Review: How far would you drive on average?

So way back in 2020 I wrote the article How far would you drive on Average?

This post has been shared thousands of times, and is by far the most popular post I have ever written on this website. Over 6,000 views in the last 3 years.

I know that’s not huge, but it’s huge for us.

So I thought I would take a moment to reflect on some concerns people have had since that article was published.

Please note that not every single response to this across the internet was directly related to the article.

Your data was shit

Only a limited dataset, of course I wasn’t polling the average person, because I polled a car group.

Part of my point was intended to be that car guys will spend more time in a car than the average person, they enjoy the car, enjoy driving, they will go places, drive more, go further, etc. But even they won’t drive for more than 4 hours at a time (on Average)

Averages are shit

Hence why I posted the full data.

As you could see, some people drive more. Some drive less.

My point was that the overwhelming amount of people will stop driving around the 4 hour mark.

But that shows a big spike at 8 hours

I would genuinely like to find someone that gets in a car and has a bladder that lasts 8 hours. I have also seen huge amounts of commentary that the data is shit because “No one lasts 8 hours” or “If those people can last 8 hours, they need to hydrate and get their kidneys checked”

I’m inclined to agree, but my thought is that people misunderstood the simple question of “How far would you drive without stopping”

Potentially they never read the concept of stopping and thought “Well I start in Brisbane, and I stop for the day 8 Hours down the road, that’s a stop”

They aren’t counting fuel stops.

This was backed up by responses to the second poll, where people happily admitted that they do not drive for more than 4-6 hours without a stop for fuel, food, or the toilet. But that they don’t count a stop as a stop, because even though they stopped, they didn’t take a break. Which wasn’t the question we were asking.

This is just propaganda to make me want an EV!

No.

I literally even said in the original article:

Literally said that in big letters, if you are the kind of person that want’s to drive for in excess of 4 hours happily, then this type of car may not be for you.

That’s ok.

No one is forcing you.

I mean, there is some EV’s that can do more than 4 hours now, but that’s because there’s been 3 years between that article and this one.

59.6kmh is a horrible average speed

And yet, as I cited, that is actually the average speed in Australia.

I bet no one actually read the source document.

Probably because it’s boring as hell.

I still haven’t seen any chargers near me. They don’t exist.

I did an article on this, EV Chargers Explained

This covered what they look like, and where they are.

Here’s a map you can play with to see chargers.

Hopefully this helps you find chargers. There’s quite a few around. Some of the sites listed have multiple actual chargers.

They’ll introduce a new tax for this

Yes. Victoria has. No other state has.

EV’s don’t pay for roads

Neither to Combustion Cars.

And in Victoria, EV’s do and Combustion cars get it for free. So if a car needs to be taxed for road use….it’s actually the combustion cars.

We actually did an article on why Road User Taxes aren’t the solution.

It takes too long to charge!

Ok, we’ll assume you are driving the most popular EV in Australia, the Tesla Model 3

Assuming a charging range from 20% to 80%, which is a common and recommended charging range for optimal battery health, the estimated charging time can be calculated.

With a charging rate of 250 kW, the Tesla Model 3 can add approximately 290 kilometers of range in just 15 minutes of charging.

Therefore, during a road trip, drivers can take short breaks of around 15 minutes to achieve a significant increase in range before continuing their journey. This rapid charging capability provided by the 250 kW charger contributes to the convenience and efficiency of electric vehicles on long-distance trips.

This equates to 3 hours of driving recharged in only 15 minutes

Now I don’t know about you, but by the time I stop, get out, walk around, go take a leak, grab a drink from the fridge at the servo, and then wait for the wife, I easily kill 15 minutes at a stop.

If my friends who have kids are anything to go by, then 15 minutes would be an utter dream.

Maybe you should do another poll?

Yes! I did! Link to the Post is here!

Let’s go over the results and questions and such!

If you are interested in the actual numbers:

Ok, so first thing that jumps out is that facebook only gives the percentages and the total votes, so their rounding and Excel’s rounding are off. So we’ll just go ahead and say that we’ll use the percentages, and not the actual numbers.

Now it was immediately clear that some people immediately misunderstood the concept of “Not stopping”, which lead to interactions like this:

Wherein, people stop after 6 hours, but don’t think that they stop(?) and therefore they think they have driven further without stopping. Not sure if I understand the logic, but that’s it.

I’d like to pull out some choice comments that you can all peruse, seems some people wish they could go longer, others seem to think that stopping isn’t stopping if they car forces you to stop, and some people are very very realistic on their bladders.

But really, what we need to do is to compare the data between the two polls, which you can do below.

As you can see, we still have the vast majority of people doing 4-6 Hours, and a reduction of people doing 8 hour stints.

And I think by the comments of people that chose to make them, it’s pretty safe to say that the majority of people doing >8 Hours have misunderstood the question, or are making the claim that stopping for fuel ≠ stopping.

So we can now see that the majority of people are travelling

To boil it all down, 59% of Australian drivers will drive between 238km and 358km between stops, and 78% of Australian drivers will drive less than 358km before stopping.

Hopefully this second poll to this issue has added some clarity to the situation and allowed people to better understand how we as a country actually travel and use our vehicles.

We would also like to add that here at Harden Electric Vehicles, we encourage safe driving and safe use of our roads. We still would like to reinforce that most motoring authorities and motor clubs in Australia recommend no more than a 2 Hour stint behind the wheel and a minimum of a 15 minute break every 2 hours.

We hope you have a great day, and please share your thoughts and comments below!

If you have a friend that may find this article interesting, please share it to them, we’d love to hear their feedback.