95 percent of all trips can be made by electric cars

Holding off on buying an electric car because of "range anxiety"? You may want to reconsider.

According to a Columbia University study of U.S. motorists' driving habits, EVs could easily tackle about 95 percent of all daily trips, reports GreenCarReports.

The research, conducted by two doctoral students at Columbia's school of Engineering and Applied Science, was based on Department of Transport survey figures from the year 2009.

The researchers found 95 percent of Americans' single-trip daily drives were under 30 miles (48 km), and 98 percent of daily drives were under 50 miles (80 km).

The average trip came in at about 5.95 miles (9.5 km), and even 95 percent of rural residents' trips were under 50 miles (80 km).

But of course those are single trips. A much more helpful statistic would be average commuting or daily travel distances — they covered that, too.

They found 95 percent of those surveyed traveled under 40 miles (64 km) to work; the average trip was 13.6 miles (21.9 km).

The average total daily drive for urban drivers was 36.5 miles (58.7 km), while rural-based motorists moved 48.6 miles (78.2 km).

Of course, these are all based on U.S. data; we wouldn't be surprised if commutes in Canada were quite a bit longer on average, at least in cities like Toronto.   

(GreenCarReports)