Why You Shouldn’t Fear the Electric Car

In the quest to get drivers to swap their gas-guzzlers for electric vehicles (EV), the greatest barrier is not the cost. It’s range anxiety: the fear that a battery-powered EV might go kaput mid-trip. Some of that skittishness stems from a lack of clarity into how EVs work. But manufacturers are to blame too. Existing range-estimation systems are, actually, somewhat unreliable, since they depend on limited data sets. To remedy the problem, engineers at North Carolina State University developed an algorithm that’s up to 20 percent more accurate at calculating range. It uses driving habits,…