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[getting to a charger with 11% or 4% battery]
I can't ever contemplate the idea of that little slack. I refuel my diesel car when it gets to 25%. The light has only been on once in the time I've owned it when I was a bit tired and thus not paying attention to the fuel level. You never know when something unexpected might come up, e.g. a closed charger/petrol station, power cut or need to do an extra trip e.g. if you get to your hotel and have been "bumped" to another as occasionally happens because like airlines hotels overbook expecting some no-shows.
I would certainly do the same with an EV. In some ways more so, because a charge takes time, whereas filling a tank of diesel takes about 5 minutes.
It's a different mindset. I ran my ICE the same way you do to avoid having to go out of my way on a long journey, pay motorway prices etc
With an EV, arriving at a rapid charger with a low SOC is better, because it will charge more quickly. My Tesla will charge at 250kW, but it's down to 100kW at 50% and 60kW at 80%. So filling that first half of the battery takes maybe 15 minutes and (winter - summer) will add 140 - 180 miles of range in that time. Easily enough for another two to three hours on the motorway by which time I want to stop again anyway.
There's a bank of Superchargers in the hotel car park at Charnock Richard, so I plugged in at 11% and went and checked in. By the time I'd done that and dumped my stuff in the room it was at 90% so unplugged, moved it to a normal space and went to bed.
I feel totally comfortable running it down to a low SOC. I know in summer it does about 3.5 miles per % at 70mph, and in the very cold weather it will do a little less than 2.5 per % after the initial efficiency hit early in the journey. I can actually get in for say a 150 mile journey and it will give me it's prediction of arrival SOC and I'll think "yep, that's about right or "no chance, it'll be x" and I'm always right within a % or so. It's very predictable and much more accurate than a fuel gauge.
Plus my electricity at home is an order of magnitude cheaper than any I can buy en route, so I won't stop to charge unless I absolutely need to.
That long drive from Preston I gained a little on the car consumption prediction, such that when it said I'd have to wait 5 minutes at Rugby I thought "sod it, I've got 33%, it's 93 miles to Elveden and that'll be quiet, let's skip this one" using my rule of thumb. If I'd got it wrong there are a couple of other options I could have dived into as an emergency top up, but they're about double the supercharger price and more than ten times my overnight electricity rate.
So yes, different mindset. Reality is I've never been inconvenienced by having to charge and journeys take no longer than by ICE, and I arrive feeling less fatigued. I drive 1,000 miles a week some weeks and there's absolutely nothing that could convince me to go back to ICE.
