You know that bread maker just sitting in your pantry? The one you bought because you were definitely going to have fresh, homemade bread every morning? You made exactly one loaf, declared victory, and haven’t touched it since. That’s basically what you’re doing when you buy a 350-mile range EV for your 40-mile daily commute. Except instead of wasting a few hundred bucks on fantasy fresh bread, you’re paying twenty grand extra for that weekend getaway that’s always next weekend.
Recurrent just tracked over 40,000 EVs and found something pretty damning. Drivers use just 12.6% of their car’s rated range every day. That’s it. Whether you bought the base model or splurged on the long-range variant with 400 miles of theoretical freedom, you’re still only driving about 40 miles daily. Just like everyone else.
The waste gets worse the more range you buy. People with basic 75-100 mile EVs actually use 22.8% of their capacity. But those with 375-400 mile range monsters? They’re using just 7.9%. Same 40 miles, way more battery. It’s like buying a mansion and living in two rooms.
The Aspirational Car Buyer’s Disease
Here’s the thing about American car culture. We don’t buy vehicles for the lives we live. We buy them for the lives we imagine we’ll live. Someday. Maybe next weekend. Definitely by summer.
That Range Rover? For all those off-road adventures you’ll never take. The seven-seat SUV? For carpooling kids to soccer practice, even though you work from home and have one child. And now, the 400-mile range EV? For that spontaneous cross-country drive that’s never going to happen.
I get it. I really do. There’s something deeply comforting about knowing you could drive to the mountains on a single charge. Even if your actual life consists of home, office, Trader Joe’s, repeat. But that comfort is expensive. Really expensive.
Think about what you’re actually doing here. You’re hauling around hundreds of pounds of battery you don’t need. Every single day. Making your car less efficient for your actual commute so it can theoretically handle a road trip you take once a year. Maybe. It’s like wearing hiking boots to the office because a mountain might appear.
Ford Just Bet $5 Billion That You’re Ready to Stop This Madness
Ford’s CEO just called their new electric truck a “Model T moment.” Not because it’s revolutionary technology. But because they’re finally building an EV for how people actually drive, not how they fantasize about driving.
The specs are boring as hell, and that’s the point. A $30,000 midsize pickup. Coming in 2027. And here’s the beautiful part: they’re not even trying to compete on range. They’re using cheaper lithium-iron-phosphate batteries. A 400-volt architecture instead of the fancy 800-volt systems. Twenty percent fewer parts than traditional vehicles. They stripped out 4,000 feet of wiring compared to the Mustang Mach-E.
Ford’s literally dismantling the assembly line Henry Ford invented, replacing it with something they call a “tree layout” that builds vehicles 40% faster. All to hit that $30,000 price point. That’s half what the average EV costs today ($56,000 according to Kelley Blue Book).
And they’re not alone. Slate, that new startup backed by Bezos, is targeting a $25,000 pickup with just 150 miles of range. They’re calling it an “around-town vehicle” and not even pretending it’s for road trips.
The Part Nobody Wants to Admit
Here’s what’s fascinating. According to Plug In America, range anxiety drops by half once people actually buy an EV. Only 22.8% of current EV drivers worry about range. Because once you live with one, you realize the truth: your daily life is remarkably predictable. And kind of boring.
You go to work. You come home. You stop for groceries. On weekends you’re tired and sleep in. That beach trip you were totally going to take? Still not happening, whether your car has 150 miles of range or 500.
Sure, there are people who genuinely need big batteries. Maybe you can’t charge at home. Maybe you actually do take long trips regularly. Maybe you live somewhere with terrible charging infrastructure. Fine. But for most of us? Recurrent’s research suggests a 200-mile EV could handle 99% of our daily patterns. Ninety-nine percent.
The average American household has two cars anyway. Keep your gas car for those twice-yearly road trips. Or rent something. The money you save buying a shorter-range EV would pay for a lot of rental cars. A LOT of rental cars.
The McMansion of Cars
The 400-mile range EV is basically the McMansion of vehicles. Impressive? Sure. Necessary? Not even close. You’re paying premium prices for space you don’t use, hauling capability you don’t need, suffering efficiency penalties every single day for those rare “what if” moments.
Former Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson told reporters this year that 180-mile EVs are “the future, definitely.” Once there are chargers on every corner, he said, that’ll be plenty for most buyers. And he’s right. Because the problem isn’t the technology. It’s us. Our inability to be honest about how boring our lives actually are.
Buying for Reality, Not Fantasy
The industry calls this the “range arms race.” Manufacturers adding weight and cost for capabilities that sit unused. Creating expensive solutions to problems that don’t exist.
But what if we just… stopped?
What if we admitted that our lives are mostly routine? That we’re not adventure-seeking road warriors but tired commuters who just want to get home? That maybe, just maybe, we don’t need our cars to do everything all the time?
Track your actual driving for a month. Seriously. Write it down. I bet you’ll find you’re just like those 40,000 EVs in the study. Driving about 40 miles a day. Using a fraction of what you paid for.
Ford’s betting $5 billion that by 2027, you’ll be ready to buy the car you actually need instead of the car you imagine you need. At $30,000 for something practical instead of $60,000 for something aspirational.
The data’s been saying this for years. Every mile of range you don’t use is money you wasted on anxiety. Ford’s finally listening. Slate’s listening.
The question is: are you?
Because that weekend beach trip you keep planning? It’s still not happening. But at least with a $30,000 truck, you’ll have an extra thirty grand in your pocket when you finally admit it.
Sources: InsideEVs: EV Range Study Coverage, Recurrent EV Range Study, Ford Louisville Assembly Plant Announcement, Kelley Blue Book EV Pricing Data, Plug In America Survey