Long Range Electric Cars Cost Less

No one complained about gasoline cars going much further than you would ever drive. As people got used to them, it was realized that long-range means less hassle. With electric cars, the argument is even stronger. Long-range saves you money. If we process data from a recent listing by Visual Capitalist, we discover that the top ten by range (average 316 miles) have half the cost per mile ($206/mile) of the bottom ten. IDTechEx has separately found that long-range electric cars depreciate one-third as much as short-range ones. Indeed, those long-range cars, with about double the range, cycle their batteries half as often, potentially delaying the day when their owners need to buy an eye-wateringly expensive new battery. 80% of the longest-range cars are Teslas and that company is now by far the world’s most valuable car company. What a coincidence.

The new IDTechEx report, “Routes to 1000 Mile (1600km) Battery Electric Cars 2021-2041” cautions about new Chinese cars doing even better because they use the NEDC test cycle that exaggerates range. However, the race is on and the short-range electric cars will go the way of gasoline cars that could only struggle 200 miles or less.