Electric Vehicles Cannot Deliver Instant Gratification. Or can they?
Mrs. Clara F.’s all-electric vehicle was great for shopping around the city and visiting friends. It was a reliable car, with a range of 80 miles on a single charge and it featured ‘regenerative braking’ technology. Running on electricity, the smooth car was also clean, safe, durable and almost maintenance-free, a must-have for a busy woman in her 50's like Mrs. Clara was. But that was in 1915 and she was the wife of Mr. Ford, the car manufacturer.
That’s right, exactly one hundred years ago, electric vehicles were mainstream. True, they were slow, but people were patient back then. With autonomies comparable to those of the present-day all-electric cars, they sold in thousands and cities like New Work were populated by recharging stations everywhere. One of the most reliable brands was Detroit Electric, and women preferred them instead of gas cars because their simplicity of use, no risk of oil spills and no engine failures (read frequent explosions, as it was happening with petrol cars of that age). No wonder Mrs. Ford owned three Detroit Electric EV’s and loved the model, despite her husband producing thousands of oil-based vehicles, famously known as Ford Model T.
However, within a decade, the electric cars industry of those times faded away entirely, ‘disrupted’ by the more autonomous oil engine and other subsequent innovations like the electric starter and the exhaust muffler.
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Back in our time, we are witnessing the second advent of the Electric Vehicle. Gadgetry aside, the functioning cycle remains the same as a century ago: charge — drive — recharge. The problem, however, is that the car buyer today lives in the age of Instant Gratification (IG): getting information, food, traveling, socializing and living in general is subject to this new phenomenon, never known before in humankind history.
Now people demand to have or experience something without delay. Now. Now…NOW!! Never before were people able to access instant _____ (insert whatever noun defines your lifestyle and it will work for sure), at the push of a button, or swipe of a card or at the approach of a NFC-enabled device. Globally, patience is not a required virtue anymore. Except in one minor technical area: recharging an EV.
As opposed to refueling a gas tank in 3–4 minutes, putting back energy into an EV takes a lot more time. For now, charging time (let’s note that Tchg) is about 30 minutes for, say, a Tesla Model S or a Nissan Leaf to reach 80% battery capacity on a special super-charger. Even more, EV owners already have to nervously wait in line (paywall) for topping up their cars at crowded charging stations. Let’s call this Charging Time Anxiety (shorten it to CTA for future reference) and cutting it will depend upon creating more charging points in correlation to the expected increase of global EV sales.
Now, the next challenge the pure EV user has to face is the car autonomy. Of course, the larger the battery, the greater the distance on a single charge (and let’s note this Dchg). Just like Mrs. Ford’s EV, today’s electric cars are still averaging 80 miles per charge in real life (except for Tesla Model S with over 270 miles EPA). So it is clear that most EV’s are designed for city driving. While not a problem for the average daily commuter, the EV autonomy turns into a nightmarish déjà-vu feeling for the brave cross-country explorer. Obviously, if an EV runs out of energy outside a city, its options are limited to towing and nothing else. Huge holiday problem. This well documented issue is known as Range Anxiety (RA) and it can currently affect any over-optimistic driver who ignores the energy management of her/his EV.
While not a problem for the average daily commuter, the EV autonomy turns into a nightmarish déjà-vu feeling for the brave cross-country explorer
The EV industry is fighting against those two anxieties (CTA and RA) in incremental steps. Battery upgrades, free recharging for lifetime, expanding the charge network are all parts of the arsenal the EV makers use to lure the clients towards electric cars. Still, those are not substitutes for human patience. Decades of the so-called “old way of driving” (as coined by Reid Hoffman) shaped the mindset of the care-free car users. Now our perception is that the two anxieties have a direct impact on personal liberty. And especially on its newest form: Instant Gratification. If one tries a not-so-scientific formula for that, the obvious conclusion comes into play:
If the two human anxieties above would be offset by technological advances in faster energy storage and range increase per single charge, the EV’s Instant Gratification ability will switch the potential buyers towards the next normal of mobility. But for now, the average consumers won’t take the risks. They are hardly thinking about divorcing their fossil cars.
The single instance of Instant Gratification provided by an EV for now comes from its instant acceleration capability: while the thermal engine builds up torque, the electric engine is capable to deliver it all at once.
Furthermore, Mr. Musk of Tesla Motors just let us know earlier this week he can scoop 5% more IG, just by upgrading the Crazy mode of Model S to the following exhilarating …err Ludicrous mode. And there you have a Tesla paradox: incredible Instant Gratification will happen to those patient enough to wait for the Ludicrous mode.
Originally published at www.linkedin.com.
