Morgan Crosbie sells cars for a living and owns an electric vehicle and as far as he’s concerned the issue of range anxiety is overblown.
Morgan has a popular YouTube channel called Cars and Crosbie that is about anything and everything related to Corvettes. He does that while also working as a sales representative for Finch Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac in London, Ontario. He owns three vehicles, a gas-powered Corvette, diesel-powered pickup truck and EV, specifically the Cadillac LYRIQ that he leased last December. He jokingly calls it his Dad-illac.
“I think a lot of the objections people have about electric vehicles are extremely shallow,” he told me. “Range anxiety is a big one. Once they start to educate themselves on it, they will realize it’s a lot more simplified.”
He said range anxiety shouldn’t be an issue because most people don’t drive 400-500 kilometres a day, which is about the limit most EVs have before they need to be fully charged. He used an example of someone driving from Toronto to Montreal and worrying that they will have to wait five to six hours to recharge once they start to run low.
“In reality, you would only just top it up until you got to your destination and then charge it overnight with wherever you were going on your trip,” he said. “The physics of how batteries work is something people don’t recognize. It takes the same amount of time to go from zero to 80 percent to charge a car as it does to go from 80 to 100.
So it’s a diminishing return when you charge the vehicle. When you are at a low battery level, it charges extremely fast.”
He said topping up an extra 200 kilometres would only take 20 to 30 minutes at a DC fast-charging station. He added by planning a long-distance trip ahead of time using a mobile app and applying it to your car infotainment system, you can see where there are charging stations along the way. He said the charging infrastructure is “exceptional” now with charging stations along most major highways.
“My concern is we’re not going to be able to keep up once these electric vehicles become mainstream,” he said. “Right now, for example, if you wanted to stay at a Marriott Hotel, you can go there and charge overnight for free. We haven’t built this up to the point where we’re having to worry about hotels charging you to park your car overnight. Right now, you can get away with quite a bit and not have to worry about anything.”
To illustrate that, he wanted to push the limits to see how far he could go with his EV. He had a business trip from London to Bowling Green, Kentucky and back. The total distance amounted to almost 2,000 kilometres. He did it in 35 hours, counting the time he spent overnight. His car has a 500-kilometre capacity range.
“I wanted to be able to test what this thing is capable of doing,” he said. “In a scenario where you could drive 1,000 kilometres in a day, this is not as unrealistic as you think because there are DC fast-charging networks that are integrated into your vehicle’s (infotainment system). When you put a destination into your vehicle, it shows you every charging station along the way.
“In about 10 minutes of charging at a DC fast-charging station I could get about 100 kilometres of range,” he added. “I don’t know that many people that are going to drive 500 kilometres to begin with. If you do, you’re definitely going to need to take a break. That break is more than enough time to get you another 200 kilometres of range if you are realistic. That reverts back to that example I was saying that range anxiety is a shallow objection.”
He said some people going on a family vacation treat the driving experience like a NASCAR pit crew changing tires when they stop to refuel or take a break to eat.
“If I’m going to drive 800 kilometres in a day, why not make it a fun adventure and stop somewhere unique and have a bite to eat and at the same time charge up your vehicle,” he said. “Why not have a life experience, charge up the vehicle and get to the final destination at the same time? You’re not really limited to an institutional place to refuel. You should now open up your horizon.
“We’re at a point now where you become more efficient, spend less money and enjoy the road trip part. Why not make it seem like that’s part of the adventure?”
Perry Lefko is the Content Manager of The Car Magazine. He can be reached at [email protected]. Feel free to forward any story suggestions or comments.