The importance of driving further

How far can you go, seems to be an important topic for many people. The range a car can do is a serious purchasing criteria. With the new electrical cars the discussion as been heating up. Most electrical cars have a range issue. The best of them claim to being able to cover 300 kms (Tesla Roadster), but road tests reveal that it's rather 150 - 200 km in reality. Most electrical cars do maybe 70 - 150 km with one full load of the batteries. The other extreme currently is been shown with new environmentally friendly Diesel cars. Take the Volkswagen Passat Bluemotion for example. With it's low fuel consumption of 4.5 liters per 100 km it can cover 1'600 km with one tank of Diesel. Impressive!
But how important is it really? Most people cover less than 100 kms every day for their commutes, so they can easily deal with a range of less than 100 km. And many people driving cars with very long ranges have fogotten how and where to fill in the gasoline when they next time have to. In the 70ies and 80ies a range of 350 km and more was quite acceptable, nowadays anything below 800 kms seems to be an issue. It all depends, I guess. If I can "fill in" my car at home in my garage I have no problem with having to connect it to the power source every day. If I have to find a gas station, queue to get served and to be able to pay and loose 10 or more mintues with it then I prefer of course to have a long range. In the past the range was also a safety attribute. If you have to stop to fill up your tank then you do at least stop. Think about the Passat Bluemotion driver who covers 1'200 or more km without stopping because he doesn't have to ...