The cruising range of an electric vehicle depends on a variety of factors, including the size of the battery, the model of the car, the road conditions, as well as the way the vehicle is driven.Poor weather, either extreme heat or cold, can cause battery performance to decrease, resulting in less mileage. Similarly, internal climate control mechanisms such as heating and air conditioning can drain the battery significantly and reduce the distance the car is able to travel between charges. However, these factors aside, average family-car size vehicles typically range about 100 km per charge.
Back to the question on how far do Electrc Vehicles go on a single charge?
The Ford Focus and the Nissan Leaf with bigger battery packs travel up to about 24km on a single charge, while the Chevy Volt and the Mitsubishi i-MiEV travel lower km's at 16km due to smaller battery packs. The Tesla Roadster goes up to 380 km on a charge while the Tesla Model S Motor Trend Car of the Year goes up to 480 km. So on the Model S seven seater sedan, you can drive as far on a single charge. Plus it does 0-100 km/hr in 3.9 seconds!
Now a Chevy Volt has a total combined electric and gas range of over 550 km--so there are vehicles for almost every scenario and getting better every day. Distance is very important. But you will agree that even conventional cars have limited range too. The only difference (which is an added advantage) is the abundance of gas stations at specific distances to fuel up. Data indicates that 80 percent of normal drivers drive less than 60 km a day, which means that charging every night (or every few nights), will get us to work and back with a few errands in between.
So for distances above say 100 km and above--we need some sort of charging infrastructure.
