The unmathematical mathematical answer to EV pleasure and range**

We’re not mathematicians.  Can we add a few numbers together?  Sure.  Formulas in Excel – yeah of course.  Quantitative analysis of standard deviations of a normal curve analysing the behavioural trends of EV drivers versus petrol drivers?  I’m sorry, what?

This is not a post about the long term economic benefits of buying an EV, there is a whole internet worth of studies on that – this is about range and putting a figure on “pleasure”.

Anyway, lots of people have said to us that they won’t buy EVs because they drive long distances, or may want to take a road trip…some time…in the future…yeah.  I don’t think anyone has ever said that EVs are good for all people.  If you are a long haul driver, probably not great for you.

But EVs are good for the majority of people who drive 50km or less a day. 

Assuming that out of those people, they have a choice to buy an EV or a petrol car, all other things being equal.

We then assume that these people spend 95% of their time driving 50km or less a day, and 5% of their time taking road trips.

Based on a plethora of research, let’s also assume that driving an EV is more fun and relaxing than driving a petrol car.  Consumer Reports have said that from their survey, Tesla Model S owners have a satisfaction rating of 98%, versus the average which was 70%.  But let’s discount that a little to account for all EVs.

Let’s give EVs then a satisfaction rating of 0.85 and petrol cars a satisfaction rating of 0.7.  By the way – let’s throw away supercars and hypercars from this analysis because it’s not relevant for 99.999999% of people.

However, EVs can’t go on long road trips, so for that last 5%, they have a satisfaction rating of 0, whereas petrol cars retain their satisfaction rating of 0.7.

So mathematically:

EV overall pleasure rating = 0.85 * 0.95 + 0 * 0.05 = 0.8075

Petrol car overall pleasure rating = 0.7 * 0.95 + 0.7*0.05 = 0.7

There you have it – if we can put a mathematical rating on pleasure, and specifically the pleasure of driving an EV – it turns out you should definitely buy an EV.

But you don’t need to take our word for it.  It’s maths.  QED*.

*We’re not sure what QED means but it sounds cool.

** This post is supposed to be both entertaining and informative.  Please do not base life decisions on the maths contained herein.  We are not mathematicians.