Understanding the influence of state of health on the range anxiety of battery electric vehicle drivers

Abstract Owing to the limited range, battery electric vehicle drivers are likely to worry about being stranded in range‐critical situations, known as range anxiety. Research has revealed that the provision of accurate information through range‐related in‐vehicle information systems establishes a solution to overcome range anxiety. However, an important range‐related information i.e. the battery state of health, is seldom being considered in the research of range anxiety due to the difficulty in daily‐use acquisition. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the influence of state of health on the range anxiety of battery electric vehicle drivers by performing a driving experiment. Under the condition of state of health degradation, participants used simplified battery electric vehicle simulators equipped with different types of in‐vehicle information systems to finish a designated trip in a range‐critical situation. During and after the trip, they measured their experienced range anxiety level. Results show that participants perceive less range anxiety when the in‐vehicle information system provides the remaining range corrected by the state of health, and range anxiety can be further reduced when the extra correlated information (the state of health) is displayed on the in‐vehicle information systems. The findings provide useful inspirations that range anxiety can be reduced if the range‐related in‐vehicle information system is well designed in information content and presentation considering the state of health.