EV Range Anxiety for Rural Dwellers doesn't need to be a thing
In December 2022 we picked up our first EV - SUV style, maximum range is 435 kilometres on a single charge. Granted that's not a long period of ownership, but we didn't go into this eyes clamped shut. A bit of plotting was undertaken and a bit of "it won't work / you're mad advice" considered.
We don't "tour" much because we've got stock to be cared for, but we do a fair amount of driving around - to the nearest large rural town (91ks one way) at least monthly, sometimes more frequently as that's where the doctors, hospitals (particularly if transport for somebody local is required), the greengrocers, and the "shops" are.
Other than that there's the regular 42k trip to the nearest minor rural town for vet visits (we really should have priority parking there by now!) and various bits and pieces, the run to the nearby tiny town which is 20ks - post office / library / pub / take the dog's for a stroll along the river in summer when the snake situation in the paddocks is a bit too fraught, and a bit of wandering about the neighbourhood.
So not a lot of driving, and it is often reasonably spaced out (although there's always "those weeks" where you never seem to get out of the car).
We're in central west Victoria, in the middle of nothing much in the way of public infrastructure. Nearest chargers (super or not) are at the end of the 42k trip, with the 91k trip taking us to a supercharger and a heap of other choices if we need them. We have our own solar system and battery on the house, which is grid interactive by choice - long story / lots of reasons. There are very few days in the year when we're not pushing some power back to the grid - so we trickle charge the car at home, using an extension cord at the moment. We've got a solar interactive charging station coming at the end of February.
Mostly the car is fully charged when it heads out the door (takes about 30 hours from dead empty, but if we're doing a couple of runs on consecutive days we can charge it overnight off the battery, otherwise we just trickle it over the day, turning on and off automatically based on the solar collectors efficiency). On the rare occasion we've charged at one of the charging stations, we've found that in the main we're waiting for long enough to grab a coffee or do a bit of browsing in a nearby shop before it's charged and ready to go, and the cost is NOTHING compared to what we were coughing up in diesel for the last car. (Our only complaint there is that it would be very very nice to have some chargers nearer to the aforementioned coffee shops and/or cover from the sun - it's bloody hot out here in summer.)
Anyway, my point is anxiety about range. We just don't get it. We have all the apps and the car points out the location of chargers. We top up if we're near a charger and think it's worth the wait to be 100% sure, or if it's a bit cloudy / overcast at home (ask anyone out here - it doesn't rain / lack of solar is the least of our problems), and we keep an eye on the levels. Just the same as we did with fuel. The number of times we had to top up from the diesel tank on the farm (for the tractor etc) because we'd stuffed up and the warning light came on after the last fuel station I can't begin to remember. The number of times that we just topped up on the road because you don't know a) where the next fuel station is and b) the price of diesel varies like nobody's noticing when you live in the bush. So we used EXACTLY the same behaviour then as we're using now - we keep an eye on things, we do a lot of "topping up" if we're around somewhere convenient. We keep an eye on the options at home and we rarely leave home without 435ks range in the "tank".
So anyway - no more thinking or planning than we needed to do when we were driving a diesel - in the land outside the world of frequent fuel stations (ask us about the people we've had to top up with fuel because distance between fuel stations isn't something taken into account it seems). A lot more convenience in some ways because now we have apps like PlugShare that has brilliant trip planning and Evie, ChargeFox and everything else that we can happily peer at and dream / one day we will "tour".
Interestingly we had a look at the Western Highway over Christmas - there's charging options every 100 or so kilometres, with fast chargers every 200 or so kilometres - all the way to Adelaide. We've joked it would be worth a Costco run there one day, probably an easier drive than battling with Melbourne's interminable roadworks.
