Why people still worry about EV range

For years, range anxiety has cropped up as a major factor holding people back from switching to an EV (electric vehicle).

In dealer showrooms, family group chats, comment sections and road trip planning chats alike, questions are asked: Will it get me there? What do I do if things do not go to plan?

Those concerns have not vanished, but it’s also no longer a simple conversation about how far an EV can drive on a single charge, or whether there will be a charger at the destination. EV technology has come a long way; the range anxiety conversation now hangs on a person's personal experience (or lack thereof) of owning an EV.

We examine why range anxiety remains a concern for prospective EV buyers and what the data and firsthand experience suggest about addressing it.

What is EV range anxiety?

The old version of range anxiety was fairly straightforward. Early EVs often had shorter driving range, unreliable range status “guess-o-meters”, patchy charging options, and few EV trip-planning tools. If you were nervous, there was usually a good reason.

Today, many EVs can comfortably cover daily driving and then some. There are more EV chargers around, and this is on the increase. Yet range anxiety still crops up – but why?

Is range anxiety still a purchase barrier?

For most drivers, daily travel is well within the capability of a modern EV. Commuting, school runs and local errands are rarely the issue. The anxiety tends to appear around exceptions: the annual road trip, a busy holiday weekend, extreme weather, towing, or the possibility that a charger may be occupied or out of service.

That is one reason range anxiety still shows up strongly in consumer research. People may say they are worried about range, but the deeper concern is often whether the whole trip will feel easy and predictable.

Recent survey data backs that up. In NRMA’s 2025 EV member attitudes research, 23% of respondents cited range as a top reason they would not buy an EV, up from 18% in 2024. At the same time, more people showed awareness that EVs can travel further than they once did. That suggests the issue is not simply ignorance about battery range. There is also uncertainty about how EV ownership works in practice.

This is not unique to Australia, though Australia provides a useful example. It combines long-distance driving conditions with a highly urbanised population whose day-to-day travel is usually modest. In other words, it is a place where modern EVs make sense for many households, but where concerns still flare around edge cases such as remote travel, school holiday traffic and less frequent regional charging.

Why do people feel range anxiety?

The same pattern can be seen elsewhere. In many countries, people are comfortable with the idea of an EV for city driving, but may be less certain about longer trips or homes without easy charging access. Apartment residents, renters and first-time EV users often have different concerns from households with a driveway and the ability to charge overnight.

That helps explain who feels range anxiety most strongly. It is often highest among people who have never owned an EV or have had little direct experience with one. An apartment dweller, for example, may be navigating unfamiliar charging apps, public chargers and battery use for the first time. Even if the route is manageable, the experience can feel more complicated than a service station.

Drivers can also overestimate how much range they need. Someone who usually travels 20 or 25 miles a day may still feel uneasy unless the car has several hundred miles in reserve. That does not always reflect actual driving needs. It reflects habit. Petrol-powered cars taught drivers to refuel quickly and infrequently. EVs ask for a different mindset: charge more often when convenient, and plan longer trips a little differently.

That learning curve is part of the story. So is the wider public narrative around EVs. Stories about broken chargers, queues or failed road trips tend to travel further than ordinary success stories. A difficult charging stop claims more of our memory’s real estate space, even if thousands of uneventful trips happen every day. Some buyers are also still working from outdated assumptions based on earlier generations of EVs, when driving range was shorter and public charging was harder to find.

This is why range anxiety can be thought of in three broad ways. There is the technical side, which includes actual driving range, weather, terrain and charger availability. There is the psychological side, which is about confidence, habits and perceived risk. And there is the public narrative side, shaped by headlines, media tropes and second-hand stories.¹

All three matter, but they do not require the same solution.

Is there a cure for range anxiety?

Improving battery range remains helpful, especially for buyers who travel long distances. Charger coverage matters too, as does reliability, visibility, simple payment systems and accurate in-car route planning.

Experience also matters. Longer test drives, EV rentals, workplace fleets and public education programs can make a real difference because they replace assumptions with familiarity. A review of NRMA’s EV Drive Days in collaboration with the DEECCW (The NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water) found that many participants felt less worried about range after first-hand exposure, although some still wanted more time behind the wheel. That points to a simple truth: information helps, but experience is often more powerful.

For the next wave of EV buyers, the challenge is not necessarily building cars with longer range. It is making the whole ownership experience feel normal, visible and dependable.

Reference:

1. Katharina Benedetta Baden, ‘More than just miles: range anxiety unplugged, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice,’ Volume 200, 2025, 104661, ISSN 0965-8564, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2025.104661.