Comprehensive assessment for different ranges of battery electric vehicles: Is it necessary to develop an ultra-long range battery electric vehicle?

Some automotive companies develop battery electric vehicles (BEVs) with an ultra-long range to address consumers’ range anxiety. However, ultra-long-range BEVs have many problems, and whether they can truly solve consumers’ range anxiety has not been studied. Thus, we build a technology-rich, bottom-up approach model to evaluate BEVs’ performance, economy, and total cost of ownership (TCO) to reveal the necessity of developing ultra-long-range BEVs. The results show that the ultra-long-range BEVs’ dynamic, safety, and economy performances are poor compared to short-range BEVs. Based on the TCO analysis considering battery replacement and alternative transportation costs, 400 km is the optimal range of BEVs for consumers. In addition, consumers’ range anxiety is essentially anxiety about energy replenishment. Ultra-long-range BEV cannot really solve consumers’ range anxiety except by reducing charging frequency. In the case of gradually improving the charging and swapping infrastructure, we believe that automotive companies do not need to develop ultra-long-range BEVs.