Scrabble tiles spelling out the word 'anxiety'

Most people right now are hesitant to switch to EVs because they are worried about battery range. This is particularly true of people who live in rural areas.

We’ve done some work on finding ways to help you through the maze of misunderstandings and apprehensions to show you that it’s not as big a problem as you might think.

First: Most rural dwellers have a space outside the house where they can park the car – so home charging is nearly always possible. THis means you can start the day leaving home with a full battery.

Second: Battery ranges now for even a cheaper EV are good: the Dacia Spring costs €28k and has a range of 225km.

Third: You don’t need as much range as you think. We all imagine we need to be able to drive long distances whenever we want. For most people this isn’t borne out by the facts.

How can we know this for ourselves? Thankfully there is a way to find out using Google Timeline on your mobile.

Use Google Maps to see details on your trips.

Open google maps on your phone and follow the steps shown below:

Select ‘YOU’, then ‘TIMELINE’ then ‘TRIPS’. You’ll be shown a list of all the trips [1] you have made.

Look for those that show ‘driving’. You’ll probably see that most are less than 220km. For those that aren’t, ask yourself how many of those journeys could have been made by train or intercity bus? For the rest, could you have broken the journey for 20 munites to get a coffee and a recharge in a motorway service station?

If your left with one or two trips in the year outside those solutions, think: would it have been too much of a challenge to rent a petrol car for those couple of trips? Remember EVs typically save the owner €750 per year over diesel alternatives 

Why don’t you have a look at some of our personal stories relating to in Ireland travel to see what others have done and was switching to an EV as much of a challenge as they thought?

[1] ‘Trips’ in you Google timeline relates to special journeys outside the norm. These aren’t your commute or work driving (remember work driving is in your employer’s carbon footprint) so there won’t be too many to look at in any given year.

A diagram shwong the steps needed to use google maps to show your trips. Slect 'You; then 'Timeline' then Trips' and then select each trip

The trip shown above was Dublin to Galway which could easily have been made by train.