you don’t need such a big range, and the car would needlessly drive a huge battery mass around, wasting resources. Musk believes that even a 400-mile (644-km) EV is more than most people need in everyday life. Even so, electric vehicles in the market can now travel on a charge a lot more than years ago.
According to a DoE study, only one vehicle (the Tesla Model S AWD P100D) had a more than 300-mile EPA range in 2016. Over the next five years, the number of EV models achieving a certified range of 300 miles (483 km) or more slowly increased, reaching just five in 2021. Then the offer nearly tripled for the 2022 model year, with no less than 14 EV models exceeding the 300-mile mark.
All Tesla models are in this select club, along with the Rivian and Lucid models. Ford entered the list with the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E, while BMW scored the same with the i4 and iX. Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, and Mercedes-Benz EQS also have a more than a 300-mile range. The list could be longer since not all 2022 models got their EPA rates. What do you think? Is the longer range important to you, or could you live with a shorter-range EV?
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