‘Range anxiety’ makes electric vehicles safer

‘Green’ car owners drive more cautiously to extend battery charge distance – and have fewer accidents

Electric vehicles are less likely to be involved in accidents than petrol or diesel ones because “range anxiety” makes drivers go slower, says research. Range anxiety is the fear the car will run out of power, instinctively making people drive more cautiously. E-car batteries degrade in time, so users are advised to avoid rapid charging or keeping the battery at 100 per cent, to minimise exposure to high temperatures and they are encouraged to make regular short trips.

ELECTRIC vehicles are less likely to be involved in accidents than petrol or diesel ones because “range anxiety” makes their drivers go slower, says research.

Range anxiety is the fear that the car will run out of power, instinctively making people drive more cautiously. E-car batteries degrade over time, so users are advised to avoid rapid charging or keeping the battery at 100 per cent, minimise exposure to high temperatures when parked and encouraged to make regular short trips.

Industry figures say the tendency for electric car users to drive more slowly could cut injuries and deaths, with electric vehicle numbers predicted to soar by 2030 when sales of new fossil fuel vehicles are banned.

“There is a noticeable difference in the rate at which your range will fall when you are travelling at 30mph compared to 40mph,” Neale Kinnear at TRL – previously the Transport Research Laboratory – told The Sunday Times.

“When you drive an electric vehicle, compared to an internal combustion vehicle, you start to think about energy conservation and that may lead to more economical and safer styles of driving.”

In the year to the end of August, Lex Autolease, which has 350,000 cars, found 24 per cent of its petrol or diesel cars needed workshop repairs after an accident. But only 14 per cent of electric cars and 15 per cent of hybrids did.

Chris Chandler, at Lex, said: “If you look at the reduction in accidents from internal combustion engine, through hybrid to electric, almost the cleaner the car, the lower the incident rate.

“There’s a high probability that it’s driver behaviour reducing those rates.”

The shift to electric vehicles by 2030, with hybrids banned by 2035, is a key part of the Government’s green push as Boris Johnson prepares to host the Cop26 climate summit in November.

Affordability and convenience remain stumbling blocks to take-up, prompting ministers to announce e-car charging points are to be installed at every new home and office under legislation to be brought forward this year.

The number of fully electric cars more than doubled to 224,000 in March from 108,000 in March 2020, but forecasts say the electric vehicle market will need to grow seven-fold over the next five years to hit the 2030 target.

Breakdowns due to running out of charge more than halved in the past five years, with just 3.71 per cent of e-car breakdowns attended by patrols so far this year blamed on charge outages. But a poll of 14,000 drivers by the AA found that 51 per cent were worried about running out of charge on a motorway.

In the year to June 2020, around 24,470 people were killed or seriously injured in road traffic accidents reported to the police, though this was an 11 per cent drop on the previous year.

Edmund King, of the AA, said that for electric cars “the obsession with range does also influence drivers to slow down, keep constant speeds and avoid sharp braking or harsh acceleration. EV drivers play the ‘range game’ to see how many extra miles they can squeeze out of the battery. It is a badge of honour.”