A Critical Review of Factors Influencing the Remaining Driving Range of Electric Vehicles

Range anxiety is a barrier to the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). One of the factors influencing range anxiety is the remaining driving range (RDR) of these vehicles. Existing models used for estimating the RDR are often simplified and rely on a limited number of factors. The RDR is a parameter that changes under environmental and behavioral conditions. Factors relating to these conditions and their influence on RDR estimation are often ignored by researchers. The aim of this paper is to critically analyze literature to identify the key factors that influence the RDR. A critical review of related literature was used to propose a taxonomy of key factors influencing the RDR of EVs. The findings of this paper reveal that five key factors influence the RDR and that more than 50 data attributes can be used as input during RDR calculations. Presenting accurate RDR estimations can reduce range anxiety for drivers, thereby improving the adoption rate of EVs. This paper provides a contribution to research in terms of a comprehensive taxonomy of key factors, together with related data attributes that can be used in a big data analytics model to intelligently calculate a more accurate RDR of an EV.