Home - Archive: Lexus Ad
(Click on image for a larger version.) This is an ad that appeared in TIME Magazine in September, 2014, in which Lexus tried to spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) about "range anxiety" in order to scare prospective battery-electric vehicle buyers back into the (non-plug-in) hybrid fold. To be sure, the battery-electric "driving cycle" at the top might be applicable if you don't have access to electricity where you park your car; I do know of one guy who somehow persuaded GM to lease him an EV1 despite the fact that he lived in an apartment and had to rely entirely on the Santa Monica public recharging infrastructure, and if GM had ever actually sold the EV1, I would have been prepared to do the same in order to own one despite living in an apartment as well.
However, it is safe to say that essentially everybody who is seriously considering a plug-in vehicle will be expecting to plug it in at home, and in that case the "driving cycle" looks more like (1) leave vehicle plugged in to charge up while you sleep; (2) drive a typical day's route, coming home with charge still in the batteries; (3) repeat. If the vehicle is a PHEV (plug-in hybrid), you also have the option of (2a) drive as far as you need to using gasoline on days when you have to exceed the all-electric range. And with the advent of reasonably-priced battery-electric vehicles like the Tesla Model 3 and Chevrolet Bolt that have twice the range of the typical affordable vehicle (i.e., not the Tesla Model S) of the previous generation, the cry of "range anxiety" is increasingly sounding as dated as "get a horse!"
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new 30 April 2016