Yup… upvoted. Range is moot because most people can’t sit still for 5-6 hours at a stretch… or shouldn’t. Current EV’s with 300 mile range are more than good enough and frankly I’ve not had a problem with my ~220 mile Polestar 2 even despite multiple cross-country trips (600 miles or thereabouts).

The charging infrastructure needs to be a LOT better and a lot more reliable. The compute in most of our cars or on our phones is more than enough to properly plan a route but it does assume the charger is working or working at a decent speed. My last trip I avoided Electrify America like the plague despite still having free charging from them because every EA charger I’ve been to in the last 6 months seems to max out at 80kw when I had previously seen 155kw consistently on those exact same chargers.

Charging speed is also a bit of an issue with the current crop of EV’s, but not nearly as bad as people think. I took to taking shorter spans between stops at lower SoC on a recent trip too and when I was able to keep my charging about 150kw it made my trip slightly shorter than what I had been doing previously. But there are still too many massive “charging deserts” in the US (try driving from Michigan down to Indianapolis and see how much fun it can be with zero fast charging between the Ohio/Indiana/Michigan border and Indianapolis)

Honestly 250 is fine if the charging infrastructure gets built up.

But prices will have to come down. EVs are cheaper to build but we’re paying for the giant batteries and R&D. At some point the cost profile will be so much better than iCE cars that the market will flip itself.

Just having 500 mile range EVs available is the tipping point. Most people don’t need and won’t get that but seeding the idea into the heads of the general populace is the key here.

It’s just like how I think we need big, tall signs over every fast charging location. My nav is better than any sign for finding a charger, sure. But those signs aren’t for me: they’re for the millions out there who still say “I don’t see any chargers around here”.

We don’t need 500 mile range EVs so that everybody can have 500 mile range EVs. We need 500 mile range EVs to prove to everybody that they can have an EV.

A true 300, in real life situation, would be fine . I get about 250 miles in my “330 mile” Model Y.

This

Some new ICE cars don’t even reliably get 300 miles. My partners new Honda Civic when filled to full only reads 265 on particularly bad stop-and-go traffic days. Even though it supposedly gets up to 350 in the city, or 400 on the highway.

Having driven from Florida to Ohio in it, it definitely isn’t 400 between fill ups, maybe if we’re only doing 60mph, but considering the speed limit is 70 and everyone moves close to 80+, we didn’t see that. 300 was probably closer to what we saw, though we were getting a respectable 35+ mpg on the way up as a whole.

Charging infrastructure is not ready for that. Probably better to increase range for the cars so even if charging isn’t that convenient, it only happens once every month or something.

Agreed, charging speed and availability is a much bigger deal. 300-400 miles will be fine for “fully price” and lower end luxury cars, 200-250 miles will be fine for budget cars. We might see a small market for 400-600 mile cars in certain luxury segments (there are people who buy SUVs with a 500 mile range gas tank and are adamant they need it), but those will be fairly niche because they will be expensive and the people who want them will have to be willing to pay for them.

Normalizing 250-350kw charging with a good charging curve that lets it stay in that high speed band for longer will be the real game changer.

Your EV will charge faster if 300 miles of range falls within 20-80% state of charge

Exactly. The range is already there. I think price is the issue…for now. Oh and charging locations for road trips…for now. Oh and jelly ice owners keying EVs…for now