Flying would defeat the point of a road trip😊
I think it’s doable. I’ve planned trip with trains, flights, and buses. So I guess I have to view an EV road trip with the same mindset: plan in advance.
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When she bought the car, she had a reliable place to charge it. Right before interest rates went up and homes were in short supply, they found their dream place, the drawback was a place to install a home charger.
It wasn’t just that. An EV is not a great option when it’s your only car. For now, it’s great in a 2 driver, 2 car family. It may not alway be the case. But she found out that it’s not great as your only car option. In the US.
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I think it’s a great choice for your only car, but you have to be all in.
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The only car question is one I have pondered. I work with lots of folks who were (very) early adopters of EVs. They are almost exclusively a Tesla crowd, so this thread has been illuminating for me as I waffle on this decision, especially in considering EVs that aren’t Teslas.
What I would say about my colleagues is that none have a lot of variability in their driving patterns, and they all have charging at home (including second homes) and at work. (So no, not urban.) It’s not clear to me how much any of them ever use a charger that’s not at home. (The work one doesn’t get used a ton.)
Thank you all for sharing your experiences (and keep on!) as it has been so helpful to me in thinking about this.
So here’s a question – with some regularity, I leave my car at the airport or train station, sometimes for up to 2 weeks. Would I need to worry about losing charge, especially if it’s cold (like I might worry about the battery in an ICE car?)
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In most cases up to a few weeks of parking, no. Some considerations:
- The main battery is used to recharge the 12V battery. If parked for a while when the main battery is at low state of charge, it may not recharge the 12V battery in order to avoid discharging the main battery below 0%.
- Teslas have some features that keep the car turned on (e.g. sentry mode that records video while parked). Keeping the car turned on while parked consumes significant energy, so long term parking of a Tesla that is not plugged in should avoid using those features.
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We have not had any problem leaving our Bolt at the airport while traveling but a different car might behave differently. The Nissan Leaf does not have a liquid cooled battery, only air cooled, so it might be worse off to be left in the baking sun.
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I definitely don’t regret having this car. In fact, I am very glad that there are more options for EVs apart from Tesla, which I have always been wary of. It’s clear though that hubby and I will need to do a little more planning in advance if we go further afield.
The trip we did this past weekend was a good experiment because we were never anywhere too remote and it’s a route we know well. My overall thought is that while it’s not going to be super straightforward right away, it will be worth it.
As a side note, my husband rented an EV when he was in the UK in Feb. There, the petrol stations have to provide EV charging too. I think it’s an ongoing process and I know not all stations have EV chargers yet. So why isn’t that the same here? Because, of course, our petroleum companies don’t want to make life easy for EV car owners. It’s always money before consumers.
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My town recently overturned the city ordinance that didn’t let drivers pump their own gas. Since it was overturned we have had a slew of new gas stations built. (Previously I don’t think there had been a new gas station in decades.) All the new gas stations have chargers. So one of the issues in the US might be retro fitting old stations with the infrastructure. (Although it seems that would be at least as big an issue in the UK!)
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In retirement we’ve taken 2 road trips back East, lots of meandering to see various relatives, 5500 miles each. Honestly it was enough stress to juggle logistics for motels (no longer can find 6pm cancellation), traffic delays, weather delays, finding gas/food. I would not like to add EV charging to the list of concerns. However we would consider a hybrid.
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Our airport (Toronto) has valet service that will charge you car with 24 hours notice. You may be able to find similar services.
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The Tesla dealership did this when the cars first started coming out. They also were doing any servicing/tweaks. But at that time, there wasn’t charging at the airport, which there is now. Given the price tag on the Model S, it seemed like a very cool customer service idea, but also maybe not unreasonable! Pretty sure that’s not an option for the less luxury models. But I will explore!
Cool that you have that option!
I would honestly love to do that in my EV. I’ve driven across the country several different times when I was younger but just can’t seem to find the time (and the pet care) to make it happen again. Maybe one day.
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First time EV driver review of the Kia EV6:
I will say that I really like the look and lines of this car. That said, the low, sleek look of the car causes some visibility issues. The rear window is small, and the rear pillars of the car limit your rear visibility on each side of the vehicle. My truck has terrible rear visibility(worse than the Kia), so it wasn’t a major issue for me, but it may be for you.
The car was obviously fully charged when we picked it up. The range was +/-230 miles and our trip was 135 miles each way. I like the interior, but the large screen on the dashboard is distracting. I would never fiddle with that while driving. Thankfully my wife was with me to work the radio because I didn’t want to sit around trying to figure it out.
I found the side mirrors to be on the small side. Once adjusted they were fine. I use my mirrors a lot. The roof line is fairly low as well. I’m not a tall guy either. My wife actually bumped the side of her head getting in one time. Both the front and back seats seemed roomy.
The car is fun to drive, for sure. The regenerative breaking took some getting used to, but I really appreciated the acceleration. Putting the car in gear with a knob was odd, but not a problem. The placement of the digital speedometer left something to be desired, though. I would appreciate my speed displayed in the middle of the steering wheel rather than the left side. Maybe I could adjust that, but I didn’t even check. If I was going to purchase the car I would definitely have investigated that.
As for charging, the hotel we stay at has 4 free J-1772 chargers. It was a busy weekend so at times the only available parking spaces in the garage were EV spaces. I plugged in every night. On 2 of the 3 nights we were there ICE vehicles parked in at least 1 of the EV spots. I will say that Kia should take a look at the design of the rubber plug that covers the lower fast charger port. When I arrived at the hotel and tried to plug it in I couldn’t get the normal charger to engage. I thought there might have been an issue with the charger itself, so I switched spaces only to experience the same issue. I pulled out my flashlight and quickly figured out why it wouldn’t connect. See the photo below. The rubber retention cord for the fast charger cover is oriented in a way that keeps the charger from engaging. You have to pull the cover off to lock on a normal charger.
I didn’t bother to charge the car before I returned it. I spent the last night at my cousin’s house with no way to charge it anyway. Thankfully she lives near the airport because I only had about 60 miles of range left when we left her house.
This turned out to be the perfect way to test out an EV. If I had to stop places to charge I know I would have been annoyed. While fun to drive, for me at least, the thought of pre-planning routes to stop and charge would ruin the experience of an EV, and outweigh the novelty.
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We’re two months into our EV ownership and have yet to have any reason to use a third party charging site, despite having a free credit for 1,000 kw with EA. Honestly, if I expected to need to use third party charging much I probably would have held off getting an EV. Too much hassle, and a big reason we got it was to reduce hassle. Which it has. Not only does it charge conveniently from home but we now always use it as our go-to car regardless of who is driving unless we’re using more than one car at the same time, in which case whoever is driving longer uses it. As a result, even the gas cars are going a month between refills.
On the rare occasions we road trip more than 100 miles one-way, we’ll just use one of our ICE cars.
I don’t think third party charging is really ready for prime time yet for most of the reasons you listed. Too many hassles – finding and open charger at any given moment, odds it works and will accept payment, odds it isn’t degraded and charging much slower than it should be capable of, needing a bunch of apps, etc. A bit better for Tesla, though I suspect those will be more competitive too with all the other cars soon competing for their chargers.
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I have a Prius Prime hybrid and only trickle charge at home it use free chargers, when they’re available and working. I don’t mind when my engine switches to ICE as it should run ICE from time to time. I add 4 gallons to my tank when it runs down to 1/2 tank a few times/year. A hybrid keeps us from having range anxiety.
My car is our main vehicle as H has a 1998 Volvo. It is increasingly challenging getting parts and the only mechanic on the island who properly services it is talking about moving away in 2+ years as the cost of living and renting his commercial space on island is just too high for him to keep going.
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Wouldn’t living on an island where the road around is 240 miles with relatively low speeds mean that many EVs’ range will exceed what you can drive in a day, so that there is no range anxiety if you have home charging?
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This thread is interesting. Thanks to all who have shared their experiences.
We went away again this weekend to a major city. We felt better prepared this time, and weren’t certain we would easily find the right kind of charging station in the city we visited. Battery was at 90% ish when we set off.
Charging attempt #1. We went to a big brewery en route, which had at least ten Tesla charging spots, but had a few spaces with adapters for other cars. We hadn’t planned this stop, but figured why not use the charger. However, it was only a trickle charger, so effectively useless. Nevermind, we still had plenty of battery, so on we went…
We parked in the lot near the hotel, which indicated charging stations compatible with our car. But, it only had trickle chargers. So again, effectively useless. Not only that, but the charging company then sent a notification that because the battery was taking barely any charge, the battery was close to 80% (it wasn’t) and the fee would $5 per hour of “charging.” We disconnected, moved the car to a regular spot, and were more amused than annoyed.
We located a fast charging station on the way out of town in a shopping mall. This was convenient as I had to exchange something anyway. Twenty minutes of charging was all we needed and we were set to get all the way home.
Drive time was about 7-8 hours for a total cost of about $30 in “fuel”, I.e., electricity.
I think we will now always make sure that we have pre-located fast charging stations along our route. The priority is on fast. Overall, I do think the pros of the EV outweigh the cons.
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My car’s EV range in my hybrid is about 26 miles, down from 32 miles when I got my car at the end of 2018.
My friend has an older Leaf she got used. It is EV only. She has range anxiety and is always concerned about whether she has enough charge and if she’s charge it enough for whatever driving she needs to do. I tend to drive when we are together so we don’t have to worry about it. At maximum, her fully charged Leaf has an estimated range of 70 miles or so, depending on driving conditions, it can drop quickly.
When we borrowed my brother’s older Leaf, we had range anxiety, wondering if it would make it all the way from the airport to our home, regardless of what the estimator said. Range anxiety is real, yes, even on our tiny island.
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Old Leafs had relatively short range when new, and their batteries were among the worst-degrading batteries used in EVs (both because of the type of battery chemistry and because they were air cooled instead of liquid cooled).
Newer EVs tend to have 240+ mile ranges. In a place with relatively low speed limits and no need for using the heater, attaining that range or better should not be difficult.
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You’re not using this term right. There are Level 3 (aka Fast Chargers or DCFC), Level 2 (aka J-1772 or 220/240 chargers) and Level 1 (aka Trickle Charging, which is just plugging into a standard 110 outlet anywhere). There would never be a dedicated charger that was a Trickle Charger. Trickle charging is ONLY a regular household 110 outlet. Those are Level 2 chargers you are talking about.
The Level 2 chargers are great overnight, but not that useful unless you plan to be someplace for several hours. I can charge my car completely on Level 2 in about 6 hours, so if I was going to a concert or a movie or a night on the town where I would be for several hours a Level 2 could get me 1/3-1/2 charged.
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