MIT: ‘Range Anxiety’ for Electric Cars Is Overblown

Relying on a single charge, today’s electric vehicles could replace 87 percent of daily car travel in the U.S. and cut gasoline consumption by 60 percent.

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Using the 2013 Nissan Leaf as the base for their calculations, researchers at MIT analyzed driving patterns and battery capacity and found that “range anxiety”—fear that a car’s battery will die without timely access to a charging station—is overblown. If battery technology improves as expected, electric vehicles could replace 98 percent of existing vehicles by 2020.

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News: Washington Post, Carbon Brief, MIT Technology Review, Ars Technica, Pacific Standard

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