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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
John Naughton

Forget range anxiety: we should really worry about China’s global dominance in the electric car market

A BYD saloon in a German showroom
Chinese marque BYD recently overtook Tesla to become the world’s biggest electric carmaker. Photograph: Annegret Hilse/Reuters

Whenever people learn that I have an electric vehicle (EV) the conversation invariably turns to whether I suffer from “range anxiety” – the fear of running out of charge. The answer is that generally I don’t, though I might if I were contemplating a drive across the Highlands of Scotland to Aviemore, say. But otherwise, no. Why? Because I am able to charge the car overnight at home, and most of my trips are much much shorter than the vehicle’s 300-mile range.

In that sense I am statistically normal. Government estimates are that 99% of car journeys in England are of less than 100 miles. So if you can charge at home, then most of your problems are over, which probably explains when the last time the Department for Transport did a survey, 93% of the country’s EV owners had home charging.

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