Is the range of electric vehicles sufficient?

You have a car that runs on fossil fuel such as gasoline or diesel. When you travel frequently from Istanbul to Ankara or Izmir with this vehicle, you can fill your tank beforehand and reach these destinations without needing additional fuel. Likewise, is it possible to reach the same destinations with your fully charged electric vehicle without charging additional electricity during travel?

I guess it seems like it's not that easy to make this happen under today's conditions.

With the number of electric vehicles increasing day by day, the biggest problem for users is the vehicle's range, and finding and accessing charging points is not very easy. Even if you reach the charging points, the charging process of the vehicle can take at least 40 minutes to 60 minutes, excluding waiting. According to the analyses, in order to reach these distances such as Ankara and Izmir, which are approximately 450-500 km on average, the need to find a charging battery and charge your vehicle at least twice during the trip may come to the fore. You need to plan for at least +2 hours of additional time to the current time to reach these destinations, which you can reach from Istanbul in 4-5 hours at a normal speed, so that my battery will run out on the road. What if I get stuck on the road? Stress is a separate psychological condition and the road is a tiring environment that can negatively affect driver safety.

Although the range of electric vehicles is currently around 350-400 km on average, there is actually a recommendation to charge the vehicle battery to a minimum of 15% and a maximum of 85% to ensure longer battery life. In fact, as we know from practice, the maximum comfortable driving range in real use is 240 km and you can use your vehicle for this distance in practice... In addition, the air conditioner, radio, digital applications you use in the vehicle while driving, and the friction coefficient depending on the vehicle speed and vehicle dynamics also cause the battery to run out of charge faster. can prepare. In this case, the vehicle user may feel obliged to charge his vehicle every 240 km on average. Therefore, it can be considered a more rational situation to calculate the practical range of the vehicle as 60% of the range figures given by electric vehicle manufacturers in their catalogs during the marketing and sales phase.

It is also a paradox that you should expect to wait in line at charging points and be prepared to wait on the road while charging! If your vehicle finds a DC charging unit during your travel, you may be a little luckier, you may have the opportunity to charge it at the desired levels in 40-60 minutes. However, if you come across an AC charging unit, this period may last up to 2 hours.

Although the comfort, digitalization and use of green energy of electric vehicles are acceptable and very nature-friendly, it can be predicted that increasing the vehicle range to a minimum of 800 km-1000 km can reduce the stress on the user. In addition, reducing vehicle charging times to 5-10 minutes can mean a range equal to that of conventional vehicles.

It is also known that vehicle manufacturers are working intensively on this issue in an environment where vehicles that actually provide 240 km of comfortable driving within a range of 350-400 km are concentrated. Another question is; In the near future, when there are more vehicles with a range of 800 km to 1000 km, what will happen to other vehicles with lower range? Can the batteries of these vehicles be revised for a longer range? What will be the situation of existing vehicle batteries, which are talked about as almost more than half of the vehicle cost and are expressed as a significant cost? After the vehicle sales, the vehicle insurance industry may need to be prepared for this situation and vehicle users may need to be aware of this.

Although saving energy/fuel consumption is prioritized when using electric vehicles, prioritizing road, driver and passenger safety should be considered a more important issue. A vehicle that suddenly runs out of battery while traveling may become more dangerous if it gets stuck in the middle of the highway among vehicles traveling at least 120 km/h. For this reason, in a situation where the charge indicators of electric vehicle users show 2%; Since it is recommended not to move electric vehicles after their charge is finished for safety reasons, it may be appropriate to keep their vehicles close to the safety lane if possible, to approach the far right side of the road, to prepare themselves by anticipating that the charge will run out at any moment, and to request a tow truck for the nearest charging point. In the light of this information, although long range discussions in electric vehicles refer to numbers and kilometers, one of the main issues that should be focused on should be road, driver and passenger safety, which will minimize the negative effects that may occur during travel as a result of running out of battery, and precautions should be taken accordingly.

Although it is certain that long-range electric vehicles will appear on the road in the near future, current low-range and short-time charging DC charging stations, which are the supporting elements of these vehicles, may need to be placed with a distance of at least 5 km, such as fuel stations, for road safety.