How Much Range is Enough Range?

Let me start this with saying I really like Mini’s, quite a bit actually but I’ve never considered them a practical car. For my part my previous electric car was a Smart Fortwo. Makes the Mini seem big! My Smart would get about 95 miles in absolute perfect conditions and around 55 in the coldest of winter in the Boston area. The Smart only had level 2 charging but with a 17KW battery it didn’t really need fast charging. I had the car on a three year lease and absolutely adored it, still miss it today. Much like the Mini my Smart was a very small car with a limited range but for daily driving it was fine, plus it was cheap to own for an EV. In the end I had to give it up because it did have limitations and I needed a more practical car. As I think about it, it’s quite possible the Mini could have made up where the Smart car lacked for my needs but it would have been an incremental improvement.

 

We consider our Mini SE our little red hot rod sports car, that just happens to be cheap transportation (for an EV). I don't think you're comparing apples to oranges. Much like every other EV right now, good luck finding one in stock, or I would recommend a test drive in an SE and try not to have an ear-to-ear smile.

 

When the KIA EV6/Hyundai Ioniq5 displace the Niro/Kona EV they will fall in value. The step in height is easy on my creaky knees.
(I drive a 2019 Niro EV)

It's not a *great* car, and it has the unfortunate attachment with loathsome KIA dealership network but is reliable, reasonably priced and adequate.

 

Range and charging time are inversely related. If you get really fast charging, range is less important. Right now the value proposition is right around 250 miles + or -.
60-80 kw battery is 'standard' 100 is 'extra' for a compact car
When battery density improves, that will go up.
With 800 volt systems, high rate charging, I really don't see where range will increase for a 'regular' car much past 350 miles. For most people there is simply no need
I have had my Kia for just 1 year now, and it has only ever been charged at home on a 20 amp 240v charger. Came in late one night and it actually didn't finish charging by morning. The horror. I have a 15 mile round trip commute.

Most people do not routinely drive more than, as an estimate, 450 mile one way regularly, over 6 hour drive one way. That means the average new electric car really doesn't add a stop for the average driver. A new Kia EV6 would add maybe 10-12 minutes to that 6 hour drive.
Once you get longer than that, the time starts adding up. If you drove NH to VA to visit family 4 times a year, this might not quite be the time to go electric, but maybe you don't mind.
I consider the time I don't spend at gas stations the trade off

 

Use PlugShare to map either a CCS-1 route and then a SuperCharger route. When buying an EV, you are committed to either fast DC charging networks. Know you EV peak charging rate as some are relatively slow.

Reduce the segment range by a comfortable 25-35 miles reserve. Check the ‘scores’ and comments for charging reliability. You want to avoid L2 charging that can take a lot longer.

Good luck!

Bob Wilson

 

You don't miss Gas station coffee?

 

We are arguably in the fourth wave of coffee now...maybe fifth wave once we start pulling our dialed-in espressos powered by V2L.

 

I carry canned/bottled, black coffee in the car. This especially after finding ONLY sweetened and flavored coffee at a quick market. Even the 'automated' machines only had sweet and flavored. I don't do 'candy' drinks.

Bob Wilson

 

I would say I want 2-2.5 hours of range at 75/80mph on the assumption that there are fast chargers spaced that far apart for me. So 160 miles

That said…

due to slow charging above 80% and wanting a 10% buffer the 160 miles represents 70% so 230 miles total range on 100%.

but…

last week I drove from Amarillo to Albuquerque and I went from 96% to 9% of the battery doing 140 miles as I had a 30mph headwind the whole way… so I was glad I was driving the long range Y vs a standard range.

So I’m sticking with over 300 miles EPA to allow for practical stop intervals at high speed freeway in either cold/headwind conditions.

 

170 miles towing an Airstream 22ft trailer should be decent EV range.