Abstract:

This paper aims to determine the optimal mileage of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) by considering the trade-off between range anxiety and charging times since frequent charging is a customary way to ease range anxiety for BEV drivers in practice but declines the life cycle of battery and increases the charging cost. The authors propose a power function to measure the range anxiety and solve two optimal mileage types. The results show that the increment of BEVs’ cruising range increases the optimal absolute mileage but decreases the optimal relative mileage while improving the driver’s tolerance to range anxiety increases both. It is concluded that improving the driver’s tolerance, such as by expanding charging infrastructures and raising drivers’ practical experience with BEVs, is more effective than the increment of BEVs’ cruising range. The findings help to understand the optimal mileage of EVs and provide recommendations on the design of BEVs’ cruising range.