Long Term

2022 Kia EV6 Long-Term Update: What is the opposite of range anxiety?

I've been using my Level 2 home charger for a year now with zero regrets

Autoblog's long-term 2022 Kia EV6 is back in my care — and back on a proper Level 2 setup. Fittingly, this is the car that convinced me to splurge on an at-home charging solution. It has now hosted a dozen or so EV and PHEV loaners in the year since I moved into my new digs and has stood out as one of the best bang-for-the-buck upgrades I performed when I moved in. Why? Peace of mind, my friends.

Range anxiety? That's for other people, and I know because was one of them. There was a time where I'd put 10,000-plus highway miles and just ~1,000 street miles on my cars every year. Between renting, working from home and taking lots of extended road trips, EV life just wasn't for me. Today, I still work from home, but I own and don't have nearly as many reasons to travel long distances by car. Even the paltry EV range of most plug-in hybrids would cover 90-plus percent of my usual outings these days. And you don't need an electrical upgrade for a PHEV (though you might need to buy a cable); an old-fashioned three-pronged plug will get the job done.

The thing about range anxiety is that it hits us right in the "what if?" It's the same organ that tells us that we're not being practical enough by daily-driving just any pickup truck; it has to be able to haul 4x8 sheets of plywood with the tailgate up and tow a 12,000-pound trailer. That little voice telling you that you'll hate your commute if you skip the sport package on your new performance coupe? Yep. Same thing. 

In a weird way, it's all really a form of FOMO. As shoppers, we're often too worried about getting the best version of something rather than the best fitAs Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski showed us this week, there is no one-size-fits all solution to EV ownership. We were all surprised when he picked the Tesla, but once he laid out his case, it made sense. We couldn't put holes in it; believe me, we tried (and some of us may continue to try). But where Tesla's Supercharger network is a huge upside for Jeremy, it would add little to the equation for me given my normal use case. 

The argument against EVs is that ICE vehicles have come so far that they've spoiled us; they're just so convenient that it's not worth giving up their versatility for the "compromises" of EVs. Sure, we've come a long way from the days of buying kerosene in a drug store and hand-cranking our engines, but ICEs have lingering disadvantages that we've long since accepted; the inability to cheaply refuel (re-energize?) at home (tax-evading farmers and lingering biodiesel home-refiners aside) being just one glaring example. You can't miss what you never had, but this? I'd definitely miss this. 

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