Under Pressure—Users’ Perception of Range Stress in the Context of Charging and Traditional Refueling

Abstract

Although electric drives can locally reduce the environmental impact of traffic, the penetration rates of battery electric vehicles (BEV) are far below expectations, not least because the charging infrastructure network is still considered insufficient by potential users. Therefore, the planning of charging infrastructure that considers both needs and user requirements is essential to remove an important barrier to widespread adaptation of e-vehicles, but it is also a challenge. A better understanding of the charging behavior and the underlying usage motivation is therefore needed. A frequently mentioned factor is the so-called range stress. While there are many studies on this subject with new BEV users, there is a lack of approaches that also include experienced e-vehicle users and at the same time allow a comparison with drivers of cars with internal combustion engines (ICE). In this paper, this is realized with the help of a questionnaire study ( n = 204 ). The results show that ICE and BEV users at different experience levels hardly differ regarding the perceived range stress; BEV users even perceive less stress. BEV users also showed more trust in the vehicle and in the tank/battery indicators, while this trust depends only marginally on the type of information provided by the car. Furthermore, there is a correlation between users’ technology commitment and risk-taking, on the one hand, and range stress, on the other. However, for the prediction of range stress, gender, experience with e-cars, and the question of whether cars are privately owned, or car-sharing is used, are more relevant.