The Great Autonomy Deception: Why We Want an 800-Kilometer Electric Car That’s a Pipe Dream

“We’ve discovered a new phenomenon,” said Anders Bell, Volvo Cars’ head of engineering and technology, to reporters during the United States premiere of the new Volvo EX60 in New York. “This is hot dog anxiety, which replaces the range anxiety.” Bell was referring to drivers who go to eat something, stay longer than necessary to charge the car’s enormous battery for fear of getting stranded, and therefore end up spending more than they need to.

The fear of running out with a zero battery makes customers demand ever larger batteries in cars and they leave them charging when it isn’t necessary. On average, in Spain people drive less than 40 km every day, but the average buyer demands a range of more than 600 km, with batteries of 100 kWh or more, to take the leap to electric. Deep down it is entirely irrational, but they are symptoms of something essential that the electric car still misses.

The biggest battery possible, just in case

On average, according to the countries—and the statistical model—in the EU we travel daily between 30 and 43 km. And yet, the best-selling electric cars in Europe over the last two years, Tesla Model Y, Volkswagen ID.4 and Skoda Elroq, have WLTP ranges of between 400 and 600 km, depending on the version. In 2026, the average electric car exceeds 480 km of WLTP range, with premium models above 640 km. These are enormous ranges for everyday life. And they come at a price.

Models with the best certified ranges, over 600 km, achieve them with blatantly large batteries. From Tesla to the new Mercedes CLA and BMW iX3 or through Renault Scénic, battery sizes range from 75 kWh (Tesla) to 108 kWh (BMW iX3), with Mercedes and Renault around 85 kWh.

The cost of ‘just in case’. They are large lithium-ion batteries and, therefore, still very expensive. Which translates into an expensive car. When the battery of a BMW i4 Drive40 costs more than 32,000 euros to replace, we know that this already adds 20,000 euros to the price of the new car. Renault asks more than 41,000 euros for a Scenic and more than 69,000 for the BMW.

Those batteries are not only expensive, but heavy as well. And, logically, the more weight, the higher the consumption. And if consumption is higher, the range falls, so a higher-capacity battery is needed. The greater weight also implies bigger brakes, sturdier suspensions, and tires subjected to greater wear. It’s a vicious circle.

Thus, although sales of electric cars rise year after year, they do not grow at the pace European authorities would like and, above all, are much slower than manufacturers had anticipated.

The masterstroke by China. While Europe obsesses over stuffing 100 kWh, extremely expensive batteries, Chinese brands led by BYD have read the market problem with precision. Jumping into the electric pool, yes, but with a float.

And that is where plug-in hybrids (PHEV) and more recently extended-range electric vehicles (EREV) arrive. In the end, it is not exclusive to Europe. In the first quarter of 2026, PHEV and EREV together account for nearly 39% of plug-in vehicle sales in China, with the rest being pure electric.

With batteries large enough to give daily ranges of more than 100 km for everyday use and a gasoline engine for long trips, the new generation PHEVs—the European standard’s tougher requirements make that the case—and the Chinese EREVs are addressing those range anxieties (or hot dogs). And there aren’t few European brands, such as BMW or Volkswagen, that want to “copy” that Chinese trick which, curiously, we invented in Europe.

The apostles of the electric car and the brands proposing electric cars, more or less affordable, with 40 or 50 kWh batteries for homologated ranges of only about 300 km, will say we must change our habits, our way of looking at things. The solution is not in the car, but in us. That is, we must adapt to the product, and not the product adapt to us, to what we ask of it.

The problem is that we are human. And although we’d like to think otherwise, we are not always rational. The prospective customer evaluates the car thinking about the Christmas trip, not Monday morning; they vividly remember the time when a friend arrived with only 8% battery and, thereby, assign a value to the possibility of making Madrid-Málaga without stopping, even if they only do it twice a year. None of these biases disappear just because statistics show real usage.

The problem is not the range, but the charging time. All of this, in reality, is just the symptoms of a problem that brands and governments have barely started to fix. The real problem isn’t whether the car has 300 or 800 km of range; it is that, whatever that range is, on a trip it will have to be plugged in for between 30 minutes and 45 minutes, several times.

With a Renault 5-Tech with a 50 kWh battery you’d have to stop every 180 to 220 km. With a 100 kWh battery, depending on the car, you’d only have to stop every 350 to 400 km. And that, on a Madrid-Santander trip, could mean stopping two or three times or none until arrival.

And that is the main hurdle compared to a gasoline car. Even if it is a model where you have to stop every couple hundred kilometers on the highway, as with a 2010 Subaru Impreza STI, refueling takes about 10 minutes, not half an hour.

The technological effort should not be spent on making ever-larger and heavier batteries, but on creating batteries that can accept extremely fast charging infrastructure—around 10 minutes—that works consistently and does not require a dozen different apps just to wait for a charge.

Europe has taken steps in this direction, and at all new public charging points you can pay with a card, as at a 24-hour gas station. As for batteries and charging, brands continue waiting for solid-state batteries, while BYD has developed ultrafast 10-minute charging.

Find your ideal electric car

If you have considered buying an electric car, this will interest you. We have created the Personalized Electric Car Recommender, in which, in addition to seeing models that suit your needs, you will also have answers to the questions that may worry you most, such as price, range, or nearby charging points.