The psychological, human factors and socio-technical contribution: A systematic review towards range anxiety of battery electric vehicles' drivers

The use of Battery Electric Vehicles is one of the biggest transformations in the field of sustainable development, holding the potential to address many sustainability challenges. Despite their high energy efficiency, the utilisation of these vehicles remains largely underexplored due to several factors. One of the prominent factors is the phenomenon of range anxiety (RA). This review aims to provide an overview of the range anxiety phenomenon, identifying its primary influencing variables and strategies for mitigating it. The review places particular emphasis on the method-ologies and tools employed for assessing range anxiety and related factors. Following PRISMA guidelines, a systematic search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, and APA PsycInfo, using the following keywords: "range" AND ("stress" OR "anxiety") AND ALL ("electric" AND "vehicle"). The protocol was registered with OSF, registration number is https://doi.org/10. 17605/OSF.IO/FN4VW. The articles were selected by two independent authors. The methodo-logical quality and risk of bias were assessed.A total of 17 studies were included in the systematic review. Studies were analysed by sample size, conceptual framework, assessment method and results. The findings highlight that an approach grounded in Human-Factors principles and psychological metrics can significantly contribute to addressing range anxiety. More, individual (level of experience, self-efficacy, threatening perceptions, attitude, technology commitment and personality) and interface fea-tures (range estimation, State of Charge, adaptability, GPS, charging points map, road informa-tion) have a role in influencing the EV usage and the onset of RA. Among the commonly employed methods for assessing range anxiety were questionnaires (PASA), scenario-based analyses, and behavioral observations (including facial expression and gaze analysis). This review shows that the best solution to reduce the range anxiety may be to design im-provements that minimize alterations to lifestyle and behaviour in comparison to the traditional vehicle.The most effective approach for mitigating range anxiety might involve designing improve-ments that minimise disruptions to lifestyle and behaviours when compared to traditional vehi-cles. As a novel contribution, this research presents a diagram illustrating the significant relationships between range anxiety and individual, socio-technical, and Human-Factors variables.