Measuring range anxiety: The Substitution-Emergency-Detour (SED) method

Abstract

Range anxiety has been widely recognized as a critical barrier for battery electric vehicles (BEV), but its measurement method is lacking. Such a knowledge gap makes it difficult to analyse the competiveness of and the demand for BEVs. This study develops the Substitution-Emergency-Detour (SED) method to measure the range anxiety cost, and conducts sensitivity analysis of range anxiety cost with respect to nine factors. It is found that the most effective ways to reduce range anxiety are reducing driving intensity, increasing the vehicle range, extending the vehicle range with better charging infrastructure. Better household vehicle flexibility and less range uncertainty can also significantly reduce range anxiety. The SED method and the numerical results are expected to contribute to better understanding of the range anxiety barrier and the BEV demand.