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This post, part of a series we're running all about electric cars, was written by Patrick E. George from HowStuffWorks.com.
These days, we have no shortage of things in our lives that cause worry and stress. Although electric cars will mean many great things for our planet, like zero emissions and a reduced dependence on fossil fuels, the truth is they're about to give you one more thing to worry about: range anxiety.
Range anxiety is the fear that your electric vehicle will run out of juice in a remote place -- far from a charging station. It could be likened to a fear that you'll run out of gas on a long, empty stretch of highway, only much worse. (You can't carry electricity back to your stranded car.) Range anxiety could also be the fear of not having enough time to give your vehicle a full charge -- which can take anywhere from six to eight hours for a Nissan LEAF, according to this NPR article.
Right now, the infrastructure behind electric cars lags considerably behind the cars themselves; places to charge an electric vehicle are few and far between in most states. Why? Well, it's a kind of chicken and egg problem. The public isn't buying electric cars in huge numbers yet, which doesn't exactly spur the need for charging stations; but the lack of charging stations means people may be discouraged from buying electric vehicles (EVs).
Solutions for range anxiety, or rather, its cause, are underway. Several companies, including General Motors and Nissan, are partnering to promote an EV charging infrastructure across the U.S. Best Buy recently announced it will add charging stations to some of its stores in the next few years. Who knows how many other retailers or companies will follow suit?
Others are experimenting with the idea of swappable battery packs, where a fresh set of batteries can be placed into a car within minutes and reused elsewhere. This eliminates the lengthy charging times that come with EVs.
And scientists who are really thinking outside the box are working on solar-panel roads that could enable charging stations along the highway -- fueled by the power of the sun.
General Motors actually wants to trademark the term range anxiety, saying it can be cured with their upcoming Chevrolet Volt. While it's recently been reported in publications like The Wall Street Journal that the Volt is more of a plug-in hybrid than a pure electric vehicle. After all, it has an onboard gasoline motor that can drive the wheels under certain circumstances -- which gives the Volt an advantage over other EVs because it can be powered by gasoline in a pinch. So, for the time being, gasoline stations will continue to be a much more common sight than electric car charging stations.
