My First 700-Mile EV Road Trip—What Worked and What I’d Change

One consideration when planning a journey is that (for some cars) the built-in navigation needs to be used for pre-conditioning to kick in ahead of reaching a charger. That warms up the battery so that the charging rate will be faster. Other cars allow you to trigger pre-conditioning manually which means that (so long as you remember) you can totally ignore the built-in software.

Long-distance travel still seems to be the Achilles heel of electric cars. I live about an hour from Harrisburg, where you stopped to charge, in the middle of nowhere, and when a friend visited home not too long ago he thought he would “live green” and rent an electric car out of the Harrisburg airport. Then he had to drive back to Harrisburg every time he wanted a charge because there were no places nearby that had the correct adapter.

On a side note, I recognize the spot where you powered up, and bet I know which BBQ place you went to — it’s not far from the Costco closest to us

I have a Volkswagen ID.4 Pro S AWD. I have tried to use A Better Route Planner with a bluetooth ODB scanner for real-time reporting of battery level. I used the trial, which is available via the web, to drive up to San Francisco planning a stop in San Jose for Pho which should be well within the range of the car. Driving at freeway speeds of around 72 mph on 101-N with a strong headwind made ABRP tell me to drop my speed to 50 mph to make the charging stop. This is completely unacceptable to me so I switched to the built-in nav. While it is ugly, it added a 10 minute stop at Electrify America in Salinas and has real-time charger availability.

On the way back, I charged in SF and again nearing Paso Robles, ABRP was telling me to slow down to make it to my house. Again unacceptable as there are many charges in Paso that I could stop at for 5-10 minutes.

I cannot figure out how to get ABRP to stop suggesting dropping speed to extend range. I would much rather store for 10-15 minutes than slow down to 50mph on a freeway.

This is my 2nd electric car, the other being a short range VW eGolf for around town and I am thinking it will be my last. The ID.4 allows CarPlay apps to take over the barnacle for turn by turn but this means I cannot run Waze or Apple Maps for general directions and traffic at the same time as built-in nav for charging.

In my reading on EVs I’ve seen both pros and cons of BYD,

to my mechanical engineer’s eye, this chemistry loox impressive.

P.S. FWIW @ace ive been knocked flat myself for a week. R u sure #TidBITS is not contagious?!

The article says ABPR when it should be ABRP. Great article. I have a 2024 Ioniq 5 and planning my first long trip in a couple of months.

Well, there are some things you can count on in EV-land and one is that there will always be announcements of AMAZING new battery technology NOW ENTERING PRODUCTION. (Another is that Tesla will deliver unsupervised full self driving by the end of the current year, whichever year we’re in.) Battery technology has come a long, long way but most of the amazing breakthrough announcements haven’t (yet?) come to fruition. It does feel that, between solid-state anodes and alternative chemistries we’re on the cusp of a brave new world of automotive batteries.

We also need to keep in mind that, even after amazing new “charge from 20% to 80% in 2 minutes” technologies actually enter production, it will take a new breed of chargers to deliver the 2 megawatts plus that BYD is touting. Even after those chargers are actually available, you won’t be able to just plunk half a dozen of them down at the corner gas station, because adding a 12 MW load to the existing infrastructure is a lot more complicated than just hooking the wires up to the local grid. (For reference, the entire output of the original San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station was less than 500 MW.)

It will all be worth it when it’s here. I’ve been driving electric since 2018 and I’ll never go back, but I don’t pretend that there aren’t serious compromises one has to make to be electric in our fossil-fueled world.

I have had similar EV experiences in Australia:

One big advantage here is the standardisation of charging plugs - no adapters are needed. Also, although Australia is way behind Europe, there seem to be more public EV chargers available than you found on your trip.

With 240V house power in Australia the charging rate at home is much better than with 120V systems. I will be charging my EV from “free” rooftop solar this sunny afternoon in Sydney. Fast charging on long trips is much more expensive but, as you found, still less than an ICE vehicle.

The long term maintenance costs of EVs should be less than ICE vehicles. Battery life of the latest models is not an issue - it is expected that the batteries will outlast the cars. There are even successful trials of ex-EV batteries being used to provide community grid electricity.

Yes - travelling at 60mph instead of 70mph consumes far less energy, mainly due to aerodynamics. In the 1970s oil crisis a 55mph speed limit was introduced in the USA to save fuel. As it happened there was also a big drop in road fatalities. A study that I came across estimated that every minute saved by travelling at the higher speed was offset by a one minute reduction in life expectancy due to an increase in the risk of a fatal crash.

…while paving the way for 1984 American hard rock anthem “I Can’t Drive 55”.

(apologies to Philomena Cunk)

Good to see this kind of thing working for you Adam. I regularly do 2,500 mile roadtrips and use just the one app, the one built into the car. Type in the destination and the car works out the rest. Knows which chargers are in use, knows my consumption, knows to pre-condition the battery before arriving at the charger etc. Sure I’m driving a Tesla an$ for good reason, they are the Apple of EV’s when it comes to software and experience.

I hope all EV’s will one day operate is the same way that Tesla has been doing for over a decade. There is a reason the cars are loved - and it has nothing to do Musk and everything to do with getting it right.

NB: get a level II charger at home, please.

Well said, and always worth repeating that speed increases reduce their benefit the faster you go, from 10 to 20 is a doubling, from 60 to 70 is merely a sixth more, etc.

That is a key point. Here in the UK the electricity overnight is a fraction of the cost of fast charging station pricing (around 7p per kWh as opposed to around 80/90p per kWh at most fast chargers). So it makes sense to do as much charging at home as possible - and be able to do it quickly. Charging from a plug socket is incredibly slow. I don’t know if the US has cheaper overnight rates for electricity but being able to add a substantial charge overnight at home is a significant advantage in itself as, for us, it removes the need to fast charge at all for all but the longest journeys.

Of course the typical UK journey is nowhere near as far as you might go in the US! And (for many people) they don’t have a driveway and therefore can’t easily charge an electric car from their home.

There is not single “US rate” for electricity. It will vary quite a bit depending on your location (state, region, city), what power company you have for service (in many locations, you have a choice), service category, and other factors.

But as a reference, my most recent electric bill (Dominion Electric, in Loudoun County, Virginia) shows:

• 897 kWh usage
• $105.69 electric supply charges (generation, transmission and fuel)
  This comes to about 11.8 cents/kWh. At current exchange rates, this comes to about GBP 8.7p. A bit higher than what you cited (for overnight pricing).
• $45.91 distribution service charges (not sure if this is based on usage or some other factor)
• $7.08 taxes

I do not subscribe to power with different rates for different times of day. If I would switch to such a plan, then my night rates would be lower and my day rates would be higher.

It can cost $1,200 to $2,000 to get a 220V Level 2 charger installed in a house. We’ve looked into it! Sounds like a lot, but most of it is the external box and charging port, as opposed to the electrical labor (we got a $600 estimate for that part).

However, I realized we had an active but unused 220V dryer outlet after moving our dryer across the basement. And we have the dryer vent hole, too, right there. So when the time comes, I can get a standard cable ($250) and run it from the dryer outlet through the vent, and then hang it under a waterproof housing when not in use ($50).

Different areas have different pricing overnight. I’m in Seattle and our electrical charges are absurdly cheap because of nuclear and hydro that were built in the Northwest and came with perpetual rate arrangements. Seattle is 97–99% renewables at any given time, pretending nuclear and hydro are renewable, plus wind and solar. We pay about 14¢/kWh (10p).

Adam, I’d also suggest it would be interesting to compare fuel/charging plus vehicle cost per mile. Supposedly, about half as much per mile to run an EV than IC when factoring in maintenance and other incidentals besides gasoline versus electricity.

In some places, like Connecticut, electricity is so expensive, it’s hard to make the EV math work at home or with chargers!

Some useful information about EV running costs here:

I did exactly that with my old house. Paid an Electrician $350 to put in the new socket right under the existing panel - there was space for an extra 240v supply, and then took the rebate from the utility company for putting it in. Cost zero. This was 2018 for a house that was 15 years old, no no panel upgrade required. On my next house, I had them put in the 240v sockets on each side of the garage as we had two EV’s.

The problems happen with older houses that need a panel upgrade, at which point it can get costly but from my perspective if you can’t level II charge at home, you should consider whether an EV is a viable option. If you can it’s great, you leave home everytime with a full tank of electrons. Don’t miss gas stations at all.

Pottsville, perhaps?

Mission BBQ. I wasn’t expecting the military-themed decor, but Chuck explained it ahead of time. The food was good!

That’s distressing—it sounds like it’s doing a worse job with real-time data. What if you use it without the IDB scanner?

Kind of amazing how once I got the order wrong the first time I typed it, I was able to keep it going consistently after that. Fixed.

It’s complicated—our garage has only a 50-amp panel, so electricians are working out the load calculations to determine whether the wire in place now can handle a 100-amp load with new breakers, and whether the 200-amp circuit from the road has enough headroom. There appear to be three possibilities:

• We need more power from the road. Way too expensive (numbers like $20,000 were suggested)
• We need to pull new cable to the garage. Probably doable through existing conduit, but in the several thousand range.
• We can just replace the breakers. Cheap and easy, though it would likely require some internal rewiring in the garage as well to get a charger to the right location.

In the meantime, though, it’s really not being a problem to charge very slowly on a normal 110V, 8 amp circuit. (The IONIQ 5’s charger can do 6, 8, or 12 amps, but when I set it to 12 amps, the circuit breaker would eventually trip.) Yes, it’s an hour for 1%, but we don’t drive the car most days (working at home) and most of the time when we do drive it, it’s in Ithaca simply because we need two cars at the same time or I need to carry something that’s too large for the Leaf.

As @Shamino said, it varies widely. The vast majority of our electric power comes from our 18.9 kW solar array, and in New York State, that power is sold back to the grid at retail prices, regardless of time of day. So in California, it makes sense to get whole-house batteries that you can use when power is expensive, whereas in New York, it makes no difference. Our system is a little undersized, so we pay for power for a few months in the late winter/early spring when the extra we built up over the summer and fall has been used up.

The numbers for the trip showed that the EV’s fuel costs would have been about 10% lower, comparing only the expensive public charging: 48-56 cents per kWh versus 12-20 cents per kWh for private charging. The EPA mileage estimates are also indicative—I forget if the Subaru clocked in at precisely 30 MPG or not, but the Leaf is 128 MPGe, and the IONIQ 5 is 98 MPGe.

I was also struck by how having to pay attention to charging locations felt like trips from when I was a lot younger, when you had to pay a lot more attention to where you were getting gas because there weren’t so many gas stations littering up the world.

I used this method without problems for at least 3 years until we did a bigger project to electrify our old house and included a new external charger. There may still be state, local and/or utility incentives to help with up front cost and the result is great.

Yeah, I feel like EVs reveal more about our home electrical systems than the grid, sometimes! We spent in the $10,000 range to do a massive overhaul of our outdated electrics. We had an old panel and wanted to get a heat pump. So we had to get the city utility to agree to move a power feed from the back of our house (low amperage) to front (much more amperage!) and allow the electrical contractor to run a conduit from the feed about 30 feet to the panel. The utility agreed! That cascading set of effects let us get the heat pump and have capacity for a future EV. But we foolishly didn’t have the EV plug installed when the electricians were here for cost reasons. Now it costs more!

Your garage has 50 amp service? What for? If it includes an electric clothes dryer, there are inexpensive (under $200?) plug-and-play devices that will let you share a single 50- or 30-amp dryer receptacle between your dryer and your EV. Basically, it’s just a relay that disconnects power to the EV whenever the dryer is running. You’d have to dry a lot of clothes to noticeably affect your EV charging performance. You can do the same thing with an electric hot water heater circuit, though that usually involves doing some actual wiring.

A search for “EV dryer circuit splitter” should show you some options.

I read Adam’s post as the main panel is in the garage and it only has 50 amps coming in…but maybe that’s an incorrect assumption.

That would make it a very old home, and, IMO, something that should’ve been upgraded a long long time ago. My previous home, built in the 1960’s, had 200A service. (My current home is twice the size, has two HVAC systems and has two panels of 200A each.) I’d personally consider 150A the absolute minimum for a small house, and at least 200A for a larger house.

I assumed that Adam has a branch circuit delivering power to a secondary panel in his garage, which is 50A. But if that’s the case, it should have no problem adding a 30A circuit to the panel for EV charging, unless he’s using that power for something else (a workshop with large power tools, perhaps?)

Maybe we can wait for @ace to weigh in?

Adam,

Wrong direction . We’re north of Harrisburg; halfway between there and Williamsport, where the Little League World Series is played. Middle of nowhere, thus the dearth of charging opportunities.

Knew it was Mission. First time? Hope you liked it. As a veteran and a 911 dispatcher, I appreciate their devotion to service.

I’m far from an electrical expert, so I hope this makes sense. Our garage has its own electrical panel and 50A service from the house because there’s a studio apartment with a small electric range, apartment fridge, and microwave on the second floor, plus the outlets in the garage itself, which run a 20 cubic foot chest freezer and charging for the Leaf, plus whatever random power tools I need to plug in.

It has never been an issue before, but when I had both cars plugged in, the IONIQ 5 set to 12A charging, and something else happened (the freezer came on?), the circuit breaker in the house to the entire garage panel flipped. Dropping the IONIQ 5 down to 8A prevents that.

My long-term desire, and part of why I don’t want to spend a lot of money on wiring right now, is to have bidirectional charging so that the massive battery an electric car can power the house in the event of a power outage. It isn’t usually a problem, but two summers ago, we lost power four times in two weeks, once for a day and a half, which got old fast. Our solar panels were generating power, so I could use them (outlets on the inverters) to run the freezer during the day and charge stuff.

Wallbox was advertising their Quasar 2 system with the Kia EV9, but it’s too large of a car for us to consider. I think this information may be dated now.

Yes, first time, and I had no idea before Chuck mentioned it. It was an impressive commitment to the theme, and the food was very good.

Ah. That makes sense. An electric range/oven can draw a lot of power when it is on. The other appliances won’t draw as much, but the current inrush when motors cycle on (e.g., in the refrigerator or freezer) can be significant.

It would be necessary to take measurements, but if you’ve got two cars charging at 8A each (16A total), that leaves 34A for the rest of your appliances. If the range was in use at the time, then you may have been running close enough that an additional 4A from the car, combined with the startup surge from the freezer was enough to briefly exceed 50A.

It sounds like your electrician is asking all the right questions. Hopefully, your existing branch circuit has wiring with sufficient capacity for a simple upgrade. Best of luck.

The main purpose of breakers is to cut the power if a spike in current occurs, such as a short-circuit or (with modern breakers) there is earth-leakage.
An issue with EV charging is that it usually goes on for several hours. if the wiring and connections are marginal (eg old) for the current draw then they could overheat, even at currents somewhat below the breaker amperage. So it is good practice to ensure that the total load on a circuit is below the breaker amperage. In Australia the usual practice is to install a separate circuit for level 2 EV chargers.

Welcome to the wonderful world of EV’s. I bought my first Nissan Leaf in 2013 - with a rated range of 80 miles. It was our only car, but we made it work. Heat was non-existent (an issue living in Michigan) but we loved never having to stop for gas. They take more planning for these kinds of trips, but so worth it.

People will ask what we do if we want to go on these long trips, and if we don’t have the time, I rent a IC - Pay for it with the money I have saved not buying gas AND oil changes, mufflers, coolant… no maintenance at all. If fact, the only money I have spent on my cars ( I am on my 4th EV - 3 Leafs and an Ioniq 5) other than payments and insurance is Tires. Generally keep our cars for 3-4 years.

Biggest issue with these kinds of trips is the chargers not being in service, even though the app may not be updated. I have pulled up to a couple of them to find them out of service. This is hardly ever an issue with the Tesla’s - and now that new EVs are using the NACS plug, we can finally tap into that network.

As stated above - Teslas are the best for software and charging - only thing I am jealous of my Tesla friends is the navigation and charger dependability.

I will also add that our local power company helped pay for the purchase and install of our charger. I think there was up to $2500 in cash back (not account credit) for the purchase and install. We spent $2300 back in 2013 if I remember correctly. Worth checking with your electric provider if they have a program.

Could be…but that’s the way I interpreted it. I’ve no idea when his house was built but an attached garage seems unlikely to have 59 amp service to it and he said that the option was running new cable from the main line if it could even support the additional load. When I was growing up in AL in the 60s we had a detached garage and it had a single 20 or maybe 15 amp fused line from the house panel to the garage…house was built in the early 50s IIRC. Ithaca is not what one would call a modern metropolis so maybe 50 amp service is what they have…especially if it is put in the boonies a little.

We won’t know unless he weighs in with more info. I

He did, in fact, weigh in with more info.

Im on my second Tesla Model S (2012 and now 2017). Both were nominally 300 mile cars. The Ioniq might be different, but the key factor with Teslas is that they charge much faster when they are empty. The initial charge rate at 0 miles is about 500mph, but at 100 miles it is 200mph, and at 200 miles it is 100mph. I think this type of curve is characteristic of all EVs.

If you are just having a relaxing trip, sure, charge to 100% at each stop. But if you want to have the highest average speed, you should charge much less and much more often. With my car the optimal is charging to just 122 miles before heading to the next stop, assuming a 10 minute overhead for each stop. That means I charge for 18 minutes - total stop time 28 minutes - and if I drive 80 mph it gives me an overall average of 62 mph.

Of course, this strategy requires a lot of chargers - Tesla has a lot of them, and I think Ioniqs can use them now? - and it requires stopping every hour and a half, which is maybe not as relaxing as longer drives with longer charge stops. But it is the most efficient.

Cheers and see you on the road

You need to look into load management. It allows the EVSE to pay attention to what the panel is using and drop down or off if the house is pulling too much. But on a 50 amp panel you should be able to do 40 amps, maybe 50 with load management.

I have my EVSE set to 20(16) amps at 240 volts. I looked into load management but my panel is way too old, and has no physical space inside of it for the LM clamps. So swapping out my panel just to get faster charging on a house that will likely be torn down in 5 to 10 years just doesn’t make sense. $5K to $10K. Even with the 2 hour window of $0.05/kwh or so each night. But on a new build or just house that should be standing for years it can make sense. I still get 120 miles or so back in 8 hours in the summer.

Welcome aboard. I got my 2025 KONA EV last June when that GMC truck decided I didn’t want to keep driving my perfect condition 2016 Civic Touring with a 1.5L turbo.

To some of your points. I drove from Central NC to State College PA each of the last 3 summers. First in a rented Tesla, second in a rented KIA, with the trip last summer in my new KONA.

Tesla has the best built in navigation and charger planning. Bar non. But I didn’t like it as a car. Dash layout in particular. And no Carplay.

ABRP paid is fantastic. Especially pair with an OBD-2 bluetooth reader. I liked while driving 75 in a rainstorm how it told me to slow to 70 to make the next planned stop. Then 65. Then 60, 55, 50. We kept going 75 and just stopped early when out of the rain to charge up.

To some of your main points in the article.

My electrons at home cost about $0.15. And after 9 years with the Civic I had good data on mileage I was getting locally and longer trips. Gas would have to be about $0.90 / gal to match my home electrons. On the road was about even based on public charging.

Setting up regen to the best setting you are comfortable with makes a huge difference in range. We decided on full auto level 3. (Hyunday/Kia very inside the park here). This gives this means that most of the braking is done by the car by me lifting off the accelerator and the car putting the energy back into the battery. Plus it uses the radar and such to brake faster if needed. Cruise control gives even better “mileage”. I tend to get 3.5 to 4.5 miles / kwh in the summer. About 20% less in our not too cold winters. But below two if stop signing through the burbs and 6 when driving around 50 on the highway with little traffic.

State College to Lititz I charged to 100% (and also when I left home) at the hotel as Litiz seems to be a near charger desert. But Lancaster less than 10 miles away I didn’t worry about it for the 2 days there visiting some relatives and buying chocolate. Even after I gave up on the crazy drive me nuts charger at the hotel with way too much hassle to get the app installed.

I did not have ANY issues on my Tesla or KONA trip finding chargers. But with the KIA I didn’t have ABRP and the built in here’s chargers around you, well I did have some anxiety. ABRP cures that. And gives you all kinds of trip planning options. From how long you are willing to charge to minimum percentages for arriving at a stop to how long it will take you to charge to a certain percentage. I got a Tesla charger adapter to go with my CCS-2 car when I bought the KONA. And ABRP sent me mostly to Tesla on my trip.

I learned to set the max charging to 100% for most stops. Between my wife and I visiting the facility, maybe buying a snack, cleaning out any trash and empties, and just walking around for a few minutes that worked best. If below 80% we’d wait the few minutes to get there. If past 80% we’d just unplug and go.

I suspect your range differences had more to do with regen than anything else. What settings do you use?

Oh, yeah. With ABRP handling my driving / charging, my wife could switch to Google Maps on my phone (and thus the dash) to find maybe stops or alternate routes without stopping ABRP’s work. Then we’d flip back and continue with ABRP.

Anyway, likely too much typing in this comment now.

Not as much as many think. Yes there are some charging deserts. But then again, when visiting the Four Corners area a few years back, ABQ to PHX, gas stop planning was a must. Especially when the sun was going down.

I have been driving a Tesla since 2013, currently a Model Y Long Range. Am saddened to read how road trips are still so difficult in an IONIQ. How a multitude of apps doesn’t get the job done. In-car Tesla’s navigation selects charging sites and estimates time to charge before departure. Real time updates as to Supercharger availability, the number of charging bays, and whether any are out of order(rare), and cost per kWh. Perhaps try Tesla Superchargers and the Tesla app next time? There is a reason suddenly all North American EV vendors suddenly dropped CCS in favor of Tesla NACS, the size of the network and reliability.

Have driven many low stress 500 mile days on the Supercharger network.

Not mentioned is how an EV battery can not accept maximum charging power as the battery state if charge increase. It charges slower the fuller it gets. From 80% to 100% could take as long as 20% to 80%. And then for lithium-ion chemistry there is the issue of how battery wear is greater at battery state of charge extremes. More wear to run the battery down, more wear to charge to full. LiFePO4 cells do not wear faster at high state of charge, but still charges much slower as it fills.

I believe it is a mistake to drive an EV if one can not charge at home. Cost per kWh is usually about 1/3rd that of public charging. The ability to charge overnight takes about 30 seconds to plug in, 30 seconds to unplug in the morning. There is a Gas Station Fallacy purporting EVs must have gas stations because ICE vehicles have always have had gas stations. The proper use of public charging is to facilitate travel. As witnessed in Chicago several winters ago public charging for apartment dwellers falls flat.

I took my 9 years of experience with my 2016 Civic high end trim with a 1.5L turbo and did a lot of note pad calculations about 6 months in with my KONA EV. I mostly got 22 to 33 mpg in the city and 40 to 45 on the highways. (With that one conditions were perfect 5 hour drive that netted out to 50 mpg.) I pay $0.15/kwh for electrons at home. And on most drives get 3.5 to 4.5 miles per kwh.

After all of my calcuations I figure that gas would have to be $0.90 / gal for my Civic to price match my KONA in terms of cost per mile for fuel. No oil changes ($60 to $100 each at 7K miles) and the brakes should last way longer on the KONA. Aside from that I suspect costs will be about even aside from fuel.

In the US breakers are to be de-rated to 80% for continuous loads like EV. Which is why a EVSE on a 20 amp breaker should be hard set to tell the car only 16 amps. And the inspectors know to check.

This is short term until all the automakers get their vehicles switched the J3400 NACS connector. Then the J1772 & CCS connectors will eventually be phased out.

BTW, most don’t know there also are 3 main fuel nozzles: small ca.13/16” diameter (20.6mm), intermediate ca. 15/16” (23.8mm), and large ca. 1-3/16” (30mm). They are used for unleaded gasoline, light-flow diesel (used for cars small trucks/SUVs), and high-flow diesel (used for heavy duty trucks), respectively. The main problem is when there are both diesel & unleaded gasoline dispensed from the same pump unit; even though there are separate hoses for diesel & gasoline, the small nozzle will fit in the diesel filling port (the reverse is blocked by the restriction port in the gasoline cars).

I did some testing on 436 mile trips between Northern and Southern California in 1974. I saved the most fuel driving 65 rather than 70 or 55. However at 55 it took about 8.5 hours, at 65 about 7.2 hours, and at 70 only about 6.75 hours. I never considered the amount of fuel saved offset the longer driving time.

Adam: I own a 2023 Ioniq 5. I’ve done several long road trips, winter and summer. It sounds to me like you’re over-thinking this (as I did in 2023). First, I’d suggest that before you start paying for ABRP you try the native navigation app. It knows all the fast charge stations and their current status. It is much better at estimating the actual state of charge and available distance, and as pointed out above, will activate the battery conditioning automatically. If you want accuracy from ABRP, you’ll probably want to buy a OBD Bluetooth device to provide it better information. Sadly the Ioniq5 will kill Apple Maps navigation - you can’t use both at the same time. (If you want better integration between native navigation and Apple Maps, there’s BMW) Second, here’s how I think about a long drive. I have to stop either for a bio-break and/or a coffee every 2-3 hours. That usually takes me from 80% to 20%. I visit the washroom and the get a beverage/snack and by the time I get back to the car (about 20 minutes later) it’s back to 80% (even with a 150kw charger). Charging above 80% is much more time consuming, I might do it at home (less pressure on the charging system with level 1 or 2 charging) but not on a Level 3 charger.

When the lease on my Mazda CX-5 expired, I initially considered the Toyota bZ4X EV as a replacement. It was new to the market, boasting an advertised range of over 310 miles for the 2WD model and 280 miles for the AWD version.
However, when it came time to actually sign the paperwork, the dealer advised against going fully electric. He warned me that owners were reporting actual ranges far shorter than advertised—closer to 217, or maybe 250 miles. This discrepancy makes sense given that I live in a hot, sunny, and humid climate where the air conditioning runs almost year-round. In heavy, slow-moving traffic (which we have in abundance), the climate control drains the battery without getting you any closer to your destination. Even when the car is parked, the battery slowly depletes; local insurance companies mandate a dual anti-theft satellite tracking system to avoid skyrocketing premiums, which creates a constant parasitic draw on the power.
“Take the RAV4 Hybrid instead,” he suggested. I took his advice.
Having driven the RAV4 for over two years now, my takeaway is that its true benefits shine during short trips and in stop-and-go traffic.
My old Mazda CX-5, with its 2.5-liter engine, consumed about 3.9 to 4.3 gallons per 100 miles. During my first year with the RAV4—which also has a 2.5-liter engine—my consumption dropped to roughly 2.7 to 2.8 gallons per 100 miles. That’s a nearly 50% improvement in fuel efficiency!
In my second year of ownership, my daily driving distance decreased, and I rarely use the car for long road trips. As a result, my efficiency improved even further to about 2.5 gallons per 100 miles. For comparison, I used to get only about 310 miles out of a full tank in the CX-5, whereas the RAV4 gives me an average of 500 miles per tank.
The hybrid powertrain truly excels in slow traffic, seamlessly alternating between the electric motor and the gas engine to maximize efficiency. Unsurprisingly, though, when cruising at highway speeds almost entirely on combustion power, the fuel consumption is quite similar to what I experienced with my old CX-5.
I’ve recently been pondering whether my next vehicle should be an EV. Given my current driving habits and shorter daily commute, going fully electric makes a lot more sense now than it did two years ago.
Meanwhile, I’m also keeping an eye on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. They are completely zero-emission, with water being their only byproduct. They operate by combining oxygen from the air with hydrogen from the tank, extracting energy from that chemical reaction to either drive the wheels directly or charge a battery that powers an electric motor. While they are gaining popularity in Europe and Asia, they still aren’t a practical option in my neck of the woods (or in America generally) due to a severe lack of hydrogen fueling stations.

Adam, from your running experience you should know how much wind can make a difference! Compare your effort/speed on an out-and-back with-against the wind. Although cars are more aerodynamic than humans (!) there is a huge effect – you can feel it if you draft behind a semi at the right distance. It seems the apps should find the wind direction/speed from weather apps and factor that in.

Well, Adam, thank you for a very thorough article. You have well illustrated why I will never own an electric vehicle. I know they are supposedly better for the planet, but the amount of planning and stress involved in ensuring that a long journey can take place without stranding is simply not worth it.

I am in the UK, where the charger situation is probably worse than in the US. My Audi could have comfortably managed each leg of your journey on one tank full of gas, with fuel available everywhere without difficulty.

I do believe that electric vehicles are the future, I just don’t think the technology is quite there yet.

Here’s what I learned from this: you can torture someone halfway to death without their noticing just so long as you give them a couple of readouts and apps to provide the illusion of control.

What a delicious splurge to briefly turn on the AC in a hot car for a few luxurious secs! And thank god you didn’t need to use (gasp) heat. And if you had to wolf down a meal with a long-lost friend in 38 minutes flat, well, so be it. You’ve got driving to do! Modern electric driving!

Hours trickling en route (Hey, no prob! You got WORK done!), and staggering half-asleep around unfamiliar areas late at night to get in that last little bit of charge. It’s viable! You did it! You didn’t run out! You won!

Seems like a lot of time, effort, hassle and uncertainty to save $12!

EVs are definitely not ready for prime time (at least for non-local travel), but that’s why pioneers are needed.

I have a 2025 Ioniq 5 with a native NACS plug and the requisite CCS adapter described in Adam’s article. I have a few recommendations based on my recent 1,500-mile round trip from my home near Arlington, VA, to Gainesville, FL.

I concur with Maartech’s advice to keep your charge between 20% and 80%. That final 20% takes significantly longer and risks idle fees at many public chargers. In a gasoline car, I typically fuel up when the tank is at a quarter — about 100 miles of buffer. I recommend a similar approach with an EV. In unfamiliar territory, plan to charge with 75-125 miles remaining on the range estimate. I personally aim never to go below a 25% state of charge on a long road trip.

Seek chargers that provide at least 150kW. On my trip, most sessions took just 15-25 minutes to reach 80% — just enough time for a restroom break and a snack. In fact, our lunch stops typically lasted longer than the charging sessions.

Regarding navigation: I tried ABRP, but it prevents you from using Apple Maps simultaneously. I also find its suggestions more theoretical than realistic. ABRP may have lulled Adam into a false sense of security by suggesting he could arrive with 10% remaining. While it’s interesting for pre-trip planning on a laptop, I prefer PlugShare.

Use PlugShare’s route planner before you leave to map the entire trip and identify fast, reliable chargers. You can also check reviews to see if your specific car model has charged there recently and at what speed.

For Ioniq 5 owners (and others compatible with Tesla stations), use the Tesla app to weed out older stations that aren’t compatible with your vehicle. Tesla chargers are a game changer In the I-95 corridor between DC and Florida, they are far more ubiquitous than any other network. They are fast, and with 10 or more stalls per station, I’ve never had to wait for a spot. I also found the Ionna chargers to be fast and reliable. Looking forward to seeing more of them.

Finally, consider paying for a Tesla membership—even if just for 30 days to cover a given trip. At $12/month, it reduced our charging rate from roughly $0.55/kWh to as little as $0.35/kWh during peak times and $0.22/kWh during off-peak hours.

Yes they are. But what are typically edge cases are being used against them. If you drive out west, gas station management is a serious thing. EV charging was there 10 years ago on most of the country/planet. It is now mostly not a thing. At least in most of the US and Canada. And much of Europe. And other parts of the world.

Adam, as the other comment said, was somewhat overthinking. I did also, especially my first week of EV ownership, when I did a 300 miles road trip into the low mountians of Virginia. We all have decades of mental / muscle memory of how we expect cars to work. Most of us grew up on one to the extend of taking car rides long before we learned to walk.

And Adam understands this to some degree. He and I spent our teen years driving Ford 8N tractors, which while superficially a car, the differences were vast.

Anyway, we get to learn new things. That doesn’t mean the new are bad. Just that they are different.

As to range. I got very good at planning when I’d buy gas locally and on the road in my 9 years with my 1.5L Civic. MPG between 22 and 45 so I had to pay a bit of attention. Ditto with EVs. But the mental math of range has different values to be used in the equations.

It would only have been the two cars and the freezer—the electric cooktop is never used. (Just a handful of times in the 25 years we’ve lived here.) I wouldn’t expect the freezer startup to consume that much, but something must have pushed over the edge.

Oh! Good to know. I’m a digital guy, so I tend not to think about analog stuff like heat.

Yes, there is some sort of rebate program that I’m looking into, since equipment must be installed by June 30.

We’re not THAT rural. 200 amps to the house, and a 50 amp circuit to the garage.

I’ve heard from @jim8 separately that the IONIQ 5’s platform is notable for not slowing down as much when you get above 80%. The one time I took it to 100%, that was my experience—it was longer than going to 80%, but not radically so.

@jim8 was also suggesting more, shorter stops, which I’m having to wrap my head around because my default approach – at least when I was younger – was for fewer, longer stops. Plus, there’s a trade-off of driving faster and using more energy over driving slower and having to stop less.

Yes! I was using level 3 the whole way too. It’s a little annoying at times when I come out of cruise control because the regen kicks in harder than I would expect from other cars. But it seems worthwhile learning the new feel.

I don’t think regen accounted for the differences in the trips, though, since I was in the same level 3 both directions. And it was mostly freeway driving, so not a lot of braking.

I was somewhere in that range—I need to start internalizing these efficiency numbers so I have a feel for what is going on.

Hyundai’s system will do this, to be clear, both in the car and from the app. Because I was driving by myself and couldn’t get Tonya to run another system for comparison, I didn’t use it at all. Also, I’ll admit that I didn’t use the MyHyundai app’s planning because the app is sufficiently poorly designed that I don’t really trust it. You can’t set your own charge percentage when planning, so it’s assuming that I’ll be starting with the current 54% charge right now, for instance, and that prevents me from seeing how it would plan the route if I had a full charge.

Overthinkers 'R Us! (It’s practically required, but I will say that I’ve talked with non-geeks with EVs and they tend to be pretty random in how they’ve taken long trips.)

As I just replied, the poor quality of the MyHyundai app reduces trust in the system, as does the fact that it doesn’t even seem to know about Electrify America sites. And I really do like Apple Maps navigation at this point—it does a great job of just the right amount of information at the right time.

For the next trip, perhaps I’ll compare against ABRP with an ODB sensor.

Hah! Yes, and even more so from biking, where drafting is essential (though I’ve never really done bike racing). I actually tried following trucks more on the way down since the area near Harrisburg is rife with warehouses, so there was a LOT of truck traffic. But even with the cruise control and automatic following distance, it didn’t seem that I could drive close enough to benefit from the slipstream while not making the truck driver crazy.

Oh goodness, if that’s what some of you took away from the article, I wasn’t suffiicently clear. I enjoyed myself immensely the entire time—it was a grand adventure, which is why I’m looking forward to the next trip so much. I really liked doing the planning, and driving long distances is normally horribly boring, so having something to think about the entire time was great. I found the mental challenges posed by all the optimization opportunities fascinating. Saving money on only came up because I was curious how it compared—if not spending money was the goal, I wouldn’t have gone on the trip at all. And, of course, EVs are simply more fun to drive than gas cars.

I’m sure that most people here are old enough to remember when long trips in gas cars required similar amounts of preparation and optimization because gas stations were much fewer and farther between, the roads weren’t as good, and the cars weren’t nearly as reliable. And we didn’t have iPhones!

Oh heck, yes. And you could write a similar “torture” description of driving in a gas car today: getting gas smell on your hands while pumping, eating terrible gas station food, using only somewhat cleaned gas station bathrooms, wondering how much further you can go when the gas light comes on, and so on.

Anyone else remember trip tics (or tickets). And ever see them assemble one?

I’m a Google Maps guy. Every time I’ve tried switching something seriously annoyed me about Apple Maps. Or was just wrong. But I understand it is mostly a personal preference.

The Hyundai / Kia in dash navigation is seriously mediocre. On top of that the colors they pick are almost impossible for me to see. (How do you ship a nav system where a non trivial portion of the population can’t read the mapping?)

ABRP plus ODB-2 gives you great range planning and stop planning. Better than the Guess o Meter of my previous Civic. And can show you alternatives while you drive (co-pilot recommended) or with a quick pull over.

I’ve stopped checking them. I just look at the Guess-O-Meter when I get in the car.

FYI - with my 240 volt / 20 amp circuit (16 amps charging), unless there a big local trip or a road trip the next day, I don’t even plug in until below 65%. With your L1 charging just now I can see how you’d want to ABC. Always be charging. I switched to charging to 90% during the winter. And did 100% before bad storms were predicted. I have the plug adapter where I can get out 15 amps at 120 volts to plug into my fridge and one oil filled space heater or two.

And a big FYI. I can’t imagine going back. Although my 5.7L 2008 Tundra is handy to have. But it averages less than 300 miles a month.

Sort of. In most of the US and Canada power to home is 240 volts split via a center tap into 2 120 volt “legs”. Each leg is 180 degrees out of phase with the other. So when you talk about how much current you are using for any one device you have to know if it is on which single leg or both legs. An electric stove or L2 EVSE for car charging pulls off both legs at the same time. An L1 EVSE like Adam is using pulls off only one leg. (And Adam, it is not very efficient as at 120 volts and 6 or 8 amps a non trivial amount of the energy is going to overhead.) And charging 2 cars via L1 is a very different load if done on the same circuit (breaker) rather than if on circuits on 2 legs. With on the same leg but two separate breakers as another way to go.

FYI - Most electric dryers are 240 volts but only use both legs of power if on the high setting. Most other appliances in the house are single leg 120 volts. Except for heat pumps or baseboard style electric heating. Confused. Good.

If you have a AAA membership, you can still get them, although the preferred mechanism these days is electronic, via the AAA app.

They are (or were, the last time I got one) assembled with standard comb binding.

Actually…I agree with you but think hybrids are a better answer for many users…for my wife and I we prefer to drive over fly unless oceans are involved…and with a 600 to 700 mile daily drive we rarely are stopped for more than 30-45 minutes making recharging sub optimum. And I agree with the earlier post that unless you can charge at home with whatever install cost that requires then fully electric has too many drawbacks. When we need another vehicle we will look at the hybrid RAV4 as well as the Mazda equivalents. Hopefully the horribly uncomfortable seats (at least for us) in the RAV4 we last tested in 2017 will have been improved…they were the decision maker that led us to the Mazda CX-5 over it and the Ford Escape.

What I remember (and realized much later) is the filing cabinet of map cards that each AAA office had. And the data base that had to exist somewhere of which card to stock in each office. And how at times you had to wait a few days when you asked for a trip setup that needed cards not in the local files.

Another Ionic 5 user here . . . you mentioned “The trip was about 350 miles, and our Hyundai IONIQ 5 has an advertised range of 269 miles. I knew that the advertised range was far from guaranteed, but as you’ll see, it’s merely a starting point when planning how far you can actually drive.” That’s what Ionic owners refer to as the “guessometer.”

Also, I’ve read that it’s worth charging the battery to 100% once a month, even if you don’t have a trip planned. Otherwise, 80% charge seems to the standard.

I bought my Kia Niro 4 years ago and my first long trip, from central England to Edinburgh (350 miles) involved much planning of stops with, generally, slower charging - plus a complete mind set change from using a petrol engine. Certainly the infrastructure back then was a little less populated with chargers the further north and west you went, though Edinburgh still had free charging at some points. Since then I’ve driven to Germany, south of France, Brittany, northern Spain and the Netherlands with no problems at all. I use Tesla chargers where I can, many hotels have charging points (or I book hotels that do have them - the one I stayed at in Lille last year had free charging) and often my destinations have charging points. I use time of use tariffs to charge overnight and can ‘fill’ my 64 kWh car for £2.44 using my home charger giving me a range of 260 miles or so to ‘empty’ during the summer months. British EV public chargers can be quite expensive but with the current (no pun intended) cost per litre of petrol it’s now cheaper per mile with my EV than a comparable sized SUV. And I can also charge for free, when the sun shines, from my solar panels. Servicing at a main Kia dealer is cheaper than my wife’s small Toyota at an independent garage. I do consider where I’m going to charge on a long journey and still do plan ahead using my apps to show me how busy EV charging sites are. I’d not go back to a petrol engine.

Amusingly, it’s the same term that I remember hearing applied to our Nissan Leaf’s range estimate when we bought that in 2015. I wonder how far it goes back.

Is that current advice? My quick research suggests that modern battery management systems don’t need this anymore, unless you’re seeing range estimates that are significantly off (at which point a 100% charge recalibrates things).

Some quick web searching seems to indicate that the term predates EVs and has been used to refer to range-estimates presented by gas and diesel vehicles.

FWIW, my 2012 Honda Civic has a range estimate. Its accuracy varies, since it is based on the MPG measured since I last reset the counter (which automatically happens after each fill-up).

I have on occasion driven past when that estimate dropped to zero, to find that there was nearly two gallons left in the tank (by subtracting the amount needed to fill it from the tank size). I assume Honda builds in a safety margin to the estimate so you don’t actually run out of gas when it hits zero. But I’ve never personally heard anyone call it a “guessometer” (or “guess-o-meter”) until today.

OED has nothing, so fairly recent.

Hi Adam.

I very much enjoyed your story about your first extended EV trip. I have a 2017 Tesla Model S with a 75 kW battery. My wife and I just finished an approximately 3000 mile trip through the western states. When I purchased my car new back in 2017, Tesla offered lifetime supercharging for free. This made taking the Tesla a no brainer on this trip. I subscribed to the premium version of ABRP, which did an amazing job figuring out the most efficient stops for our trip. As you mentioned, charging really slows down as you approach 80+% charge. ABRP’s optimized charging tends to have one run down the charge to around 10-15% before charging and has one only charge to around 70-75%. This ends up being quite a bit faster than charging to near full, even with the more frequent stops.

While chargers are sometimes more widely spaced in the less populated areas of the west, like the stretch between Las Vegas and Phoenix or Reno and southern Oregon, we never had any range anxiety. We exclusively used the Tesla network of chargers. We never had to wait to charge even in larger cities.

All in all, we had a great trip, saw parts of the country we hadn’t seen before, and actually enjoyed the more frequent stops as it gave us a chance to walk around for a bit and stretch some stiff muscles. Thanks to the free supercharging, it was probably the least expensive road trip I have ever taken. And it was fun spending some of Elon’s money!

Norm (Michael C’s brother)

Maybe back in the 1930s & 40s but by the mid 50s they were ubiquitous. The only time I remember a dearth of stations was on I-5 in 72 or 73 between Stockton, CA and the southern junction with CA Rte 99. The section was newly opened and while there were gas pumps, the building were either trailers, under construction, or both. However there ARE Interstates and US Highways with long stretches between fuel stops (sometimes up to 100 miles), but they are well signed.

Hopefully charging stations will be built at all the current fueling stations along these routes and in 20 years long EV trips will be almost as easy as in ICE vehicles.

I’m right there with you. On road trips we drive 400+ miles per day and gas up once during the drive. It takes 2 min that we also use for a restroom break. There is no way I will sit around for 30 min or multiple stops or be forced to use apps (or consult a thread with dozens of posts LOL!) or better yet, have to choose where I eat based on which type of charger is installed where, then wonder if when I get there it’ll work or if 10 others will already be in line. Heck, the fact that such a trip would even lead people to write so many words on something that otherwise is trivial, takes 2 min and can be done pretty much anywhere with zero effort tells me all I need to know.

Our current ~48 mpg Prius will be replaced when it’s finally truly dead (12 years, 120k miles right now) with a plug-in. That will let me do my local driving all electric (charging over night) and I still get to enjoy a road trip as a road trip rather than as a giant exercise in fidgeting with tech and gizmos.

I’d be interested in H2 fuel cells with quicker refill, reduced reliance on battery optimal conditions (not hot, certainly not cold, no AC or heat running in vehicle, battery always pre-conditioned and all that other gymnastics) and longer range, if it ever got adopted to a point where you could get H2 anywhere you can get gas. But these present-day BEVs with their huge and heavy batteries that still can’t easily do 400 miles (let alone in a regular ~$30k sedan, no SUV, certainly no truck), still call for near-perfect environmental conditions and even then don’t perform as per rated, and then on top there’s all the jazz with their fussy charging? No way Jose.

I’m due for a new car in the next couple of years and I think @ace has completely swayed me from going EV. Way too much planning, worry, and waiting around.

It’s not uncommon for me to hop in the car, drive a couple of hours and book a motel if I feel like a little break. My camper has a pre-packed bag with clothes and toiletries so I can grab that and run. I can’t see I’d ever be able to have the same level of abandon driving an EV.

That was my experience as well with my 2015 Tesla Model S. I had far less anxiety than I had with internal combustion cars worrying about stopping at gas stations in sketchy towns late at night. Tesla, though, arbitrarily took away my “for life” free supercharging which would have been a big deal except I now live on an island with no superchargers and a full charge can take me all the way around the island and back to my off-grid solar home charger.

You guys are a buzzkill ;-). I bought my first EV just a week ago. I’d been test driving cars for a few month but didn’t try an EV until last week, a year old Mustang. The smooth quiet acceleration blew me away. Great stereo, nice handling, sold. Didn’t do much EV research either, the 300 mile range seemed good.

But I never realized the spotty availability of fast chargers. We have another “regular” car for road trips, so still manageable

Another thing I didn’t realize is there’s no maintenance (except washer fluid which I’ll DIY). With a home level 2 charger, an EV is the perfect car for me. I just get in a drive. As a bonus I emit less CO2.

Here in Europe, well Ireland to be exact, with a litre of petrol (ahem) fluctuating between €1.70 and 2.20, EVs look a lot more attractive. That’s about $8.52 per gallon.

My wife and I put about €150 a week into our two cars. Actively considering adding to our solar array/battery a charger, swapping out one car and picking up a small car for local travel. It’ll mean moving from my car/her car to short car/long car. That shift in thinking might prove difficult.

I would rather drive a hybrid, saving considerably with the ease of filling the tank in a couple of minutes with easy payment. Not having to plan, research, use multiple Apps with multiple accounts and still encounter sketchy charging stations. My Toyota Camry goes over 400 miles and using adaptive cruise control, conservative AC usage, driving the speed limit can reach 48 - 50 mpg, especially good in traffic or streets with stop and go. I’ll pay the cost of fuel if it means less headaches and frustration.

Granted, should the new digital battery technology prove to be true to it’s claims of 800-1000 mile range, fast charging to full in 5-7 minutes. No impact from extreme cold or heat. Yeah, I might buy one in the future. But there have been multiple grandiose claims in battery technology that haven’t actually resulted in any widespread improvements. Overhyped publicity for investors is what it comes down to.

Sure. But you are no where near the center of the bell curve of needs of most car owners in the US.

And for that 2 minute stop you must have never taken kids on a trip. Especially those in diapers. Or had them use the proverbial mayonnaise jar.

Maybe where you grew up. But in much of the country while in theory there were plenty, many were not open more than 9 or 10 hours per day, or even at all on Sunday. And in rural western KY, they were still thin enough on the ground that gasoline “range anxiety” was an issue.

Upstate New York was not the same – gas stations were not ubiquitous when I started driving in the 1980s and there were also many fewer that were open late or early. Nothing like trying to eke out the last few miles into Ithaca and going past lots of shuttered gas stations.

Which is actually one of the main attractors for me.

And I just realized that I don’t need to replace the engine air filter this week. We have springs where the pollen clouds cover everything for 1 to 6 weeks. I change our my air filters (house and cars) after it is over each year. Still need to do the cabin one.

Last year, I pulled into our garage for the first time in my new Volvo EX30, and (surprise!) I just plugged it in to 240v.

I’ve been driving EVs since 1998. My first was the Honda EV-Plus. In that year, I had a 240v line run from the basement to a charging box installed in the garage. It was such a novelty that the local power company (PG&E) sent out 5 employees just to pose for a (pre-selfie) photo with it.

Here’s the thing: The same charger socket still worked with the Volvo plug — no change, after all this time.

Volvo includes a Tesla adapter, but I haven’t used it yet, because repeated super-charging reduces battery lifetime. And, before you try to dispute that, I know all the tricks (using the Google app to precondition the battery just before arriving at the charging station, the 80% rule, parking in the shade, etc., etc.)

My biggest complaint is CarPlay. It disconnects the phone randomly. Maps too often claims “server not found”, and Apple continues to display major thoroughfares without labeling them.

Thank you for this helpful article. It is by far the most detailed real life examination of the pros and cons of using an EV for a long road journey. My wife and I are seriously considering going electric for one of our next vehicles (probably the Hyundai) , but I have to say that based on your experience, the vehicle would be used just for local travel. While you made it clear that the EV can be used for a longer journey, the tradeoffs would not be acceptable for me. Great work!

Having flashbacks to this exact issue. I was trying to remember when paying at the pump became a thing, and it wasn’t all that long ago—late 90s. So even if there was a gas station within range, it could easily be closed depending on the time or day or day of week.

I have to say that, after reading this incredibly detailed and interesting article, it makes me less inclined to buy an electric vehicle. It sounds like such a rigmarole but, more important, the idea of having to spend so much time as a single woman alone at charging stations doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies at all. Living in the middle of nowhere in the mountain west doesn’t help, either. I would love to have a fully electric vehicle and have wanted to make the leap for quite a while, but I just can’t do it. I have plenty of friends with electric vehicles, and every one of them has a second car for longer trips (or they rent a car for long journeys.) Between the mountain driving and the months of very cold weather, I would be very nervous of getting to anywhere with a functioning, available charger in time. I assume things will continue to improve so I’ll keep paying attention to the options. Thank you for such a thoughtful summary of your trip!

Late 90’s was 26-30 years ago. We’re both getting old.

I grew up in New Jersey, where self-service is still not allowed, but I remember pay-at-the-pump was already available when I moved to Virginia in 1994. But at the time, I was still preferring to pay cash for my fuel, so I can’t say how common it was.

Interestingly, some stations leave the pumps turned on for this purpose even when the rest of the station is closed. I don’t know if this is legal or not, but it has been convenient when driving home from an event after midnight.

I think Adam’s critical analysis of his first road trips scared you off. What I’ve found is there are few places in the US where EV charging is an issue. Especially if you can use Tesla Superchargers. (I can with an adapter.) ABRP makes it almost trivial.

I still have memories of gas station planning on a trip from ABQ to PHX via Mesa Verde, Monument Valley, and the Grand Canyon a few years ago. And that one time driving I-85 in southern VA where I though I might have to spend the night in the car if the next exit didn’t have an open gas station. All of them at the previous two exits were closed.

1100 miles from central NC, to Haymarket VA, to State College Pa, then to Lititz, then back to Haymarket then home. Absolutely no issues with multiple charging options. With Tesla’s being the easiest to use. Not exactly urban centers along the way.

I’m just back from a 1,600-mile vacation trip from Oregon to British Columbia and back, in my VW ID.4 (AWD). Here’s my own report that I hope will be useful (and fear-reducing).

Long EV road trips take a little thought, but aren’t hard or unpleasant at all. On the contrary—the quiet ride, acceleration power (it’s like it wants to go uphill), freedom from worry about gas prices (and odors), low cost of ownership, and lower carbon footprint make it fun and satisfying.

Sure, there’s a learning curve, sort of like the first time using a Mac (like when someone hasn’t discovered drag-and-drop yet). I’d like there to be more charge locations, but there are enough wherever I’ve wanted to go, especially now that I have a Tesla adapter. I mainly use Electrify America and just check that there’s an alternative within range of my planned charge site. Think of that like having a hard drive backup. ABRP premium does great planning, and has taught me that shorter stops at lower %’s (SOC as EV nerds say) can be more efficient. It appears to use Apple Map APIs in CarPlay when navigating, for a familiar UI. The EA app gives exact navigation via Apple or Google Maps, so there’s no mystery where they put the chargers. I use the free Chargeway app to find other sites. It comes down to a few minutes at each stop to plan the next one, although I could just leave it to ABRP.

Hotels increasingly have level 2 chargers, eliminating a charge stop. We splurged at an upscale hotel, and it was fun to get the notifications sitting in my room when the valet plugged it in.

In another parallel with computer history, I’ve found a forum, VWIDTalk, that has the answer to every question I can think of. If you’re thinking about an EV, check out used prices, which seem quite reasonable for 2-4 year old models.

About 80% vs 100%. The VW software lets me enter a time of departure, so it times the charge to finish just before we leave when overnight charging. In that case, with level 1 or 2, 100%. Charging over 80% at the fast DC charging stations can be convenient at times, but I’ve learned an informal etiquette not to charge over 80% if someone is waiting to charge. And that charge speed curve can be steep. Happy (electric) motoring!

Back in 1981 I was on a driving trip through Scandinavia and after a visit to Nordkapp in Norway, we drove back down to a town to fuel up. Turned out they didn’t open for a few hours so we drove to the next town to get fuel. After a short wait a gentleman told us that his station was out of fuel! So back to the first station we went, praying we would not run out!

BTW, I was in California in the 50s so it doesn’t surprise me there were more stations than in upstate NY. Anyone else remember the gas wars of the 60s when you could fill up for less than a dollar?

Those are probably heavily targeted for card skimmer installs, so be very careful.

Back when I noticed this, it wasn’t an issue.

Today, I try to only use pumps with contactless readers so I can use Apple Pay, which is much less risky.

I always pay with cash especially on long trips. Yesterday I filled up my VW TDI and got $10 in change from the $100 I gave the clerk! IF I ever do get the Aptera I’ve reserved, that way probably won’t work unless they add chargers at the fueling stations. I’ll probably then get a card that I would use ONLY for charging.

@ace Thank you for this article because coincidentally, we bought a 2023 Ioniq 5 just last weekend and are going through the same kind of learning curve with charging, how and when to charge, apps, accounts, etc. etc. We got a used 2023 which was affordable. Allow me to plug Recurrent, run by a friend: https://www.recurrentauto.com/

My one minor contribution here which may have already been made in the 85 messages ahead of mine that I will read sometime soon is that back when the Prius was introduced, everyone who got one was gaming the drive and someone calculated that indeed the car was optimized for 55 mph. A speed that might be familiar to most here of a certain age. Sammy Hagar undoubtedly has no need for an EV… And he clearly lives someplace like Utah when not in Cabo because last time I was there, speeds seemed to be largely in excess of 80 mph, especially between Salt Lake and NV.

Finally, between the acceleration and the paddle braking, the AWD Ioniq 5 is more fun to drive than any car I recall in recent memory. Only a 90s era BMW M3 gave me as much pleasure on the road. Thanks again, Adam and helpful commenters.

A somewhat bizarre issue has come to light with regenerative braking - seized brakes due to lack of use:

The advice is to heavily brake once a week to keeps things moving!

Another data point:

As COVID restrictions were winding down I took my RAV4 for a scheduled service. I was surprised when I was told I needed an expensive brake repair. The service techs said I probably had not driven it (and used the brakes) enough while hunkered down during the pandemic, and this caused discs and rotors to rust and pit. As you can imagine, I was not happy…

We ran into that regularly with our Subaru Outback. Since its gas mileage was so poor and we don’t drive all that much, it could easily go a few weeks without being driven, resulted in rust in the braking systems. The repair shop was usually able to clean it up, but there were a few times it triggered replacements that might not otherwise have happened. Cars like to be used.

I’ve experienced something similar, but different.

When I lived in my previous home, which did not have a garage, my car’s rotors would develop a thin sheen of rust overnight during humid weather. I’d feel it when braking while pulling out of my driveway. But after 2-3 stops, the rust would have worn off, and everything would be fine until the next morning.

I never thought much about it, and assumed that this was normal for cars parked outdoors in humid weather.

My 2016 Civic would make a very slight grinding noise when backing down the drive way after such weather. More like metal sand paper on metal. Ditto my now 2026 KONA EV.

My driveway has a 15’ drop to the street over 50’ or 60’. Every exit cleans off the rotors. So while I know of the issue I don’t worry about it.

I’ve noticed that in normal driving the brake pads engage at times even with regen braking. But I suspect that some driving habits combined with certain regen settings can cause the physical brakes to almost never engage.

Actually, if hard braking wasn’t enough, you could just take the rotors off and have them turned at a machine or brake shop.