Energy
Assess whether an electric vehicle fits your driving, parking, charging, and road-trip routine.
Enter your numbers to see the answer.
Should I buy an EV? guide
Range anxiety is mostly a question of routine, and this screening tool scores yours. Enter your typical daily miles, the longest trip you make regularly, whether you can charge at home, whether public charging is accessible where you live and work, and how many road trips you take a month. Each answer earns points out of seven: two for daily driving of 100 miles or less, one for a regular trip of 250 miles or less, two for home charging, one for public charging access, and one for four or fewer road trips a month. The total maps to a verdict from excellent fit to poor fit. Home charging carries the most weight because it turns refuelling into something that happens while you sleep; the drivers who struggle with EVs are overwhelmingly those who rely on public chargers alone. The score does not price anything—use the EV versus petrol total cost calculator for that—and it does not know your local climate or which car you are considering.
Fit score = 2 if daily miles ≤ 100 + 1 if longest regular trip ≤ 250 mi + 2 if home charging + 1 if public charging + 1 if road trips ≤ 4 per month. Verdict: 6–7 excellent fit, 4–5 good fit, 2–3 possible with compromises, 0–1 poor fit.
Worked example with the defaults: 35 miles a day, a 120-mile longest regular trip, home charging available (1), public charging available (1), and one road trip a month. Points: 35 ≤ 100 → 2; 120 ≤ 250 → 1; home charging → 2; public charging → 1; 1 ≤ 4 trips → 1. Total = 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 7/7, which the calculator reports as an excellent fit. Take away home charging and the score falls to 5/7, a good fit—still workable with a reliable charger near work or home. Set home charging to 0, public charging to 0, and a 300-mile weekly trip and the score is 2 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 = 3/7, possible with compromises.
Daily driving is in miles per day and the longest regular trip in miles; convert kilometres by dividing by 1.609344, so a 200 km trip is 124 miles. Home charging and public charging are yes/no fields: enter 1 for yes and 0 for no. Road trips per month is a count of journeys beyond a comfortable single charge, roughly anything over 200 miles each way.
This is a modelled estimate, not a meter reading. Real consumption moves with weather, occupancy, appliance age, standing charges, and tariff structure, and equipment rarely runs at its nameplate rating. Use the figure to compare options against each other, then confirm against your own bill and the manufacturer's specification before committing to a purchase. On this page the figure rests entirely on daily driving, longest regular trip, home charging available, public charging access, road trips per month, market / jurisdiction, effective date, data source, update owner and review date, so start there if the should i buy an ev? returns something you did not expect.
Good to know: “longest regular trip” means the drive you make at least monthly, not the once-a-year holiday—an EV with 300 miles of rated range handles a 120-mile round trip without charging and a 250-mile one with a single fast-charge stop. Count home charging as available only if you can actually run a cable to where the car sleeps; a shared car park without sockets counts as no. And a high score is not a purchase recommendation: winter range loss of 25–40%, towing, or a rural area with sparse fast chargers can still make a specific car a poor choice for a specific driver.
Energy results depend on tariffs, equipment behavior, region, weather, and installation assumptions. Verify rates and electrical decisions with the utility, manufacturer, or qualified professional.
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How it works
Assess whether an electric vehicle fits your driving, parking, charging, and road-trip routine. This tool explains the calculation so you can adjust the assumptions to match your situation.
Worked example
With Daily driving = 35 mi/day · Longest regular trip = 120 mi · Home charging available = 1 · Public charging access = 1 · Road trips per month = 1 trips → excellent fit (based on the routine you entered). Change an input above and this example updates with your numbers.
Common questions
It is possible but costs more and takes more planning. Public fast charging runs $0.40–0.60 per kWh, roughly three times the home rate, and a weekly 30–40 minute stop replaces overnight charging. In this scoring a driver without home charging tops out at 5/7; workplace charging or a reliable nearby fast charger makes it workable.
Most EVs cover 200–300 miles on a charge, so anything under about 100 miles a day is routine even in winter with a 30% range penalty. Between 100 and 200 miles daily works with home Level 2 charging and a larger battery; above that you would fast charge most days, which is expensive and time-consuming.
Yes. On fast-charging corridors expect a 20–30 minute stop every 150–200 miles, adding roughly 15–20% to journey time. This tool gives full marks for up to four such trips a month; more than that and the time and public-charging cost start to outweigh the daily convenience.
A regular 120-mile trip is comfortably within a single charge for almost any current EV, even in winter, so it earns the trip point here. A 250-mile regular trip is the practical edge for one-charge travel; beyond that you should plan on a fast-charge stop each way.
Not necessarily, but it shifts the question to charging access. Some apartment blocks offer Level 2 chargers, and some employers provide workplace charging, either of which restores most of the home-charging advantage. Without either, you are a public-charging-only driver; run the scenario with home charging set to 0 to see the effect.