Range Confidence: Charge Fast, Drive Far, with your Electric Car

by David Herron

Electric cars are growing more popular every month. The myth of "Range Anxiety" is that electric car owners carry a huge fear of running out of electricity and getting stuck by the side of the road or worse. The reality is that most electric car owners quickly learn how to manage their car and after a few weeks tend to know where their car can take them. Especially if they spend a little time up-front learning the ropes of effectively driving their electric car. New gasoline car owner have to do the same, don't they? How many times of running out of gas does it take for someone to respect the fuel gauge and do the right thing? And, for that matter, does Range Anxiety solely apply to electric car owners? Don't gasoline car owners have anxiety about running out of gas? This book is meant to teach "Range Confidence" as an alternative to remaining stuck in fear. Range Confidence is developed by learning a few simple estimating range, estimating charging time, mapping the public charging stations, using smart-phone apps, and a few other simple tasks. As you put the skills to use, you will gain the confidence to drive electric more often and for longer distances. The Range Anxiety bugaboo would keep us trapped within a short distance of home, and limit use of our electric car to short trips. In reality, with wise public charging station usage, an electric car owner can easily drive medium-range or even long-range trips. Yes the trip will take a little longer, and the book shows you the best fast charging practices to minimize the travel time while driving on electricity. "Range Confidence" a) an organized process to learn Range Confidence, b) advice on daily driving, c) public charging station usage and networks, d) understanding electric driving range, e) effectively using fast charging for longer trips, f) installing electric car charging at home, g) EV ownership economics, h) fast charging standards, i) electric vehicle charging technology ABOUT THE David Herron is an author, blogger, and journalist living in Silicon Valley who specializes in covering electric vehicle and clean energy technologies. David also works as a software engineer in areas such as solar performance monitoring. He has covered the electric vehicle scene since 2009, writing thousands of news articles for prominent news websites including PlugInCars.com, as well as magazine articles appearing in Charged EV's Magazine. He began using electric vehicles in 1995 with an electric bicycle conversion, has built several electric vehicles including an electric motorcycle and an electric Karmann Ghia conversion that won several awards. He currently drives a Kia Soul EV, and is excitedly pondering what a 200+ mile range electric car will mean.

418 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 25, 2017

Reviews

[Paul J. Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Relevant and helpful without being overly technical

I am in the waiting for delivery stage of a new EV vehicle. I did a fair degree of research on this subject before committing to a major expense as well as a significant change in our travel planning. Ironically I don't even have an EV yet and I am already anxious with range anxiety.
This book is straight forward and nicely organized. It isn't overly technical and good for the EV beginner. There is a fair amount of redundancy but I think it is the author's intent to be thorough and to cross reference his material. The material is general in that it applies to a wide variety of vehicles; some sections may not be applicable to your car. Nevertheless, it is an easy read and a good foundation for an EV newbie.