EV Range Anxiety Plummets After Purchase, New Data Reveals

Daily Car

·

23/12/2025

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Many people who think about buying an electric car worry that the battery will run out before they reach a charger. After they buy the car, the worry almost disappears. A company that studies battery life, used numbers from Plug In America and found that current owners are far less anxious than shoppers.

Key Takeaways

Almost one in two shoppers feel range anxiety - yet fewer than one in four owners feel it.
Americans drive about thirty to forty miles on a normal day, far below the distance today's EVs cover on one charge.
Owners use only a small slice of the battery's full distance each day.

The Shrinking Fear of Empty Batteries

Surveys show that forty eight out of every hundred would be buyers still fear the battery will die. After purchase, only twenty two out of every hundred keep that fear. Real life turns out easier than imagined.

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Year-over-year, pre purchase worry has fallen by almost twenty two percent. Batteries now last longer and chargers appear in more places - the fear keeps fading.

Understanding Real-World Range Needs

The main reason for the drop is that shoppers over estimate how far they need to go. A routine day needs about thirty to forty miles. A new EV delivers roughly three hundred miles. Daily errands use only the first slice of that distance.

Long trips need more thought than with a gasoline car - yet they are workable. Across all cars in Recurrent's data set, owners draw down only twelve point six percent of the battery on an ordinary day. Even drivers who own models rated above three hundred plus fifty miles tap less than twelve percent of the pack leaving most of the range untouched.

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Shifting Perspectives with Ownership

Owners echo the numbers - after a short learning period, most charge to eighty percent for weekday driving and skip the full one hundred percent. That habit protects the battery and still covers the commute. The change shows that owners now trust both the car but also their own routines.

As cars gain more range and chargers become easier to find, the space between imagined limits and real ability will keep shrinking as well as the move to electric power will feel simpler.

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