In partnership with
Thanks for reading EV Cents by Recurrent. Each edition brings you clear, data-driven insights from 1 billion miles of EV driving to help you better understand your car and the market.
Ask someone how far they drive in a day, and the answer is often way higher than reality.
It's not their fault.
The mental math that people have to do to convert time in the car to miles is not easy, and it's especially lopsided for urbanites in commute traffic.
John Murphy, at Holler Classic Group in Florida, tests it with EV shoppers every week.
"People simply don't drive nearly as much as they think they do," Murphy told us. "Unlike that road trip to Nashville, the real-world commute is 20 miles to work and around town, and you're topping off that charge at night."
Tip for talking to first-time EV shoppers:
Ask them "How long is your commute?" instead of "How far do you drive each day?" People don't pad time the way they pad distance. Twenty minutes is twenty minutes.
Recurrent's own data lines up. Across our community of EV drivers, the average is about 30 miles a day. AAA's broader data on US drivers is in the same ballpark. Even adding in the occasional heavy driving day, the daily driving story is far smaller than most people imagine.
Here's why that matters: a lot of EV buyers are paying for battery they'll never use. A bigger pack means more range on the sticker, but also more weight, less efficiency, and a higher price.
For shoppers, the "right" range for you may be less than you initially thought. We've written about how to figure that out in How Much Electric Range Do You Really Need.
Try this for one week:
Write down your actual odometer reading each morning.
On Sunday, average the numbers.
If you're like most of the Recurrent community, you'll land closer to 30 miles a day than to 300.
If you're shopping for your next EV, that number will tell you more than any EPA sticker on the lot.
From the Market
The used EV already winning.
A dealership in Virginia made a great point to us last week: the best way to sell a used EV is to show the shopper the comparable gas car at the same price.
For roughly the same price, you can get a car that's a model year newer, with 30,000 fewer miles, according to extensive research by Recurrent. Plus instant torque, over-the-air software updates, a battery still under warranty, and "fuel" costs that are quite attractive right now.
The version of the EV story working on dealership floors right now is the most honest one: you don't have to want an EV. You just have to want the better car at the same price.
Ask Recurrent
Question: How much do EV registration fees vary?
Forty-one states charge an EV-specific annual fee on top of standard registration. The median sits around $140 a year. The range runs from $0 in nine states to $270 in New Jersey.
The logic is the same everywhere: EV owners don't pay gas tax, so the surcharge backfills highway revenue. The execution varies: flat fees, weight-based tiers, and a handful of per-mile programs in Oregon, Utah, and Virginia.
The map below shows the expectations by state.
Thinking about selling your EV?
Used EV demand is stronger than the headlines suggest, and buyers are paying more for cars that come with a verified battery story. Get real offers from vetted dealers and EV-savvy buyers in our network, backed by your Recurrent battery report.
The ops hire that onboards in 30 seconds.
Viktor is an AI coworker that lives in Slack, right where your team already works.
Message Viktor like a teammate: "pull last quarter's revenue by channel," or "build a dashboard for our board meeting."
Viktor connects to your tools, does the work, and delivers the actual report, spreadsheet, or dashboard. Not a summary. The real thing.
There’s no new software to adopt and no one to train.
Most teams start with one task. Within a week, Viktor is handling half of their ops.