There's just no substitute for actually living with one for a while. I made the switch with some trepidation, because I do 20,000 miles a year - much of it for work, where timescales can be tight. After a while, I realised that actually, I didn't have to tow a 2 ton trailer non-stop from Lands End to John O'Groats that often. You just get into a different way of thinking. It's funny, but range was a real worry to me before I started driving one. Now, if anything, I'd rather have a cheaper, lighter one with LESS range! What I've come to realise, is that as long as it has more range than my bladder, the range is actually pretty irrelevant.
I wouldn't have one if I couldn't charge from home. That's a definite. But being able to charge from home, is a game changer. Having driven ICEs for 40 years now, I just got so used to having to go to a filling station to fill up. The reality, is that charging from home, you can set off with a "full tank" every time, if you want. We're just not used to that.
In effect, that means even in winter, a round trip of under 200 miles, is just not worth even thinking about. Just get in and drive, plug back in when you get home. It's about as difficult and time-consuming as putting the kettle on! The vast majority of car trips are covered, right there.
If it's a longer trip, then I generally drive util I need a wee / drink / rest and stop briefly (just as I would have done in an ICE car). I'll plug into a fast charger for 10-15 minutes, typically, grab my drink, and be on my way again. That'll typically get me (depending on the power of the charger, the state of charge of the battery and the temperature), maybe another 100 miles or so. Repeat as necessary. I think the mistakes the newbies tend to make most often, is charging to 100%. That's where you get all the horror stories of them plugging into a 300 kW charger and it still taking an hour to charge. When the battery is warm, and at a fairly low state of charge (say 30% or less), they usually charge like greased lightning on a powerful DC charger. It'll go from 30% to 50% in a few minutes, no bother. 30-60% might take something like 10 minutes. Most EVs have charging curves a bit like this:
So you can see that:
(a) for my car, it's pointless plugging into a charger of more than 200kW, because the car itself can't accept much more than 200kW anyway - even when nearly flat and:
(b) by the time the battery is at 50% charge, the charging rate is already only half what it was when the battery was nearly flat;
(c) by the time the battery is 80% charged, it's only charging at about a quarter of the speed it was when you first plugged in.
So the best thing to do, is work the bottom 2/3 of the battery when you're on a long run. (It's also kinder to the battery).
I find it quicker to stop twice and charge from (say) 20% to 60% each time, than to stop once and charge from 20% to 100%. It's "different" to what I've been used to doing on ICEs all my life, but I can't say it makes that much difference to overall journey time on a long run, when I'd have been stopping anyway. Rather than wanting more range, my concerns now revolve around wanting more (and faster) chargers. If it's going to go pear-shaped, it's when I stop for a break and there isn't a suitable charger available. That's a bigger problem than range. However, those situations are pretty rare these days, and getting better by the month as more public chargers are installed.
