The range anxiety issue is the same sort of issue we’ve seen preventing heat pumps from becoming more widespread than far less efficient heating sources until more recently.
Consumers seem to focus on the circumstances under which the new technology performs its worst and judge it against the performance of the old technology in this specific scenario, with little regard to how common or likely this scenario may be.
It begs the question if this is a marketing problem, a generational problem, or a simple matter of dollars and cents — that is to say: Does this kind of problem only go away when the new technology is just so much cheaper that it’s impossible to rationalize choosing the old?
Obviously it’s some combination of these things and more, but personally I think there’s an outsized effect of marketing. Here’s why: Take a look at the top selling vehicles in the US and you’ll find a large number of heavy duty pick up trucks, for example. However you’ll also find that something like 10% of consumer heavy duty vehicles actually haul anything substantial on any regular basis.
Now, take a look at the ads for these vehicles (or really any vehicles — not to pick on trucks) and you’ll find they are selling a lifestyle fantasy: Off-roading to a private beach with a surf board and your dog, hauling lumber from a forest to your family’s cabin, heroically helping a close friend move into their new home, a family road trip to Yellowstone…
It’s January 2024 and Americans everywhere are resolving to spend more time with their friends and families, to do more things outdoors, etc. They can finally get to it this year once they’ve got the (literal) vehicle to achieve this fantasy, so only then nothing stands in their way, surely…
It’s this kind of FOMO that is driving most range anxiety, because people see their vehicle in the fantastical terms they were sold, not the reality of how they’re actually used.