by Hermina Joldersma
‘Range anxiety’ is a trendy term for an old problem: will my mode of transportation make it to the next fuelling station?
Range has gained new traction in discussions of electric vehicles (EVs) and is a legitimate logistical problem. But it’s not new: range has been an issue for every emerging mode of transportation, starting with walking, continuing through horses, camels, mules, then cars, planes, rockets – and now EVs. Really, it’s as old as humanity’s urge to travel.
YK Car Share’s current vehicle, a 2016 Chevy Spark – ‘Sparky’ – is older, smaller, and therefore on the low side of EV range (120-150 km). Sparky works well as ‘an errands car’ within Yellowknife’s urban footprint – it’s maybe 10 km from the Golf Club to Ndılǫ, or from the Yellowknife River Park to Kam Lake. This is easily within range in summer; winter range is lower because heating the car is a significant draw on the battery, so trips require more management and planning (including a booked charging period).
However, Sparky is not ‘a road-trip car’ and never will be – for that we need a car with greater range (e.g. a Tesla, 550km, with its $80,000 price tag) and/or more complete charging infrastructure (e.g. between Yellowknife and Fort Providence).
Still, we’re not unique in human history, as range and range anxiety have been with us forever. Some fun examples illustrating the ubiquity of range as an important transportation consideration:
· Walking: Rome’s army walked from base camp to base camp, about 50km, if they didn’t have to construct a destination camp from scratch.
· Camels (yes, camels!): from the 5th century a network of caravanserais (origin of ‘caravan’) was spaced every 50 km or so along the Asian Silk Road trade route – ‘fuel stops’ allowing heavily laden camels and their merchant owners to rest safely for the night. Historically, horses could also cover 50 km a day, but less robust modern horses are down to around 30 km.
· Dog-sled teams: so much depends on breed, fitness, terrain, training. It takes at least 8 days to run the Iditarod trail (1,569 to 1,606 km) under optimal conditions, so range is nearly 200 km/day. Normally, though, if a team runs 30km ‘they won’t even bark at a truck pulling up in the driveway!’
· Gasoline cars: early cars predated today’s gas station network – fuel trucks delivered gas for cars along with home heating fuel, and cars themselves carried additional gas.
· Airplanes: as recently as the 1950s most transatlantic flights stopped for fuel (e.g. in Gander NL) – it took time for transatlantic flights to develop into the non-stops we take for granted today.
In the North, as with so many things, EVs and EV charging infrastructure present new problems to be solved. A recent CBC article on EV range in the NWT succinctly sums up the current infrastructure situation: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/ev-charging-infrastructure-nwt-1.6313828 .
How NWT residents are problem-solving in light of what’s currently possible is the subject here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/cold-weather-electric-vehicles-nwt-1.6310194 . One thing is clear: the EV-range and EV-charging situation is in transition and evolving rapidly. In other words – stay tuned!
