Fear and loathing of electric vehicles: The reactionary rhetoric of range anxiety

Abstract

Range anxiety," defined as the psychological anxiety a consumer experiences in response to the limited range of an electric vehicle, continues to be labelled and presented as one of the most pressing barriers to their mainstream diffusion. As a result, academia, policymakers and even industry have focused on addressing the range anxiety barrier in order to accelerate adoption. Much literature recognizes that range anxiety is increasingly psychological, rather than technical, in its nature. However, we argue in this paper that even psychological and technical explanations are incomplete. We examine range anxiety through Hirschman's Rhetoric of Reaction, which supposes that conservative forces may oppose change by propagating theses related to jeopardy, perversity, and futility. To do so, we use three qualitative methods to understand the role of range anxiety triangulated via a variety of perspectives: 227 semi-structured interviews with experts at 201 institutions, a survey with nearly 5,000 respondents, and 8 focus groups, all across 17 cities in the five Nordic countries. We find evidence where consumers and experts use and perpetuate the rhetoric of reaction, particularly the jeopardy thesis. We conclude with a reexamination of the policies geared to assuage range-based barriers, which a construction of range anxiety as a rhetorical excuse would render as ineffective or inefficient, as well as future implications for diffusion theory.

Energy Injustice and Nordic Electric Mobility: Inequality, Elitism, and Externalities in the Electrification of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Transport

“…Hurlbert and Rayner (2018) write that society has a duty to recognize that the interests of vulnerable groups or indigenous people, such as the Chippewas First Nation in Canada, may stand apart from general societal interests and deserve special status in justice considerations. Broto et al (2018) Energy injustice and electric mobility 14 Kester et al 2018b;Kester et al 2019;Noel et al 2019;. The choice for expert (or "elite") semi-structured interviews may seem odd, given the justice focus of the study, but it follows the complexity of the topic of electric mobility and V2G, allowing for longer and more complete discussion.…”

Contested visions and sociotechnical expectations of electric mobility and vehicle-to-grid innovation in five Nordic countries

“…As part of a broader project looking at electric mobility and V2G in the Nordic region (Sovacool et al 2017c;Sovacool et al 2018b;Sovacool et al 2018c;Sovacool et al 2018d;Kester et al 2018a;Kester et al 2018b;Noel et al 2018;Noel et al 2019), the authors conducted 227 of these semi-structured interviews with 257 experts from over 200 institutions across each of the five Nordic countries (there were more respondents than interviews because some had multiple participants, although we still coded responses by individual). Those interviewed were selected to represent the diverse array of stakeholders involved with electric mobility and V2G, making it a purposive rather than a random sample.…”

Should All Cars Be Electric by 2025? The Electric Car Debate in Europe

“…This may be reinforced by rises in electricity prices due to the increase in electricity demand if EVs start being used on a large scale [24]. The fact that range anxiety, which usually appears as a main constraint to EV development [6], is hardly mentioned, despite the very good knowledge of the pros and cons of EVs, is interesting as the debaters also mentioned the need to develop several solutions depending on the local energy mix and geography.…”

“…In light of these challenges, electric vehicles (EVs) appear as a solution, with the potential to improve the efficiency, affordability, and sustainability of the transport system. The electrification of passenger transportation should also, in principle, lead to more resilient cities, improve the efficiency of the distribution network and challenge the sustainability of the existing grid [4], as well as reduce negative externalities such as pollution [5,6]. For these reasons, electric vehicles have become one of the most prominent technologies for decarbonising passenger transportation when coupled with a low-carbon energy system [7].…”