Many people will be familiar with running out of gas in a regular car. Hopefully you are not one the half all roadside distress calls with an empty tank. Either you didn’t notice or thought that you could make the next exit, there is no mistaking that sputtering clunk clunk of an engine running out of fuel.
An electric car running out of power reacts much like a gas car when it is discharged below it’s limit. The car will slow and eventually stop driving all together. EV’s typically have a standard battery installed, so at least you will still have lights, both interior and exterior, but you will be firmly stuck on the side of the road.
My EV is empty now what?
Now that you are stuck on the side of the road with no power, you have a couple options.
AAA invested in a fleet of rapid chargers to help EV motorists. They will arrive after you make the service call and give your car a 10 minute charge with will get you up to 10 miles of range. This should be enough to get you to a charging station.
Alternatively, if a mobile rapid charger is not available you can have the car towed to the nearest charging station. From there you can plug in as you normally would. Once charged you can carry on your way. See this link ( can you tow an electric car )
Should I be concerned about running out of power?
Statistics show that Electric Vehicle owners run out of power far less often that their gasoline driving counterparts.
AAA reported that their mobile chargers are not used nearly as often as predicted. There are a few factors that seem to indicate EV owners are less at risk of running out of power.
First, Electric Cars make running out of power a big deal. You are not likely to miss the multiple warnings that your power level is getting low. Full text based warnings, flashing lights, etc are not hard to miss. Compared to the little glowing “low fuel light” on a standard car that is easily overlooked.
Second, the nature of how EV’s are charged. For most owners of gasoline cars, they run the car down to a 1/4 of a tank of gas then consider filling up again within the next trip or two. With gasoline, your car has less range every day until you refill.
EV owners however will typically charge their car every night. The means they start the day off with a full “Tank” every time. Starting at a full charge each time means that the likely hood of running out of power is not likely unless a long road trip was involved or an emergency trip after you forgot to plug your car in.
Will running out of power damage my car?
Unfortunately running your car completely out of power, or ‘deep discharging’ can cause the individual battery cells to deteriorate and reduce their performance over time. While the effect may not be immediate you may see reduced range after a few years compared to another car that has had its battery take care of properly. Conversely, super charging or charging at a high rate consistently will have similar ill effects on the battery.