杏吧原创

MINUTES after taking the wheel of car, I suddenly understood what 鈥渞ange anxiety鈥� is all about. Though I had dismissed it as a media-stoked affliction of newbie drivers of electric cars, there was something quite powerful in seeing the car鈥檚 travel range plummeting on the electronic dashboard. It set mental alarm bells ringing about whether or not I鈥檇 make it to my destination.

Starting out with a range of 144 kilometres, the figure instantly dropped to 112 km when I switched the aircon on 鈥� look, it was a hot day, OK? 鈥� and driving fast on the highway dented the range鈥檚 rate-of-decay still further.

Switching off the aircon and driving in a sluggish 鈥渆co mode鈥� to make the most of the Leaf鈥檚 regenerative braking system went some way towards restoring my range. But it was clear that electric vehicle (EV) drivers are going to need as much help as they can get managing range anxiety 鈥� at least until lithium-ion batteries help a car travel further than the current upper limit of about 160 km, and charging posts become as common as street lamps. Neither is likely any time soon.

To the rescue, says the EV industry, comes a number of smartphone apps that will communicate with your car, helping you squeeze the most range from your EV 鈥� from charging it remotely to ensuring your seat is pre-warmed on a cold morning.

Apps are already communicating with conventional cars. David Harold of Imagination Technologies, a UK-based designer of microchips for in-car entertainment systems, says technology firms see the car as the 鈥渇ourth screen鈥� into which they can sell digital content after the TV, computer and cellphone.

In-car technology providers like , Michigan, are giving car-makers such as General Motors the ability to use smartphones to unlock their cars, start them and even check their tyre pressures via Bluetooth-equipped sensors. Ford and BMW are also offering ways to sync music and contacts stored on smartphones with the in-car entertainment system. Ford even has a Twitter interface in development for its centre-console screen.

But there is a major difference between combustion-engine cars and EVs that will affect the type of apps available for each. 鈥淓lectric cars are always on. They don鈥檛 need a running engine to produce electricity but can tap the power from their batteries to do things at any time,鈥� says Tobias Hahn, a spokesman for BMW in Munich, Germany.

And that difference lends EVs a huge advantage: you can communicate with the car when you are nowhere near it and get it to perform novel functions. Many of these are designed to reassure users that the car is, or will be, fully charged, assuaging range anxiety.

The first smartphone-controlled function that drivers of EVs are getting from the likes of Nissan, Renault, Ford and Citro毛n is the ability to initiate charging of their cars. Before I tested the Nissan Leaf, I downloaded the firm鈥檚 iPhone app, Carwings (pictured, above right). This lets you send a message to the car to start its 6-to-8-hour charging program 鈥� allowing you to choose the time of night when electricity tariffs are lowest.

鈥淵ou can see the car鈥檚 level of charge on the phone screen at any time,鈥� says David Jackson, Nissan鈥檚 EV project manager. 鈥淚t will also text you if someone has unplugged the charger.鈥�

The next level of EV smartphone functionality is called 鈥減re-conditioning鈥�, which allows the user to remotely heat or cool the car鈥檚 cabin to their required driving temperature before they get in. 鈥淭he biggest power draw with heating or air conditioning is getting the car up or down to the right temperature in the first place,鈥� says Jackson. 鈥淪o if we do that while it鈥檚 still hooked up to the mains we can extend the range.鈥� Renault estimates this improves range by about 6 per cent.

BMW has a further take on pre-conditioning: in addition to cabin temperature, its and i3 electric cars pre-warm the battery itself under smartphone control. 鈥淎 lithium-ion battery needs to run in a certain temperature range or the energy density drops, so we use a liquid cooling and heating system for the battery pack to get it into the right temperature range while it is still plugged into the mains,鈥� says Hahn. Again, range is boosted.

At Renault UK, Andy Heiron, head of EV programmes, has one big hope for an app on his range-anxiety-reducing wish list. 鈥淥ur vision is of an app that lets you drive from A to C, stopping at town B on the way to use a charging post that you have pre-booked.鈥�

It might sound simple, but such an app would involve meshing satnav data with live information about charging post availability, but also a booking system, a payment system, a car ID system 鈥� all squeezed cheaply onto a smartphone. Heiron wants the UK鈥檚 to help local authorities set up live databases of available charging stations in their area.

Many more EV app ideas will emerge 鈥� BMW is investing $100 million in advanced car apps, for instance 鈥� but there is a potential downside: cellphones are trackable, so the units being built into our cars to communicate with apps on our phones will render our cars trackable, too. So that drivers don鈥檛 swap range anxiety for tracking angst, car-makers will have to secure any data they collect from car apps. Heiron insists that Renault only wants car-performance data and is not interested in whether you drive to places that you would rather keep private. Your partner might be, though.