"A new study out of the UK finds that more than a third of EV drivers lost their fear of running out of charge within three months of driving their vehicles.
The data from this new study was collected from eight Technology Strategy Board (TSB) trials across the UK. The trials involved 340 ultra-low carbon vehicles. The study also discovered 83 percent of private drivers said the vehicles met their daily driving needs.
For more than three months, drivers were clocking up to 677,209 miles during 110,389 journeys. This put the average drive at six miles, which was just below the UK average of seven miles.
Every driver that took part in the trial, expressed concern prior to the test drives that they would not be able to reach their destination with an EV, but after three months, 35 percent of those drivers no longer felt that way.
Andrew Everett, head of transport at the TSB, told BusinessGreen that the reason for the decrease in range anxiety was because after three months, drivers became more familiar with the car and how to plan out their trips before embarking on them.
“You can see in three months there are people adapting really quickly to electric cars and seeing how they [in turn] adapt to their lives,” he said. “It surprised a lot of us – and the ease with which people adapted surprised us as well.”
During the trial,drivers did not change the length of their trips or daily mileage usage. Charging data showed users gained more confidence in their journey distance – there was an eight percent increase in users allowing their batteries to drop below half full before recharging their EV.
Even though range anxiety doesn’t appear to be as big of an issue as it once was, experts say that “an increased range is still a key desire” for electric vehicles."
Em: http://nissan-leaf.net/2011/09/12/study ... ee-months/