Range Anxiety is Real… But It Doesn’t Have to Be

[Sarah] (0:00 - 1:01)
There's literally millions of power points everywhere. It's actually less range anxiety because you can plug in in way more places than there are petrol stations. 

Welcome to the Good Energy Guide. No jargon, no guesswork, just better energy choices. Brought to you by Ausgrid, electricity distributor for Sydney, the Central Coast and Hunter Region. 

I'm your host, Sarah Aubrey. And today we're diving into one of the biggest hesitations people have about electric vehicles, range anxiety. That worry that you'll run out of charge before you get where you need to go. We're going to unpack how far EVs actually go, where and how people charge day to day and how Australia's charging network is expanding. 

To help us break it all down, we're joined by Nick Black from Ausgrid, whose work across EV charging infrastructure gives him a front row seat to how EVs are used in the real world. Welcome, Nick.

[Nick] (1:01 - 1:03)
Thanks for having me today, Sarah.

[Sarah] (1:03 - 1:43)
Brilliant. 

Fun fact, range anxiety originated in the 1990s, first appearing in print in 1997, tied to early electric vehicles like General Motors EV1, representing the fear of running out of battery power before reaching a charging station due to limited battery ranges and sparse infrastructure. Though it's now often seen as a psychological barrier fueled by unfamiliarity, media hype and outdated perceptions rather than current EV limitations.

So, range anxiety, let's talk about it. It's often the first thing people mention when talking about EVs. Why is that such a strong concern?

[Nick] (1:43 - 1:57)
I think it's the uncertainty, it's the lack of experience they've had with actually owning and operating the EV. I don't think it's the reality. The reality is not there's range anxiety.

You don't see electric vehicles on the side of the road without charge.

[Sarah] (1:57 - 1:58)
On a tow truck.

[Nick] (1:59 - 1:59)
On a tow truck.

[Sarah] (2:00 - 2:00)
Yeah.

[Nick] (2:00 - 2:06)
It's not the reality of what it is, but it is a fear and that fear is making it harder for people to purchase electric vehicles.

[Sarah] (2:07 - 2:09)
And it's persistent, isn't it?

[Nick] (2:09 - 2:09)
It is.

[Sarah] (2:09 - 2:13)
Do you think people don't realise how much range electric cars actually have these days?

[Nick] (2:14 - 2:20)
That might be one of the challenges. So electric vehicles these days have ranged from 300 kilometres up to 600 kilometres.

[Sarah] (2:20 - 2:24)
Do you think people assume EVs work like petrol cars and that's part of the problem?

[Nick] (2:24 - 2:37)
I think that is part of the problem. People assume, people don't understand that you can charge your electric vehicle at home and the average commute is 38 kilometres per week. Meaning you only need to charge your vehicle once a week, if not less.

[Sarah] (2:37 - 2:56)
And you don't have to stand there and wait by the, even though, I don't know why, but journalists seem to love taking photos of people charging electric cars holding the charger. And so, people probably think it's like going to a petrol station where you've got to stand there for 45 minutes, maybe, at a DC charger holding it. But you don't, you go away and do other things.

[Nick] (2:56 - 3:03)
You plug it in, you go away, go for a run, do some fitness, watch your favourite Netflix show, your car will be charged. Or go away, go to work and it'll be charged.

[Sarah] (3:03 - 3:05)
Or if you can charge at home, you sleep.

[Nick] (3:06 - 3:16)
Yeah, sleep while your car's charging. You don't have to waste time going to a petrol station.

Think about how many hours are lost per year spending time at the petrol station.

[Sarah] (3:16 - 3:21)
Not just the time at the petrol station, the time travelling to and from the petrol station, buying things you just don't need.

[Nick] (3:21 - 3:22)
Chocolate bars, mints.

[Sarah] (3:23 - 3:24)
Smelling all the smells.

[Nick] (3:24 - 3:24)
Yep.

[Sarah] (3:25 - 3:36)
All right, before we get into charging, how should people think about range in practical terms? Other countries are seeing a lot more EV uptake. Do Australians really drive that far?

[Nick] (3:37 - 3:54)
On average, I don't believe Australians do drive that far. We've had an electric vehicle for three years. Actually, today is the first time my wife is taking it 600 kilometres.

And we looked at the charging and there's charging along the way. I think there still needs to be more done for charging, especially kerbside charging.

[Sarah] (3:54 - 3:55)
Yeah.

[Nick] (3:55 - 3:58)
And that's a solution that Ausgrid has, which is to roll out kerbside charges.

[Sarah] (3:59 - 4:00)
Can you explain what kerbside charging is?

[Nick] (4:00 - 4:18)
Kerbside charging is where when you don't have a driveway where you can charge at home. 

[Sarah] 
So, it's attached to a street pole usually? 

[Nick] 
Yeah, instead you can charge on the street, at the street pole.

And we're at Ausgrid really trying to look at a solution there that allows price parity. So, you could charge on the street for the same price as those charging at home.

[Sarah] (4:18 - 4:23)
And the average Australian travels about 36 kilometres a day, roughly?

[Nick] (4:23 - 4:26)
Yeah, average is 36, 38 kilometres per day.

[Sarah] (4:26 - 4:35)
So, if I had an electric car, I mean, on average, I think they're around the 450, maybe just under 500 kilometre range. So, as you said, like once a week.

[Nick] (4:35 - 4:39)
Well, that's over 10 days of travel. Once every two weeks, almost.

[Sarah] (4:39 - 4:46)
I don't think people realise, I think they think you have to plug in every single day. And it's not a hassle.

[Nick] (4:46 - 4:49)
No, it's not. It's not like your phone, you plug in every day, you plug in once a week.

[Sarah] (4:50 - 5:55)
Yeah, I think there's confusion around that. So, you've talked about range. So, one of the cheaper end of the market, we've got cars like the ATTO 1 that have just over 300 kilometres of range.

But we're talking a $24,000 car. And then the higher end, Zeekr 7X, long range, 615 kilometres of range. I mean, I think we've even got the Volvo EX60, I think has just come out.

It's got 800 and something. We're really getting up there now with long range. And I think even people might even realise they don't need that much range.

My EV3 is 563 kilometres of range and I don't have a driveway. So, I do not stress at all. I had one on long term loan from Kia before I bought that car.

I just didn't think about charging. I just didn't think about it. And I didn't have to worry about it because it just had so much range.

And maybe that's the secret. Someone like me that doesn't have a driveway, maybe a car with just a little bit more range will sort of see you through and you're not going to stress about, oh, I've got to get to a public charger. It's a day, you know, you can leave it for a few days.

Is the fear of running out of charge bigger than reality?

[Nick] (5:56 - 6:26)
I believe it is. I think the reality of running out of charge is a lot lower than people, you know, fear that it will be.

You can charge at home. There's, as we've just discussed, curbside charging and there's destination charging. So that means you can go and charge at your shopping centre while you're doing your shopping, your car's charged and you come back in and you're ready to go.

And then there's obviously fast charging where you can charge your car, you know, in 15 minutes if you're a really fast charger.

[Sarah] (6:26 - 6:26)
DC charging.

[Nick] (6:26 - 6:27)
Yeah.

[Sarah] (6:28 - 6:33)
I think the vast majority of people who worry about there not being enough chargers are actually people who don't own EVs.

[Nick] (6:33 - 6:48)
I think it is. And I've seen that in a lot of people that have purchased EVs. Three years ago, we purchased an EV for my wife.

To begin, she was worried about the range and now she lets it diminish almost all the way down and then charges it for a few nights. Get it back to full charge.

[Sarah] (6:48 - 6:52)
Down to 5%. Yeah, it's like people go, I don't care, it'll be fine.

[Nick] (6:53 - 6:53)
Yeah.

[Sarah] (6:53 - 6:58)
But you're right. I've never seen an EV broken down on the side of the road from running out of charge or anything like that.

[Nick] (6:59 - 7:16)
Exactly. They go, I mean, you know, 400 kilometres, as we're saying, average commute is 38 kilometres. So, you've got a lot of charge.

You can charge at home. Some people can charge at work. You can charge at the supermarket.

You've got fast chargers. And something Ausgrid wants to do is ensure that there's highly available, well-maintained curbside charges everywhere for you to charge.

[Sarah] (7:17 - 7:25)
There's literally millions of power points everywhere. It's actually less range anxiety because you can plug in in way more places than there are petrol stations.

[Nick] (7:25 - 7:27)
That's exactly right. Yeah.

[Sarah] (7:27 - 7:27)
Yeah.

[Nick] (7:28 - 7:29)
I hadn't actually thought about that.

[Sarah] (7:29 - 7:36)
In terms of being out in the real world, how real, if I've got a car that's 450 kilometres of range WLTP, realistically, will I get that?

[Nick] (7:37 - 7:50)
It depends on the conditions. So, weather conditions will impact how many kilometres you get. So, an example of that is if the battery gets too, if it's a hot day and the battery is getting hot, it will cool the battery.

Which uses a little bit of the power.

[Sarah] (7:50 - 7:51)
Is it using the heat pump in the vehicle?

[Nick] (7:51 - 8:14)
Yeah. Using the heat pump in the vehicle. Exactly right.

And that'll cool it to ensure that it's at optimum temperature. Same thing if it's too cold, it'll heat the battery. So those can impact it a little bit.

And then also the wind. So, if there's too much wind blowing in the wrong direction, you'll get slightly less. But then obviously you get the opposite of that.

If you've got the wind behind you, you'll get slightly more kilometres. It'll help push you along.

[Sarah] (8:14 - 8:14)
Or sit behind a truck.

[Nick] (8:15 - 8:19)
Yeah. And then also rain. So, in wet weather, it can slightly diminish your kilometres.

[Sarah] (8:21 - 8:23)
And city driving versus highway driving.

[Nick] (8:23 - 8:23)
Yeah.

[Sarah] (8:23 - 8:53)
Highway driving, you'll get less, but you'll get more in the city. Actually, that's one of the major positives for electric cars is one pedal driving, regenerative braking it's called. There are two pedals, don't worry.

There's a brake and accelerator. But you accelerate and instead of putting your foot on the brake, you ease off the accelerator. And by doing that, the car slows down and you are putting energy back into your vehicle.

So that's why driving around cities is so much more efficient in an electric car. So yes, less range on the highway, more in the city.

[Nick] (8:54 - 9:02)
Exactly. And one of the other advantages of that is less maintenance because you're using the energy to slow the car down and put that back into the battery. Your brake pads are not getting worn out as quickly.

[Sarah] (9:03 - 9:09)
Yeah. And no brake dust. Pollution.

Less pollution. Winner winner. What about driving style?

[Nick] (9:09 - 9:26)
Driving style can have an impact on the usage. Just like if you have an internal combustion engine, a petrol engine, if you're more lead footed, putting your foot to the floor more often, a hoon, you will use more electricity. It's exactly the same from that perspective.

So that will impact the range.

[Sarah] (9:26 - 9:30)
And if you drive very sensibly, you can get further. Yes, you'll get more out of it.

[Nick] (9:30 - 9:38)
And more regenerative braking, then you can get more out of it as well. The faster we can electrify, the zero tailpipe emissions. And not only that, no noise.

[Sarah] (9:38 - 9:39)
No noise.

[Nick] (9:39 - 9:43)
Those dirty trucks with all those emissions. There's also all that noise.

[Sarah] (9:43 - 9:46)
I'm sure the drivers enjoy driving them as well.

[Nick] (9:46 - 9:53)
A lot of the feedback we've had from our fleet is the drivers love driving them. Some of them are hesitant to get behind the wheel, but once they're behind the wheel, they enjoy it.

[Sarah] (9:53 - 9:58)
That's the secret, isn't it? Getting them behind the wheel. Do most people end up using the full range of the car?

[Nick] (9:59 - 10:14)
Most people don't. They'll recharge maybe when it's half full, which is slightly different to a petrol or diesel car. Usually, you refuel when it's very low.

Whereas the behaviour really changes in an electric vehicle. It might get down to 30, 40 percent, and then you recharge.

[Sarah] (10:14 - 10:19)
How often does the typical person use a DC charger? Because I've got friends who've never used them. They just charge at home.

[Nick] (10:20 - 10:33)
Yeah, well, I mean, we're the same. We haven't really used one in three years. We just charge at home.

So, DC charger might be used for people who don't have access to charging at home or on the curb. And they want to do a top up. But really for the long distance travel, that's where the DC charger.

[Sarah] (10:33 - 10:34)
Once a year holiday.

[Nick] (10:35 - 10:35)
Once a year, exactly.

[Sarah] (10:35 - 10:36)
You probably use a DC charger.

[Nick] (10:36 - 10:38)
Once every three years, if you're like us. Right.

[Sarah] (10:39 - 10:48)
Let's talk about how many kilometres I could add in one hour with the different ways of charging. So, if I plug my EV into just a standard power point at home, how many kilometres could I add in just one hour?

[Nick] (10:48 - 10:50)
In just one hour, you could probably add around 10 kilometres.

[Sarah] (10:51 - 10:52)
OK, with a 15-amp power point?

[Nick] (10:53 - 10:54)
Closer to 20 kilometres.

[Sarah] (10:54 - 11:00)
OK, if I had a dedicated seven kilowatt, you know, standard EV dedicated charger at home, what could I add?

[Nick] (11:00 - 11:03)
Probably add about 50 kilometres in one hour. 

[Sarah] (11:04 - 11:09)
One hour. And what about if I had three phase and I had a 22-kilowatt charger on my wall?

[Nick] (11:09 - 11:20)
You could probably add closer to 140 kilometres in one hour. And you're just out there doing what you want to do. It takes you 10 seconds to plug it in.

Really, all the time you're taking is 10 seconds.

[Sarah] (11:21 - 11:37)
So actually, if you were someone who did a lot of road tripping, so you weren't the average person that did 36 kilometres a day. Let's say that you're doing 100, 150 a day and you really need to have that turnaround. If you have a dedicated charger, even just that seven kilowatt one, you'll wake up to a full charge.

[Nick] (11:37 - 11:38)
You plug it in overnight, you're fully charged.

[Sarah] (11:38 - 11:39)
Yeah.

[Nick] (11:39 - 11:42)
10 seconds to plug it in, go to sleep, wake up, it's fully charged.

[Sarah] (11:42 - 11:45)
Yeah. What about DC fast charging?

[Nick] (11:45 - 11:52)
Well, I mean, DC fast charging, really 60 kilowatts and up. You can charge in maybe 10, 15 minutes the entire vehicle.

[Sarah] (11:52 - 11:53)
Really?

[Nick] (11:53 - 11:55)
Yeah. With the fastest chargers they have out there.

[Sarah] (11:55 - 12:22)
That's amazing. But if you've got a 50, there's a lot of 50-kilowatt DC chargers around the city, I've noticed, older ones. It's maybe 45 minutes from 20 to 80, 90 percent.

You know, your supermarket shop, right? You could go once a week, once a fortnight to the supermarket and charge up that way if you wanted to. And it's OK to DC charge all the time.

I think there's a bit of a myth around that as well in terms of battery degradation. That's it's OK.

[Nick] (12:22 - 12:23)
Yeah.

[Sarah] (12:24 - 12:39)
And DC chargers, just to clarify, they're not like the ones that we're talking about on street poles or at supermarkets. These are the ones that have, because you usually have to bring your own cable for those. These are different.

These are like the petrol bowsers of electric cars, aren't they? Where do you normally see those?

[Nick] (12:39 - 12:50)
Yeah, exactly right. These are petrol bowsers of electric cars. You'll see them more likely on the side of highways or actually at petrol stations.

The Tesla superchargers is an example of them.

[Sarah] (12:50 - 13:00)
It's actually really fun using the Tesla superchargers because in a Tesla, you just tap the charge port and it magically opens. Or you can press the button on the connector as well. But I just love that.

I thought it was cool.

[Nick] (13:00 - 13:01)
In fact, it's very cool.

[Sarah] (13:01 - 13:40)
A Tesla Model Y recently drove me to the supercharger. Oh, it drove me from Sydney to Newcastle. And then on the way back, I was down to about 20 percent.

I was like, boop boop boop, and it just took me off the highway, found it, drove into the supermarket and it drove me to the supercharger. It was absolutely bonkers. This is the future.

The future is here. It's just crazy. I love the superchargers as well because they're very easy to use.

So, we've talked about all the different ways that you can charge. Let's talk about cost. If I was going to just trickle charge my car, plug into a regular power point at home, what would that cost me to fill up, say, per hundred k's the EV versus petrol?

[Nick] (13:40 - 13:42)
Well, if you had solar, it would be free.

[Sarah] (13:42 - 13:42)
True.

[Nick] (13:43 - 13:55)
If you didn't have solar, it might be three to four dollars at home. And if you compare that to a petrol car, you're looking at ten to fifteen dollars per hundred kilometres. Wow.

So, three to fifteen dollars.

[Sarah] (13:56 - 14:09)
That's amazing, isn't it? Imagine that, three bucks for a hundred kilometres. It's a no brainer.

It's an absolute no brainer. What about if I was using one of those dedicated pole chargers? What would that cost me?

[Nick] (14:09 - 14:24)
Using one of those there, it's probably closer to, they're about 40 cents per kilowatt hour, so it might be closer to six dollars per hundred kilometres. We're still less than half. Petrol at fifteen dollars per hundred kilometres.

That's assuming you've got an efficient petrol or diesel car.

[Sarah] (14:25 - 14:43)
OK, so now let's say a DC fast charger. I mean, I know that they vary in price depending on how fast they get. But let's say a 50-kilowatt DC charger, they can vary from 55 to maybe 75 cents, let's say 65 cents roughly.

So, what would that, how would that compare? Is that still cheaper than petrol?

[Nick] (14:43 - 14:48)
It's still cheaper. You're probably looking at closer to ten dollars then. It's still cheaper than the 15 dollars.

[Sarah] (14:48 - 14:50)
And we've got the cheaper servicing costs.

[Nick] (14:50 - 14:52)
We've got the cheaper service running costs.

[Sarah] (14:53 - 14:57)
Yep. And that wouldn't send my bills through the roof charging at home, would it?

[Nick] (14:57 - 15:06)
No, it wouldn't. It wouldn't.

I mean, if you've got solar, it's not going to increase your bill at all. It's going to be free. But if not, you're only looking at three dollars per hundred kilometres.

[Sarah] (15:06 - 15:08)
So, your bill goes up slightly, but you're saving all that money.

[Nick] (15:08 - 15:13)
Your total cost of energy has come way down. You're not spending that money on the petrol and diesel.

[Sarah] (15:13 - 15:25)
Yeah. Wow. So, it's still cheaper.

Even if you were at parity with that and using expensive DC chargers all the time, you're still saving. You're still saving on those servicing costs.

[Nick] (15:25 - 15:32)
You're still saving on your maintenance costs. Yep. You're saving on your downtime of your vehicles, not spending as much time being maintained, less maintenance.

[Sarah] (15:33 - 15:39)
Yeah. It's just better. What's the longest drive or furthest that you've driven in your EV to date?

[Nick] (15:39 - 15:52)
Oh, I regularly take an Ausgrid EV up to Newcastle and back without charging. No, no issue with that at all. Right now, my wife's taking our electric vehicle to the snowy mountains.

She'll charge it a few times along the way.

[Sarah] (15:52 - 16:06)
Actually, I drive that trip all the time as well. And I do it in multiple press cars, back and forth. Sometimes I charge up there and use chargers in the area.

But I recently with my car, I just went up and back and didn't need to charge. It was great.

[Nick] (16:06 - 16:07)
Easy, simple.

[Sarah] (16:07 - 16:14)
So, if I was thinking about going out and buying my very first EV, how would I charge that day to day? What do most people do when they first buy one?

[Nick] (16:15 - 16:23)
They just charge it at home, plug it into the power point, charge it at home. If you don't have a power point, plug it into a curbside charger or plug it in when you go to the local supermarket.

[Sarah] (16:23 - 16:53)
Yeah. And if you want to see what chargers are in your area, you download the PlugShare app and you see all the chargers in your area, all the different types, DC, curbside chargers, destination chargers in your area. There'll be more there than you realise.

There are actually lots around. And that will kind of give you an idea about how and when you'll charge. But most people never use those public charges.

Most people can charge at home. What percentage of Australians can actually charge at home?

[Nick] (16:53 - 16:56)
I think about 70 percent in New South Wales can charge at home.

[Sarah] (16:56 - 16:56)
Yeah.

[Nick] (16:56 - 17:01)
And 30 percent can charge either on the street or a destination or a fast charger.

[Sarah] (17:01 - 18:44)
All right. Let's talk about long journeys and using DC chargers, because there is a charging etiquette that we need to educate the general public, especially new EV owners about. Don't charge to 100 percent.

That's the big thing, right? At a DC charger, you don't charge to 100 percent. And I'm going to explain why.

A battery, filling a battery is like filling a bucket of water and you don't want to spill a drop. OK, so I want you to imagine you don't want to spill a drop of water. You put the hose in and you fill really, really quickly up to 80 percent.

That's great. And then you're on your way. That's the perfect scenario.

Please do that. So, the next 10 percent from 80 to 90 percent. You start to slow down because you don't want to spill any water.

So that charging current just it's slower. The DC charger will slow down. That very last 10 percent from 90 to 100 percent is glacially slow.

That 10 percent can take as long as it took to get to 80 percent. So don't charge to 100 percent because everyone will hate your guts. OK, they will hate you and you don't need it.

Just you whip up to 80 percent and you're on your way. And I think that's a real common misconception and you must learn it. And then you'll look like an absolute EV pro.

So, the bucket of water analogy is that the battery does it to protect itself. But as soon as people know that, charge to 80 percent on your way. So also going on longer car trips, obviously, some cars like a Tesla, for example, will tell you exactly where to stop on the way and how long you just need to stop there and whether they're available, which is a really great thing about that.

But that's not available in all cars. Is there another way that you can kind of plan your trip? How do you do that?

[Nick] (18:44 - 19:00)
Probably the best is you can use Google Maps and you can you can actually click add stop. And the first thing it'll come up with is charging stop. And then it has petrol stations.

But you just click on the charging stops and it'll show you all the charging stops on your trip. And you can click on those and it'll form part of your journey plan.

[Sarah] (19:01 - 19:27)
I think you can even put in what car you own. So, it will know what the range of that car is. I think there's an app called A Better Route Planner as well, which is one that's very common.

Again, you put in your journey and it will tell you exactly where to stop. And it's multiple different brands of chargers. So that's a good one as well.

A lot of options. Yeah. There's actually a lot more chargers around now as well.

I think that's a common misconception. I think people's ideas about charging are from maybe two to three years ago.

[Nick] (19:27 - 19:33)
I think, yeah, there has been a lot more. While there is still more work to do, there's continually more being rolled out.

[Sarah] (19:33 - 19:35)
Well, thank you, Nick. That's brilliant.

[Nick] (19:35 - 19:36)
Thanks for having me, Sarah.

[Sarah] (19:37 - 19:37)
Very cool.

[Nick] (19:37 - 19:41)
That's been excellent to chat and also learn from you. A lot of good examples.

[Sarah] (19:41 - 20:16)
So, three things to remember. Most EVs have more than enough range for daily life. Charging becomes routine quickly once you understand your options.

And the public charging network is growing fast, making longer trips easier than people think. 

That's it for this episode of The Good Energy Guide brought to you by Ausgrid. You can find more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

And head to our website at goodenergy.ausgrid.com.au for practical tools and resources to help you make smarter energy choices.