How far can I drive an EV?

In context, it's 'range', the distance an electric vehicle (EV) can travel from fully charged to flat, combined with 'anxiety', the worrying thought that the car you're driving may not get you home without running out of charge.

That worry is compounded by an added wrinkle: you can't just walk to the nearest service station and pick up a five-litre can of electricity.

Although bodies like the RACV are offering ‘top-up’ charges, getting a discharged electric vehicle home (or to the nearest public recharging station) is often only feasible on the back of a tilt-tray.

So while the cost of purchasing an electric vehicle has deterred many prospective buyers, it's arguable range anxiety is equally to blame.

But what if range anxiety is actually overstated and already an outdated concern?

Prestige electric vehicles on sale in Australia offer the potential for an all-electric range that can match the weekly fuel refill for conventional, internal-combustion vehicles.

Tesla claims its Model S electric passenger sedan will run over 500km between charges. Jaguar's I-PACE SUV will reportedly travel around 470km on a single charge and even driven hard the Jaguar can achieve 300km before needing a visit to a recharging station.

The Audi e-tron is rated at a range of around 400km and during its international launch covered 300km of evaluation by journalists before the battery cried 'enough'.

For many urban drivers, therefore, this new breed of electric vehicle will hold enough electric charge to run a week of commuter-territory motoring without recharging at all.

After all, if the range for an electric car is up to 400km, that's an 80km round trip each weekday. Plenty when you consider the ABS says over 70% of Australian commuters travel less than 20km to their place of work.

Even the relatively inexpensive BMW i3 120Ah offers a range of up to 260km before the battery needs to be charged again. That equates to 50km a day over a working week (Monday to Friday). Charge up the BMW over one weekend and it shouldn't need recharging before the following Saturday.

It's axiomatic that the more you spend on an electric vehicle, the longer the range. Back in 2009 the formula was US$500 of purchase price for every mile travelled by an electric vehicle.

In 2019, that equates to over $1100 per kilometre in the Aussie context.

But the reality for the I-PACE ($119,000 new) is $253 per electric kilometre. And BMW's i3 120Ah ($68,700 new, with a range of up to 260km) costs $264 per electric kilometre, despite costing considerably less.

If EVs could be charged in five minutes and a recharging station were situated on every street corner, then range anxiety would truly be a thing of the past. Currently, owners of EVs often recharge their vehicles each night.

Tim Washington, Director of JET Charge, says that regular nightly recharging of EVs for no more than an hour would probably be enough for most inner-urban users.

"At home, [it takes] less than an hour to cover off on your daily drive," Washington says.

"I think the better question [to consider] is: how long does charging your car take you out of your way? In other words, how long are you with your car unnecessarily in order to charge the vehicle? The answer to that is measured in seconds. Five seconds to plug in, five seconds to unplug."

The inconvenience of frequent and regular recharging of EVs will be a short-term problem, Washington insists.

"Current range is between 200-500km depending on the car. The benchmark for most vehicles coming out in the next few years will be at least 300km on a single charge."

In just four years, the already energy-efficient BMW i3 has improved from the original 60-Amp-hour model to the current 120-Amp-hour, with no actual increase in physical battery size. This is indicative of the pace of development in the industry.

At its local launch in 2014 the i3 was claimed to be able to travel up to 160km from fully charged to flat. That range has now been extended by 100km, or about 63 per cent.

Owning and operating an EV without finding oneself stranded requires only a little planning.

"The reality is that you don't let yourself [run out of fuel], because you make a conscious decision not to just drive without any plan as to how you will re-fuel," Washington says.

"Day to day, living with an EV will feel no different. You charge at home and no planning is required.

"On longer road trips you tend to plan ahead of time. The need for this planning is reducing every year due to the rapid buildout of charging infrastructure."

So for fanciers of electric vehicles there's light at the end of the tunnel – and it's a street light right outside a convenient, 24-hour EV recharging station where you can also buy flavoured milk, a pie and a gossip mag.

At a glance