The median range of gasoline-fueled cars in the United States is about 400 miles, and many of us expect our vehicles to drive most of the day without having to refuel.
Can electric vehicles live up to that range standard? Do they need to?
How much range is enough depends on your needs.
It depends on your needs and what you want your vehicle to do. For some purposes, range of 100 miles is enough. For road trips, 300-400 miles is probably enough for most people.
We got our first electric car in 2014—a Nissan Leaf. The first time we took a test drive, we loved the acceleration you get from even a modestly powered electric car. But the range on the window sticker was listed as 84 miles. That’s like buying a car with a 2-gallon tank, we thought. That’s crazy. So we passed at the time.
Range for Local Driving
But then we started doing some research on charging and thought about it some more. This would be our second car, and 84 miles is more than enough for daily commuting. And unlike a gasoline-powered car, our electric car would greet us every morning with a full tank because we would have our own “gas pump” in the garage: an EV charger. For long trips, we’d just take the other car.
The Leaf’s 84-mile range has been more than enough for eight years of mostly local driving, especially with a “full tank” every morning.
As it turns out, that 84-mile range has been more than enough for eight years of mostly local driving in our reliable, economical, fun-to-drive Leaf. With a round-trip commute of 30 miles—about the same as the average daily driving distance in the United States—the Leaf’s range has been more than enough. We can even take trips downtown after work or skip a night of charging and still have plenty of range.
Traveling to one of the outer suburbs on the other side of the city is as stretch. For that, we would have to put the Leaf in Eco mode and get home with single-digit percentages on the battery indicator. But we could always make it.
And in all those years, we have had to use a fast charger away from home exactly twice, and both times charging stations were available where we needed them and took only about 20 minutes to replenish the battery.
Would we have been happier with 100 miles of range? Yes. Did we really need it? No.
Today, with several years of advances and cost reductions in lithium-ion batteries, it’s hard to find a new electric car with range of less than 200 miles. Plenty of range for daily driving in a metropolitan area.
Range for Road Trips
Range for road trips is a different matter. If you have only one car, it has to be able to do both commuting and road trip duties—unless you plan to rent a car every time you want to head out of town. For road trips, you want more than 200 miles of range.
For road trips, you want more than 200 miles of range.
As of 2022, there are an increasing number of electric cars with 250-300 miles or more of range. For example, our Tesla Model Y, Long Range version, is rated at 326-mile range. With that kind of range, you can start a long road trip with a full charge, drive for half a day, charge while stopping for a meal, and reach destinations 400-500 miles away. So isn’t that “enough” range?
How Much Range Is Enough?
Electric vehicle range is like most things in life: more is better. But there are always tradeoffs—in the case of EV battery capacity, cost and weight. Unlike a gasoline-powered car, increasing the size of the “tank” is an expensive proposition in an electric vehicle. Even as battery costs approach the long-sought goal of $100 per Kilowatt-hour of capacity, increasing range by 50 percent can add several thousand dollars to the cost of an EV.
So what’s an “optimal” range?
There are some real-world considerations that argue for somewhat more range than 250-300 miles—speed, cold, and charging limitations.
There are some real-world considerations that argue for somewhat more range than 250-300 miles. Like any car, those EPA mileage ratings “may vary” under certain conditions.
Driving fast will reduce highway range, just as it will in a gas-powered car. For example, a Tesla Model 3 with a range of 325 miles at 65 mph would get only about 275 miles at 75 mph, a reduction of 15 percent. Traveling at 80 mph would reduce range to nearly 250 miles.
Cold weather also reduces range in an EV.
And you don’t want to drain the battery too low, both to allow a margin to reach a charging station and to maintain battery health over its life.
In addition, a charging session at a fast charging station will probably recover only 80 percent of range because charging rates slow significantly as the battery reaches full capacity.
Range of 350-400 miles is probably optimal for road trips.
For these reasons, range of 350-400 miles is probably optimal for road trips. That allows a half day of driving and extra margin for factors that reduce range. Tesla’s more expensive Model S and Model X already have ranges of that magnitude, and we can expect ranges of less expensive EVs to reach those numbers in coming years as battery technologies improve.
Is range of 350-400 miles “enough?” Probably for a large majority of people and uses. But there are some cases where range of 500 miles would be useful, or even necessary. For example, towing a trailer reduces range significantly. And for people who drive long distances at high speeds on a regular basis and want to stop only for short rest breaks, longer ranges would be useful. As battery technologies improve, we can expect automakers will offer tiers of range, including extended ranges of 500 miles or more.
In the end, how much range is “enough” is relative to individual needs and preferences.
In the end, “enough” is, of course, a relative term—relative to needs and individual circumstances and preferences.
Range of 100-200 miles is enough for a second car intended only for daily commuting.
For a multi-purpose car that includes long road trips, 250-300 miles is practical, as long as you don’t mind a recharging stop or two along the way.
Getting to 350-400 miles will make range a non-issue for most people.
And some people will want the capability offered by 500-mile range. But ranges on those higher ends will come with a premium price, because making a larger “tank” in an electric vehicle doesn’t come cheap in either weight or price.
How much range is comfortable for people will also depend on the availability and speed of charging stations.
How much range is comfortable for people will also depend on the availability and speed of charging stations. With today’s gas-powered cars, we don’t think much about range because we know gas stations are ubiquitous and filling the tank is fast. As people gain confidence in the availability of fast charging stations for EVs, and as their charging rates continue to increase, range will become less important. (See articles on How Easy is it to Find Charging Stations? and How Long Does It Take to Charge an Electric Vehicle?)