long road trip with ev

I've traveled 18,000 miles in an electric car. Here are the 4 things that surprised me about long-distance EV road trips.

Gia Mora bought the Hyundai Ioniq 5, an EV with a 250-mile range, to reduce her need to fly.
She and her partner have traveled 18,000 miles in the electric car on multiple road trips.
Mora was surprised by how temperature affects charging times and how often she charges at Walmart.

When I decided I would fly only once every three years for environmental reasons in 2021, my main concern was how to tackle long-distance travel.

My partner and I live in Los Angeles, but my family is in Colorado, and my adventurous other half fretted over the limitations on our holidays.

We compromised last June when we traded in our hybrid SUV for the all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 . With its fast-charging 350-kilowatt capacity and 250-mile range battery, the Ioniq 5 allows us to travel long distances for a third of the emissions of our hybrid.

We paid the sticker price of $54,000, before the $7,500 federal rebate.

Our first EV excursion to Scottsdale, Arizona, from LA was a success. We've since gone to San Diego, visited family in Colorado, and did a mountain-bike road trip through Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico, racking up over 18,000 miles.

The Ioniq 5 also came with two years of free charging at any Electrify America charging station — the largest public-charging network in the country.

We can charge the car at any station or at home, but we plan around Electrify America locations. We only charged somewhere else three times last year. According to the Electrify America app, it's saved us over $2,600 in fees.

Initially, I was skeptical about owning an electric car, let alone road-tripping in one. Fears of long charging times at isolated stations or getting stranded with a dead battery are enough to stop anyone from switching to electric.

A year after purchase, I'm sold on long-range EVs.

Here are four things people should know if they're planning to travel long distances in an EV.

Plotting out charging is a breeze

Because charging stations aren't as ubiquitous as gas stations, traveling long distances in an electric vehicle requires more planning than a traditional road trip.

The Electrify America app makes finding and getting directions to chargers easy. Plus, it's compatible with Apple Maps and Hyundai's Car Play system, so we can view the route on our dashboard display.

We arrange to fill up at an Electrify America station every 150 miles or so. The network offers 3,500 fast chargers at 800 stations in 47 states.

We've never had trouble finding a station and never had to drive more than a mile or two off a major highway to access one.

If we are driving on a Sunday afternoon, we build extra time into our plans, because that's when charging stations are the busiest.

It's faster to travel long distances in the summer in an EV

EVs are the opposite of gas cars when it comes to temperature regulation. All electric cars, including the Ioniq 5, use more energy to heat than to cool.

That's why EVs experience range loss in colder weather . By our estimates, the Ioniq 5 travels about 15% fewer miles on the same charge in the cold as it does in the heat. It also drastically affects charging times.

In moderate temperatures, with the 350-kilowatt Hyper-Fast chargers, the Ioniq 5 can go from 10% to 80% charged in under 20 minutes. But on days when the temperature falls below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, it can take as long as 30 or 35 minutes.

Because we charge so frequently, the distance we can cover in a day isn't affected by the cold, but it does mean that we have to be prepared to spend more time waiting for the car to charge.

Conversely, cooling the Ioniq 5 has very little effect on range and charge time.

Last summer in the Phoenix heat, it only took an extra minute or so to reach full charge, and it's much more comfortable to wait 20 minutes in air-conditioning than it is to spend five minutes outside in 100-degree temperatures filling up at the gas pump.

I gained a newfound appreciation for Walmart

Walmart plays a bigger role in our road-tripping than I ever anticipated.

The vast majority of our charging stops are at one of the 280 Walmart and Sam's Club locations that host Electrify America and EVgo stations.

I feel safe charging in Walmart's well-lit parking lots, even at night. While charging, we can use the sparkling-clean restrooms or take advantage of the store's extended operating hours to grab any necessities.

It felt like a serious upgrade from grungy gas-station toilets and limited convenience stores typical of highway pit stops.

Last month, Walmart announced plans to quadruple its network of chargers. Since 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart , this expanded infrastructure could make road-tripping easier and make EV adoption accessible to more people.

More remote charging stations can be adventures in themselves

Plenty of charging stations look exactly as you'd expect, but when we ventured outside of major metropolitan areas, we discovered some unique stops.

Green River, Utah, is home to 847 people, one Tesla Supercharger, and four Electrify America stations located beside the tiny, quirky Green River Coffee Company . A painting of the establishment's mascot — a scraggly but disarming vulture holding a steaming cup of coffee — keeps watch over the chargers which are available for use 24/7.

One night just outside of Yosemite National Park, we pulled in to charge at a small lodge. Seeking respite from the rain and a public restroom, we went into the Lucky Buck Cafe .

The locals at the bar welcomed us and were delighted when I sat in with the live guitarist to sing a few country classics.

Road-tripping in the Ioniq 5 is enjoyable

Despite any challenges, road-tripping along the Electrify America network in our Ioniq 5 is an enjoyable option compared to costly airline tickets and pollution.

With more charging infrastructure on the horizon, I'm excited to see more people opting for all-electric travel plans.

Watch: Why it's so hard to recycle electric-car batteries

Main content

The ultimate guide to road tripping with an electric car

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here .

The past couple of years have changed the travel world in many ways, but two things stand out to me: road trips and electric cars.

Early in the pandemic, we saw road trips take the spotlight during a coronavirus-fueled dip in air travel. Even after vaccines helped air travel rebound, many travelers still prefer to take the great American road trip when visiting national parks , cities and everywhere in between.

At the same time, more and more drivers are switching to electric cars, with adoption steadily rising both in the U.S. and abroad. This has become more prevalent as gas prices continue to rise due to world conflict and supply chain issues, and even rental car companies have begun to add EVs to their fleets.

Related: 5 lessons learned from taking a road trip in the age of coronavirus

After a summer of rental car road trips, I purchased a used 2016 BMW i3 in August 2020. It's a range-extended electric compact car, meaning that it also has a small gas motor that can charge the battery on the go. This, combined with the car being a hatchback, makes it — in my opinion — the ultimate road trip vehicle for those living in a major city like New York .

Since buying the i3, I've taken it on a couple of short trips. It's a different experience than road tripping with a gas car, and newcomers to the electric car world might be deterred if they don't know what to expect.

In this article, I'll share some tips I've picked up while on the road with my EV. I'll discuss everything from what to look for when buying an EV for road trips to how to find charging stations. I'll also share some trip-planning tips.

Let's dive (drive?) in!

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Choosing an electric car for road trips

There are some important considerations if you're in the market for an electric car and plan on road tripping it. Here are some elements to examine as you go through the car buying process, such as car range and whether or not you should purchase a plug-in hybrid.

Related: Should I buy a used car instead of renting this summer?

Criteria for a road-trip capable electric car

It's important to look for a car that has appropriate range for the trips you plan to take. So, don't buy a car with an 80-mile range if you plan to take 500+ mile road trips regularly. That said, you don't need an ultra-long-range electric car for these trips. Something like the BMW i3 94ah has a 153-mile range which — if you don't mind making a few stops — can be a good bet for longer trips.

Consider a long-range Tesla or a Chevrolet Bolt if you want to avoid frequent charges. These cars have well over 200 miles of electric range. This means you're subject to less charging stops, but you'll generally spend more on the car. This is especially true on the used market where long-range cars tend to have a higher resale value.

In my opinion, road trippers should avoid cars like the Fiat 500e and the electric Mercedes-Benz B-Class. These cars have sub-100-mile electric range and don't offer a range extender option. That means you'll have to charge frequently on long trips. Further, these cars may not be able to handle longer trips that don't have chargers en route.

Related: The pros and cons of Amex's Auto Purchasing Program

Consider a plug-in hybrid or range-extended vehicle

Further, you may want to consider an electric car that's not fully electric. You have two options here: plug-in hybrids and range-extended electric vehicles. The former are essentially standard hybrid vehicles with larger batteries that can be charged externally. These cars generally have 15 to 50 miles of electric range and full-size gas tanks.

That said, these vehicles don't have a fully electric driving experience and don't generally offer fast charging options (more on that soon). I find these cars less fun to drive and — if you want to drive in electric mode — considerably more inconvenient to charge. At the same time, they can make great road-trip vehicles with a gas engine.

On the other hand, range-extended electric cars are fully electric vehicles with a small gas motor. This motor effectively charges the car's battery to provide additional range when driving long distances. My BMW i3 is equipped with the range extender option, and it's saved me on longer trips where I find myself far away from a public charger.

I prefer range-extended cars to plug-in hybrids since you always have the electric driving experience (think: immediate torque). Plus, these cars are usually equipped with fast charging and other EV-specific technology features.

Related: The best credit cards for purchasing a car

DC fast charging is key for a sane road trip

Here's a big one: only purchase a car with included DC fast charging if you plan on road tripping. More and more fast chargers are popping up around the country which can charge a vehicle — as in the case of the BMW i3 — to 80% in just 45 minutes. This is possible as fast chargers — commonly called Level 3 chargers — provide up to 250kW+ per hour.

On the other hand, a vehicle without this option can only use Level 2 public chargers, which charge at around 11kW per hour. This is still faster than plugging in at home but will take a ton of extra time to charge when on the go. Going back to the i3 example, it takes around three hours to charge from 0% to 80%.

This option is even more important when on long road trips. If you have to wait hours every time your vehicle runs low on battery, it will take you quite a long time to get to your destination. On the other hand, a 45-minute stop is enough time to grab lunch and set navigation to your next charge point or final destination.

Thankfully, almost all new fully electric vehicles and range-extended cars are equipped with fast charging. Some older electric cars don't have this option, though, so make sure to inquire about it before you go for a test drive. Some cars that aren't equipped with this feature include some 2014 and 2015 BMW i3s, all models of the Fiat 500e and some older Nissan Leafs.

Check battery degradation when buying a used car

Plan on buying used? Make sure to check the car's battery status before you buy. Like all batteries, the battery inside of an electric car will degrade over time. This is normal, but excessive degradation can make your road trip life difficult. You can usually check battery status on the car's infotainment system.

Thankfully, most electric cars have long battery warranties. For example, my used BMW i3 has a 100,000 mile/eight-year warranty on the battery, meaning I'm covered through 2024 on my 2016 model. According to BMW, a battery replacement can be authorized if a battery degrades 30% or more during the warranty period.

How to plan a road trip with an electric car

As discussed, road tripping with an electric car is different than with a gas car. It requires a bit more planning for pure electric vehicles which — while tedious — isn't too bad once you get the hang of it. Let's take a look at how I plan road trips in my electric car.

Plan your route around fast chargers and be mindful of range

First things first: You'll need to charge when out on the road, so you must plan your driving route around available public chargers located near highways, expressways or wherever else you're driving. You'll need to charge before your battery dies to avoid calling roadside assistance , but there's a bit more to it than this.

Unfortunately, electric car range is dynamic. You'll use more battery when accelerating quickly, going up hills and when using climate control. Always give yourself at least a 10% buffer when looking for chargers. This means that if you have a car with a 100-mile range, plan chargers that are no more than 90 miles apart.

Additionally, try and stick to fast chargers when you're on the road. This ensures that you're not stuck at a given charger for hours while waiting for your car to charge. Instead, you can plug in for 30 to 40 minutes and you're back on the road without issue.

You can plan your trips manually or use an app like PlugShare. I'll go in-depth on this app in the next section, but in short, it's a crowdsourced directory of all chargers available near your location. The app's built-in route planner can be a huge timesaver when mapping out long, multi-charge road trips.

Look for hotels with chargers

Another way to save time on charging is by staying at hotels that offer electric car charging in their parking lots or garages. These are becoming more and more common, and oftentimes charging is either free or included with the parking fee. These are generally Level 2 chargers, though, so they're best suited for charging overnight.

No charging at your hotel? Ask the hotel staff if they have an outdoor plug you can use. Most electric vehicles include a Level 1 wall charger that can be used with any standard wall socket. If the hotel is OK with it, this charger will slowly charge your vehicle overnight and give you at least enough power to make it to your next destination.

Related: 7 mistakes every road tripper makes at least once

Use these apps and charging networks to find public chargers

Now that you know how to plan a trip, let's take a look at the best way to find public chargers. As mentioned in the last section, several charging networks exist nationwide in the U.S. Some of these include ChargePoint and Electrify America. That said, there are many non-networked public chargers that you can find in parking garages and on city streets.

Here's a look at the apps and charging networks I use on electric car road trips. Before you head out on your first electric road trip, make sure to download these.

PlugShare for most public chargers

Finding Electric Car Chargers with PlugShare

PlugShare is a community-powered electric charger app. You can use this app to view networked, non-networked and home chargers that are open to the public. Even better, you can sort chargers by speed, connector type and cost. This can be immensely helpful when trying to find a fast charger on a long trip.

Further, the app has a trip-planning feature that will help you find electric car charge points along a given route. Just enter your origin and destination and the app will show you all the chargers nearby. You can even input your car's range to plan your route around charging stops.

Tesla owners are also in luck with the ChargePoint app. It shows all Tesla Destination Chargers, SuperChargers and other compatible chargers on the map. Just toggle on the Tesla connector in the app and locations will appear on the map.

ChargePoint has chargers around the US

ChargePoint is one of the biggest electric car charging networks in the U.S., offering both Level 2 and Level 3 chargers in major cities and along some major highways. Many ChargePoint locations will show on the PlugShare app, but I recommend downloading both apps, as PlugShare will often miss specific chargers. Also, you can use the ChargePoint app to pay for charging at several charging locations.

One word of caution: The ChargePoint app sometimes shows chargers that aren't available for public use. This is especially the case here in New York where many city vehicles have transitioned to plug-in hybrids or full electric vehicles. Keep an eye out for this when looking for places to charge.

Electrify America for DC fast chargers near highways

Nissan Leaf Charging at an Electrify America Charger

In the Northeast, I almost exclusively use Electrify America chargers on road trips. The company has a huge network of fast chargers located both within cities and near major highways, usually located at Walmarts, Targets and other shopping centers. Pricing is pretty reasonable, too — it varies based on how fast you're able to charge and you can get a discount by signing up for a membership ($4 per month).

Using these chargers is remarkably simple. Just drive up, plug in your car and select the charger you're using on the Electrify America app to start charging. The charge fee is billed to your credit card after you're finished charging.

One downside to Electrify America, however, is that its stations can be unreliable. On a recent drive from Philadelphia to New York, I stopped at a charger only to find three of the four available chargers were out of service. The fourth charger was in use, so I called tech support who offered me a free fill-up at a nearby charger.

Earn bonus miles on electric car charging

Since you'll usually pay for charging when on the road, why not earn miles in the process? Most chargers do not code as travel, so you'll want to use a credit card that earns extra points on general spending . There's a variety of these cards on the market, and some of our favorites include:

The Blue Business®️ Plus Credit Card from American Express (2 Membership Rewards points per dollar on the first $50,000 in purchases per calendar year; then 1 point per dollar, giving you a 4% return based on TPG's valuation )
Chase Freedom Unlimited (1.5% cash back/1.5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar for a 3% return based on TPG's valuation )
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (2 miles per dollar on purchases, giving you a 2.8% return based on TPG's valuations )

If you're completing a credit card spending requirement , you may want to use it to pay for your charging. For example, I use my Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card to pay for charging so I can earn bonus Medallion Qualifying Miles to qualify for Delta elite status .

Related: Maximizing points and miles on summer road trips

Bottom line

Road tripping in an electric car is different from a road trip in a gasoline car, but it's still fun. In fact, I've often found that road trips are more enjoyable in my EV as I see new places I otherwise wouldn't. On top of this, money saved on gas can be used to stay in better hotels and eat at nicer restaurants. Sounds like a win-win to me.

I think the biggest takeaway is to always be mindful of your range. Planning your route along charge points and stopping to charge before you need to charge is key to an enjoyable and stress-free trip. If this isn't for you, consider a range-extended electric car or a plug-in hybrid for more flexibility.

Drive safe!

Feature photo by Andrew Kunesh/The Points Guy.

Best EVs for Road Trips in 2023

There’s more to a road trip than the logistics of how you get there. Here are the 12 best EVs we found for road trips, for a variety of budgets and traveling companions.

Kia Motors America |

These EVs Will Put Some Zip in Your Next Road Trip

When you’re planning a road trip with an electric vehicle, range is probably the biggest concern, first and foremost, because range affects everything else when you’re driving an EV — particularly when it comes time to replenish that range. Depending on your destination, and what you’ll encounter on the way, finding a safe and reliable place to charge could be a nonissue, or it could be a complete pain.

Yet, there’s more to a road trip than the logistics of how you get there. You’ll want space for all your passengers and everyone’s luggage, spacious and comfortable seats no matter what type of vehicle you’re in and user-friendly technology.

Here are the 12 best EVs we found for road trips, for a variety of budgets and traveling companions. As you read, keep in mind that we update our reviews throughout the year as new information becomes available. Therefore, the scores you see here might not match the scores in a vehicle’s review.

Nissan North America, Inc. |

2023 Nissan Leaf

Price: $28,040 | overall score: 7.6/10.

The Nissan Leaf may be a controversial choice here, since it tops out at 212 miles of range for the SV Plus model, and its fast-charging capability falls short of many competitors. Still, we chose the Leaf to kick off this roundup of the best EVs for road trips because it’s the car that helped people realize EVs didn’t need to be elitist and unaffordable. The Leaf’s low price means it’s a little less convenient than its rivals, yet, it puts EV road-tripping within the price range of most new car shoppers.

The Leaf is spacious and comfortable for a small car, and has standard features just a bit beyond the essentials. You’ll get an 8-inch touch-screen display, Apple CarPlay , Android Auto and a competitive list of advanced safety tech.

2023 Tesla Model 3

Price: $43,990 | overall score: 8.6/10.

The Model 3 is the best value in the Tesla lineup, with an accessible entry price, tons of features and range that’s been increased for 2023 in both base and Long Range models. The Model 3’s main downfall in terms of road trip-worthiness is that Tesla’s infotainment system uses its own smartphone integration, so Apple CarPlay and Android Auto aren’t available.

Three configurations are available, with range ranging from 272 to 358 miles. The most expensive of the group, the Performance, splits the difference in terms of range and offers excellent acceleration and all-wheel drive.

2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6

Price: $41,600 | overall score: 8.3/10.

The Hyundai Ioniq 6 is brand new for the 2023 model year, yet it immediately lands the top spot in our electric car rankings. The Ioniq 6 uses Hyundai’s experience as a value leader in the EV segment, as well as its sharp styling expertise, to put together a well-rounded EV sedan that can holds its own alongside the brand’s more well-established crossover offerings.

The Ioniq 6 rides smoothly and is available with a choice of rear- or all-wheel drive and in configurations that offer between 270 and an impressive 361 miles of range. The Ioniq 6 also includes a 12.3-inch touch screen, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto among its many standard features.

2023 BMW i4

Price: $51,400 | overall score: 8.8/10.

The BMW i4 is a sleek and pretty “Gran Coupe" — what BMW calls its coupe-inspired sedans — with tons of comfort features and up to 301 miles of range achieved in its base trim. Furthermore, this BMW is a decent buy if it’s within your price range and you consider that the mid- and top-tier trims of some mainstream EVs cost more than the i4’s base price. In short, this is a stylish way to hit some of the best roadside tourist attractions.

If you’re willing to spend more on an i4, you can upgrade from rear- to all-wheel drive. Standard features include an impressive curved display that combines a 14.9-inch touch screen and a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, plus wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

2023 Mercedes-Benz EQS Sedan

Price: $104,400 | overall score: 8.7/10.

In its second year on the market, the Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan earns a spot in the top half of our luxury electric car rankings. It’s on the expensive side but if you want to see the country in some of the best comfort you can get from an EV, it’s a great choice, with competitive range and tons of cargo space.

Mercedes’ 4Matic all-wheel-drive system is a new option for 2023, though you’ll get slightly better range, a total of about 350 miles, sticking with the rear-drive base model. Standard features include a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, a 12.8-inch touch screen, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, wireless device charging and augmented reality navigation.

2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E

Price: $42,995 | overall score: 8.4/10.

Romance and nostalgia aren’t necessary for a road trip, but they’ll certainly add to the experience, and the Ford Mustang Mach-E makes a great choice for an EV road trip with a throwback vibe. If you’re determined to stay salty about Ford putting the pony badge on an EV, you wouldn’t get it, anyway.

The Mustang Mach-E is offered with range estimates of 224 to 312 miles, depending on the trim level and battery pack. The base Select falls on the lower, but still worthwhile, end of the scale with 247 miles of range and a decent list of standard features. You’ll get a 10.2-inch digital gauge cluster, a 15.5-inch touch screen infotainment display, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and wireless device charging.

2023 Hyundai Ioniq 5

Price: $41,450 | overall score: 8.5/10.

Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 is a stylish electric crossover with near-luxury aspirations at a value price. The Ioniq 5 is available with a choice of rear- or all-wheel drive, and each offers distinctly different driving dynamics, from athletic to comfortable. The Ioniq 5 tops out at a competitive 303 miles of range, too.

As is typical for Hyundai, the Ioniq 5’s style and practicality don’t mean you have to compromise elsewhere in the experience. Hyundai includes tons of safety features as well as a 12.3-inch touch screen infotainment display that includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

2023 Rivian R1S

Price: $78,000 | overall score: 8.9/10.

Now for something a little different. The Rivian R1S is the EV startup’s second vehicle on the market following the R1T pickup truck. This SUV has unique looks and a ton of innovative features, such as a "Kneel" mode that lowers the vehicle when it's parked to make getting in and out easier. Its air suspension also enables the R1S to level out the body when parked on uneven terrain while other features include a semi-autonomous driving system that works on specific mapped highways, and an available underbody shield for extra protection while off-roading.

The R1S also drives great, with standard all-wheel drive and quick acceleration. Range checks in at 260 miles with the standard battery pack and 321 miles with the upgraded battery pack.

2023 Genesis GV60

Price: $59,290 | overall score: 8.7/10.

The GV60 is an all-new addition to the Genesis lineup for 2023. It’s a beautiful crossover that’s potent yet practical, with enjoyable performance, a long list of standard features and user-friendly technology. That said, the GV60’s range options are 235 and 248 miles, both of which fall short of luxury EVs in this price range.

Consider this, though: the GV60 supports V2L (vehicle-to-load) charging, which isn’t unheard-of but also isn’t yet anywhere close to mainstream. If you’ll be staying in campgrounds or remote areas along your road trip, you can connect appliances or electronics to the GV60 and power them with the battery. Want to play electric guitar under the stars? Genesis has you covered.

2023 Chevrolet Bolt EUV

Price: $27,800 | overall score: 7.5/10.

The Chevrolet Bolt and Bolt EUV are both excellent choices for road trip cars, though we chose the EUV for this list because its hatchback-like crossover body offers more cabin and cargo space. It’s not really an Instagram model, but it’ll get you to all the scenic selfie spots in comfort. The Bolt EUV is also the winner of our 2023 Best Electric SUV for the Money award and it has the lowest base price of any EV crossover currently for sale.

The base Bolt EUV offers 247 miles of range, which is competitive considering its pricing. Standard features include a 10.2-inch touch screen, an 8-inch digital gauge cluster, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, wireless device charging and a lot of safety features for the money.

2023 BMW i7

Price: $119,300 | overall score: 8.9/10.

The BMW i7 is yet another EV road trip contender that’s new to the market for 2023. The i7 is BMW’s new flagship sedan, which means it showcases the brand’s best design, engineering and technology features, and has a price tag to match. This elegant sedan is extremely comfortable and provides a smooth, soothing ride despite its energetic powertrain.

This top-ranked luxury electric car can go up to 318 miles on a full charge, though upgrading to larger wheels will sacrifice some range. A standard adaptive air suspension and all-wheel drive ensure a comfortable ride along with more confidence in foul-weather driving conditions. Standard features include a 14.9-inch touch screen as well as wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

2023 Kia EV6

Price: $48,700 | overall score: 8.7/10.

The Kia EV6 is one of the best EVs for a road trip, hands down, but particularly if you can’t afford to or prefer not to shop the luxury brands. The EV6 looks and feels upscale, with sophisticated design and great performance, yet comes in at a price that is reasonable for many shoppers looking for a new electric car. You’ll enjoy your road trip a lot more if you’re not worrying about how much it costs, after all.

The EV6 crossover’s base trim has the best range of the lineup, at 310 miles, and presents the best value with a ton of standard features. You’ll get a 12.3-inch digital instrument display, a 12.3-inch touch screen, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and wireless charging to help the miles fly by.

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Best EVs for Road Trips

2023 Nissan Leaf - $28,040 | Overall Score: 7.6/10
2023 Tesla Model 3 - $43,990 | Overall Score: 8.6/10
2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 - $41,600 | Overall Score: 8.3/10
2023 BMW i4 - $51,400 | Overall Score: 8.8/10
2023 Mercedes-Benz EQS Sedan - $104,400 | Overall Score: 8.7/10
2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E - $42,995 | Overall Score: 8.4/10
2023 Hyundai Ioniq 5 - $41,450 | Overall Score: 8.5/10
2023 Rivian R1S - $78,000 | Overall Score: 8.9/10
2023 Genesis GV60 - $59,290 | Overall Score: 8.7/10
2023 Chevrolet Bolt EUV - $27,800 | Overall Score: 7.5/10
2023 BMW i7 - $119,300 | Overall Score: 8.9/10
2023 Kia EV6 - $48,700 | Overall Score: 8.7/10

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Everything You Need to Know About Road Tripping in an Electric Car

Your eco-friendly adventure awaits.

As someone who's driven a 2001 Isuzu Trooper most of her life, getting the keys to an electric car made me feel like I was trading in a BlackBerry for an iPhone. With electric cars exploding in popularity, I traveled to sunny California last summer for a weeklong trip in Palm Springs, where I rented an Audi E-Tron Sportback and took it all the way to Joshua Tree National Park.

Because this was my first time getting behind the wheel of an electric vehicle, I wanted to make sure I was in an area with plenty of charging stations. To my surprise, I lasted the entire week without needing to use one. This was due to a combination of limiting myself to short drives and being able to charge up at my hotel — the Parker Palm Springs — but also because the car, like many EV models, has a median range of more than 250 miles.

All in all, there are many benefits to choosing this type of green transportation. Not only is opting for an EV great for the environment, but it even allows you to use the HOV lanes in certain states. Plus, you'll save money by not having to buy fuel — basically a selling feature in itself these days. And don't get me started on how useful it is to have two separate trunks (one in the back and the front, thanks to the lack of engine). So, ready to hit the road in an electric car? Here's everything you need to know about road tripping in an EV, from determining the best time weather for driving to finding places to charge your electric car on the road.

Finding Charging Stations on the Road

As a first-time EV driver, I decided not to push the limits of the car's range. However, it is possible to get your electric car across the country using public charging stations along the way. Electrify America , one of the largest networks of EV charging stations, is set up in many states and continues to expand. Download the Electrify America app, ChargePoint , or PlugShare to guide you to chargers all over the country. You can also find EV chargers on navigation apps like Google Maps and Waze.

Jason Zehr, a Chase Auto dealer commercial services underwriter, says shopping centers are great places to look for chargers, and some will even give you preferred parking spots. "You can have a meal and/or run errands while the car is charging, and some stores offer free charging to shoppers."

Tesla owners Wes McLaughlin and Emily Martin, who road tripped in their EV from Virginia to Yellowstone and back for their honeymoon, said they had no problems finding places to top up their car battery. "We stayed near west Yellowstone in Idaho, and there was a charger just outside the park," McLaughlin said. "We drove through snowstorms and buffalo herds without issues or worry that we wouldn't be able to get to a charger."

Driving in HOV Lanes in an EV

Certain states also allow EV drivers to use the HOV lanes, which allows you to save power and get to your destination faster. Check the rules of the states you're traveling in on the U.S. Department of Energy website , which has an updated list of states with HOV exemptions. California, Florida, New Jersey, and New York are some of the states that allow EVs in the carpool lane. However, most states require registration, and you either get a decal or special license plate to show you're permitted in the HOV lane.

Choosing Hotels With Charging Stations

When considering where to stay, opt for a hotel with a charging station. This way, you can park the car when you're done for the day and power it up overnight. On the PlugShare map, you can filter results to show only charging stations with lodging. The results show lots of familiar chain hotels like Hiltons, Marriotts, Best Westerns, and Holiday Inns as well as plenty of independent properties. Some charging stations are free, while others require a fee. Keep in mind that, depending on the type of electric car you're driving, you may need an adapter to plug in (for example, to plug a Tesla into a non-Tesla charging station).

Fortunately, I was able to charge my EV rental overnight at Parker Palm Springs, which fully juiced up the car battery for the following day. For more options across the country, travelers can also search for electric charging as an amenity when looking for hotels on search engines like Expedia .

Plugging in at Campgrounds

One of the best EV road trip hacks is that you can camp and use provided RV hookups to charge your vehicle. "If you rent a spot for an RV — typically $35 to $50 — you get a full charge and a good night's rest for a decent price," McLaughlin said. "We spent several nights camping in the car when we just needed a place to sleep before continuing on the next day." The caveats: you'll need to make sure the campsite you book has hookups, and you might need an adapter to plug in. The perks: in addition to giving you a place to park and charge for the night, it eliminates the need to pay for a hotel.

Knowing the Different Types of EV Charging Stations

Not all EV chargers are the same. There are three different tiers. Level 1 is the slowest (think a standard 120-volt plug). If your battery is nearing empty, a Level 1 charger could take up to 50 hours to power it all the way up. Level 2 is the most common and delivers a full charge from empty in anywhere from four to 10 hours. The cost of using these varies but is typically significantly cheaper than paying for gas. Level 3, also known as Direct Current Fast Chargers, is the quickest option, getting you back on the road with a near-full battery in as little as 20 minutes. Again, the cost can vary. Some Tesla Supercharger locations offer on-peak and off-peak rates.

Conserving Your EV Battery on a Road Trip

Because of their regenerative braking systems, EVs are generally more efficient in stop-and-go traffic than they are on the highway. So, to conserve your battery, opt for city roads that require low speeds and lots of braking. This is counterintuitive to any driver who's used to traditional fuel-powered cars, which are more efficient at consistent speeds.

Additionally, you can conserve your EV battery by keeping the AC or heat off, or switching them to eco-mode, and avoiding hard acceleration. Note that batteries drain faster in extreme temperatures.

Planning Your Road Trip in Ideal Weather

Warm-weather road trips are the way to go when driving an electric car. Like your phone, EVs lose power quicker in cold weather, so if you're hitting the open road in the winter, you're going to have to charge your car more often. "We drove in 17 degrees Fahrenheit and lost battery fast," Martin said.

Likewise, really hot temperatures can cause the battery to work harder — especially if you have the AC cranked up — and potentially overheat. In these kinds of extreme temperatures, the chemical reactions that make the battery function occur more rapidly, which makes it less efficient.

Renting an Electric Vehicle

If you don't own an electric car — and aren't quite ready to commit to buying one — a road trip is the perfect way to test the waters. Rental companies like Turo , Sixt , Hertz , and Enterprise all have their own EV fleets available for rent. Before taking your rented EV for a long-distance spin, make sure you know its driving range, download apps to help you find charging stations, and maybe even read up on the model on the dealer website so you know exactly what it needs and how to operate it. EVs might cost a little more than your cheapest fuel-powered economy option, but not having to buy gas could make up for it in the long run.

Handling Car Troubles When Road Tripping in an EV

Beyond not having to waste money on gas, EV drivers also save on maintenance. "I don't miss oil changes or replacing alternators and belts," McLaughlin said. "As someone who has never been a 'car guy,' it's nice to know that I can actually do all the maintenance on my car by myself, which is just adding windshield washer fluid." When you're venturing out on long distances, it's reassuring to drive something that has a lower chance of breaking down. Running out of battery with no way to charge is one of the worst things that can happen, but some dealers like Audi will get you out of the situation with complimentary towing. Of course, it doesn't hurt to carry AAA.

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Is an Electric Car Right for Your Next Road Trip?

Yes, as long as you plan ahead and follow our experts' advice

If you’re considering an electric vehicle but worried about charging it on a long road trip, you’re not alone. In a nationally representative CR American Experiences Survey of 2,121 US adults conducted in April 2023, 30 percent of Americans said they would definitely or seriously consider buying or leasing an EV. But 61 percent of those who aren’t definitely on board with EVs said that charging logistics are holding them back, while 54 percent cited the number of miles an EV can go before it needs to be recharged as the reason they aren’t going electric yet.

“Charging anxiety has replaced range anxiety as the No. 1 concern for EV owners,” says Alex Knizek, manager of automotive testing and insights at Consumer Reports. “While driving CR’s test fleet of EVs, we have experienced unexpectedly slow and completely broken chargers, faulty credit card readers, and even long wait times while other EVs charge.” This is especially true for non-Tesla chargers, Knizek says.

But before you scuttle any of your plans to take to America’s highways and byways, consider this: The average summer road trip is 284 miles each way, and more than three-quarters of trips are under 250 miles each way, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Most modern EVs can cover that distance on a single charge.

For road trips that stretch miles longer than the average, however, the current hodgepodge network of charging stations poses a particular challenge for today’s EV owners. “At least in 2023, an extended EV road trip will require a bit of planning and patience,” says Chris Harto, senior policy analyst for transportation and energy at CR. “Big infrastructure investments are being made by both the government and private industry over the next few years, but the charging network is still a work in progress and can be spotty in terms of reliability and availability in some areas—especially if you don’t drive a Tesla.” Still, that doesn’t mean you need to give up on going electric or forgo that long-planned long trip.

Consumer Reports’ experts have driven hundreds of thousands of miles in EVs, and we’ve taken road trips in all the most popular electric models available today. Below, we explain how planning ahead can help you avoid broken chargers and running out of charge, and teach you tips and tricks that all EV owners should know.

This interactive map from ChargeHub shows public EV chargers near our Yonkers, N.Y., headquarters. Scroll and zoom to explore other areas.

CR's Tips for EV Road Trippers

Plan your route. More than half of Americans who weren’t ready to buy an EV yet told CR that it was due to range anxiety—the fear that an EV couldn’t go enough miles on a charge. Most modern EVs have ranges longer than 250 miles, but that’s still a shorter distance than most gas cars can go on a single fill-up. One way to ease stress is to plan ahead. Most EVs have built-in navigation systems that can automatically plan stops at chargers along your route to maximize range and save time.

You can also use Google Maps and Waze or apps such as A Better Route Planner, ChargeHub, and PlugShare—all of which are favorites of CR’s vehicle testers. Unlike a built-in navigation system, these apps and sites won’t automatically know how much range your car has left, but we’ve found that they feature more chargers and have more up-to-date information than most built-in systems. We recommend planning ahead rather than searching for a charger on the fly, but these apps can also help you find a place to plug in if you’re in a pinch.

Tesla’s extensive Supercharger network of high-rate DC fast chargers, often located at convenient locations off main thoroughfares, has long been a top selling point for the brand. Soon, Tesla will open up more than 12,000 of its Superchargers to EVs from competing brands including Ford, General Motors, Rivian, and Volvo. Just how much more convenient this will be for non-Tesla owners will depend on the model of EV they drive: We’ve found that the ease and speed of charging a non-Tesla vehicle at a Supercharger varies widely from model to model.

Graphic: Jeff S. Bartlett/Consumer Reports Graphic: Jeff S. Bartlett/Consumer Reports

Download apps for the major charging networks. Everyone who works at CR’s Auto Test Center and drives our test fleet of EVs has a bunch of charging network apps downloaded on their phones—Ampup, ChargePoint, Electrify America, EVGo, Volta, and others—and we recommend that you do the same. Paying for public charging isn’t as easy as filling up at a gas station. You’ll likely have to sign up and enter some payment information first. It’s better to do this before you leave home rather than struggle to sign up on your phone while you’re parked at a charger.

Most apps will tell you if the charger you’re planning to use is working properly, and when it was last used, which can help you avoid driving far out of your way only to end up at a charger that’s broken or in use.

Some EVs, including many models from GM, have a “plug and charge” feature that allows the driver to simply plug in at an eligible public charger and get billed automatically. Though it is slowly gaining traction, this feature is still relatively rare and typically works only at select chargers.

Be ready for longer pit stops. There are two kinds of chargers out there. Level 2 chargers , like the ones most EV owners have installed in their own homes, are the most common. They output between 7 and 19 kilowatt-hours and can add between 10 and 20 miles of charge per hour of charging. You’re likely to find these on the road at businesses and hotels. DC fast chargers are harder to find, they but charge about 10 times faster than a Level 2 charger.

Another factor to consider: Some cars charge faster than others. “Get a feel for how long it takes your car to charge and how many miles of range are added in that time so you can factor it into your itinerary,” Knizek says.

For example, Hyundai says that a DC fast charger can add 180 miles of range to the Ioniq 5 in just 18 minutes. On the other hand, Subaru says it’ll take 56 minutes to add 155 miles of range to the Solterra . In our own travels, we’ve noticed that those numbers are optimistic estimates.

“The maximum charge rate advertised by manufacturers is usually under ideal conditions, so expect to charge slightly slower some of the time,” Knizek says. Still, if you plan on taking lots of road trips in your EV, you’ll want to choose one that can charge quickly.

Don’t go out of your way to find a station that charges faster than your car can handle—it’s just a waste of time,” Knizek says. For example, if your car can only take in 150 kW, don’t bother with a 350 kW-charger. “It won’t make it charge any more quickly.”

Photo: John Powers/Consumer Reports Photo: John Powers/Consumer Reports

Take the road less battery-draining. Steady, high-speed highway driving might be good for maximizing a gas car’s mileage, but it isn’t optimal for EV range, says Gabe Shenhar, associate director of CR’s Auto Test Center. “Plus, there is less opportunity for regenerative braking , which sends some energy back to the battery.” If you have a long highway slog, you might get less range than your car’s window sticker stated. Even if you know the way, consider using your car’s built-in navigation feature or an app such as Google Maps, which can plan a route that maximizes your car’s range.

Prepare to pay up. Charging an EV at home will almost always cost less than charging on the road, so you’d be wise to start out with a full battery. We’ve found that many public chargers can cost two to three times as much as you’d pay your electric company to charge at home, depending on your location. Unlike with gas stations, there’s no big sign outside charging stations advertising rates, but you can compare prices on the apps we mentioned earlier.

Some new cars come with free charging on specific networks, so don’t let that go to waste. For example, the Volkswagen ID.4 comes with three years of complimentary 30-minute charges at Electrify America stations. If you own one, you might want to plan your route to take advantage of the offer.

Watch your range. Don’t wait until the last minute to charge. We recommend plugging in when your battery has at least 20 percent of its charge left. That way, if the charger you’re trying to use is out of order or has a long wait, you’ll probably have enough range left to get to another station.

And don’t plan on charging your battery all the way to 100 percent unless you want to wait, Knizek says. “Most electric vehicles charge the quickest between 20 and 80 percent. It is often beneficial on a long trip to stop more often but for less time at each stop than to wait for a full charge.”

Make sure you’re covered if something goes wrong. An electric vehicle isn’t subtle about warning you before it runs out of range. It will start displaying warning messages and sounding chimes long before the battery is truly dead, so you’ll at least be able to safely pull over even if you can’t make it to a charger.

Many roadside assistance services—including AAA and those offered by automakers and insurers—will tow you home or to a charging station (distance limits typically depend on membership level). AAA even has a mobile charging service in a few cities that will give your battery some juice wherever you’re parked.

Many new EVs come with at least a few months of roadside assistance from the manufacturer, although some automakers, including Tesla, charge extra to tow a car with a dead battery. Check your car’s manual or the automaker’s website to see what is covered, and buy additional coverage if you need it. We’ve found that a single tow often costs more than a year’s worth of roadside assistance.

Photo: Nissan Photo: Nissan

Find a hotel with a charger. Many hotels have installed EV chargers on-site so guests can plug in when they reach their destination. Hilton, Marriott, and other major hotel chains let you search for properties with electric car chargers, and sites like PlugShare also have search functions for hotels with available charging stations. We recommend calling the specific hotel where you’re staying to make sure the charger is in working order.

Go ahead—turn on the AC. A summer road trip might be the best time to get the most miles out of an EV’s battery. CR tested the ranges of several popular EVs in various weather conditions and found that while cold weather saps about 25 percent of an EV’s range when cruising at 70 mph, sunny, humid, mid-80-degree weather will give drivers the longest range, even when keeping the air conditioning at 72° F.

Keith Barry

Keith Barry has been an auto reporter at Consumer Reports since 2018. He focuses on safety, technology, and the environmental impact of cars. Previously, he led home and appliance coverage at Reviewed; reported on cars for USA Today, Wired, and Car & Driver; and wrote for other publications as well. Keith earned a master’s degree in public health from Tufts University. Follow him on Twitter @itskeithbarry .

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Microsoft's 6 biggest mistakes: did the company learn anything from them, how to rip an audio cd on windows, quick links, what to do when planning an electric car road trip.

Modern electric vehicles (EVs) are chipping away at range anxiety , but long-distance trips still feel difficult to many considering a switch to electric. With better batteries and increased charging infrastructure, is it finally possible to take a real road trip in an electric car?

Related: How Far Can an Electric Car Go on One Charge?

If you want to drive cross-country in your EV, it will take a bit of planning beforehand. You'll need to make sure you have access to charging infrastructure --- and a backup plan if the ones you find don't work out.

Find Charging Stations Before You Go

As travel publication Roadtrippers demonstrates in a short and sweet video on the topic, apps like ChargeHub and PlugShare will help you find stations along your trip route. Depending on how advanced your EV's navigation system is, you can then make those stations stops on your route. Even Google Maps will tell you the most efficient route for traveling in an EV now.

Most of these apps also tell you if the charging station you're looking at is out of order and have user-contributed photos. If you see that stations are down or people complain about the chargers being broken a lot in the comments, it might be best to pick another spot.

Related: How to Find an EV Charging Station Near You

When plotting your route, it makes the most sense to pick areas where you'll already be doing something else to stop and charge. Restaurants, shopping centers, and sometimes even places like gyms will let you plug in while you run a few errands or stock up on supplies. For quicker stops, look for DC fast charging (DCFC) stations. Tesla drivers have the Supercharger network, and non-Tesla vehicles can plug in it at level 3 DCFC stations. It's very simple to filter by the level of charging station you want using the apps listed above.

If you're stopping at hotels along the way, their websites should list charging stations as an amenity, so make sure you book a room with one on-site. To be extra careful you can double-check by calling the hotel and looking them up on your app of choice.

Related: Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3? EV Chargers Explained

Want to camp instead? RV parks are your friend. They'll be equipped with outlets that provide the same level of power as a level 2 charging station since heavier power is needed to run the big vehicles that usually stop at RV campgrounds. Nightly rates are also usually reasonable, cheaper than a hotel, and don't limit how many hours you can charge. National parks like Yosemite often have charging stations in and around the park you can use to plug in while you hike or swim. (Check before you go, though, as it's probably not true for every national park).

Whichever route you choose, avoid letting the battery get too low. 20-80% is usually the optimal range to keep an EV's battery working in, so don't let it dip down to 5% before you start looking for a station --- you might end up getting towed to one.

Know Your Range

Of course, before doing any of that you need to be familiar with your EV's range. Different models will have different capabilities, and knowing what yours is will help you build a buffer between charging stations so you can hit the next one before your battery gets too low.

Related: 5 of the Longest Range Electric Cars You Can Buy

If longer trips are important to you, it's probably best to get an electric car with a range of 200 miles per charge or more. You don't need to drive a Tesla to get a decent amount of range out of your EV, either. While some longer-range electric cars are expensive, plenty are within the price range of a typical modern gas car. Kia and Hyundai, for example, make EVs with a roughly 300-mile range. The 2021 Chevy Bolt can travel over 250 miles on a single charge.

If you're on the fence, consider renting an EV for a few days and taking a road trip to try it out. If it's within your budget, it can be a great way to find out what EV is right (or wrong) for you.

Mind the Weather

As many have noted, cold weather is not friendly to electric cars. While they do better these days than in the past, you're going to see a decrease in your range when the temperature drops too low.

Related: How Does Cold Weather Affect Electric Car Battery Life?

If you can still make the trip driving shorter distances between stations then chances are you'll be fine, but you don't want to get stuck in a far-flung area with spotty charging infrastructure in the middle of winter. If you do decide to road trip in colder weather, warming the car's cabin and battery before unplugging from the charging station each time will do a lot to lighten the load on your battery and mitigate range loss.

Extremely hot weather can decrease EV range too, so you'll want to take steps to keep the car cool on summer road trips. Parking in the shade, using the car's battery management system while plugged in, and keeping the battery topped up all help.

Have a Backup Plan

Roadtrippers editor-in-chief Sanna Boman said it best in her article detailing her own EV road trip experience: "If there's one thing I learned during my trip, it's that the key to a successful EV road trip is planning, planning, and more planning."

DCFC stations are great, but get hard to find once you leave major cities and suburbs behind. If you know you'll be heading through a more rural area and have the opportunity to top up before things get sparse, do it.

Even if you do find a station, all the ports could be occupied by other vehicles. Some or all of the stations could also be broken or down for maintenance. Or, as happened with Boman's Chevy Bolt once, the station could just be unable to communicate with your car. If any of those things happen, you'll want to be prepared to wait a little longer or have enough power to travel to the next station.

If you know people in the areas you'll be traveling through that can let you use their garage to plug in and get some juice, that's a great option to have in your back pocket as well. And always know where the charging stations are before you leave.

Related: Electric Vehicles: How Easy Is It to Find a Charging Station?

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How to Plan a Road Trip With an EV

With proper preparation, your trip can be as stress-free as ever

For more than two decades, Stephen wrote for Newsday on Long Island. He later covered general assignments, news rewrite, and was later assigned as a music writer, travel writer, and general columnist.

Northeastern University

Counting down the preparations for a long family road trip usually involves packing suitcases, loading up on snacks, tossing in a few pillows for comfort, and gassing up. If you’re driving an electric vehicle, of course, you can strike the gassing-up part and just be sure the battery is charged up nicely to get you where you’re going. Wait: EVs can make road trips?

It’s true: Today’s EVs are able to drive longer and longer distances due to ongoing improvements in batteries and other EV features. Still, there are a few things to know before you hit the road that are a bit different from road tripping in a gasoline-powered vehicle.

Road Trip Range Planning

There are plenty of benefits to traveling a long way in an EV—you’ll save gas, of course, but you’re also helping the environment by not burning fossil fuels along the way. In certain states, you can even take advantage of HOV lanes, and the storage in an EV is usually at least twice that of a gasoline-powered vehicle.

Plus, when it comes to EVs, a road trip can be a lot further than most people think. Many EVs today can actually cover long distances without excessive worry. Whether the battery power dictates that your ride is limited to a range of 100 miles or 300 miles, you can always be ready to meet the unique situations you might encounter by doing a little homework before you go.

To plan your road trip, keep these things in mind:

Know where charging stations are along your route and consider using a rapid charger.
Pack light for maximum range.
Use hotels with on-site charging stations.
Enjoy the ride.

Planning Your Route: The Charging Conundrum

Let’s pretend you’re driving from Buffalo to Boston for a long weekend to grab clam chowder, New England style. It’s just under 500 miles each way, and your new EV has a range of 250 miles when fully charged. You’ll need to make at least one charging stop en route but thinking ahead can easily make your road trip successful.

Set Up Your Charging Route

While you can plan any route you like, always consider how you will manage your EV’s range before you turn the key. That means charting the charging stations along the way to plan for both scheduled and unscheduled stops. The best way to do this is to use an EV app that can help you track battery usage and find charging stops with compatible chargers.

You need to know what kind of charger and/or plug will accommodate your specific vehicle, too. If you’re unsure, you can check your car’s manual or the manufacturer’s website before you hit the road.

Some manufacturers, like Tesla and GM, have their own charging networks for drivers. Tesla is opening its network to drivers of all EVs; GM announced in late 2021 that it would expand its infrastructure and install up to 40,000 EV charging stations in the U.S. and Canada.

Use an EV Travel Planning App

Some of the EV travel apps are built-in to electric vehicles while others are apps you can easily use on a laptop or smartphone. These apps help you plan routes, locate the stations, offer pricing information, and even tell you if there’s a wait to plug in.

Our favorites include:

EVHotels helps drivers find hotels with charging stations and notes free public chargers as well as those available only for hotel guests. (iOS only)

Google Maps has a special built-in for some EVs, this version of Maps lets you estimate your car’s battery charge on arrival at your destination and help you select charging stations along your route.

PlugShare lets you search for free and paid charging stations by area, network, and type of charging connection. You can pay for your charge through the app and plan trips, too.

ChargeHub uses a community of EV owners to help you locate the closest public charging station, regardless of network.

Electrify America offers fast chargers across the country, with a few that also support Level 2 chargers. The app gives you access to members-only pricing and special features.

Open Charge is a crowdsourced map of charging stations that claims to be the largest in the world.

Chargeway works with multiple charging networks, only shows stations that will work with your specific EV and helps you plan road trips by providing estimated charging times along the way plus information about nearby shops and restaurants to use while you’re waiting.

EVgo is a charging network with an app that helps drivers find available charging stations in real-time and pay for them through the app.

Stay Flexible

If you’re anxious that the stations on the route you planned yesterday might not be compatible with your EV cable, you can always use your app to change your route as needed or find new stations.

As you plan your travels, prioritize finding a Level 3 station that uses DC fast chargers, perhaps in a mall or near a restaurant so you can eat or shop while waiting. If you can find one of these chargers along your route, getting your vehicle’s battery up to 80 percent or more typically takes less than an hour.

Less efficient Level 2 chargers can take up to eight hours for a full “fill” and are better suited to overnight stays; Level 1 chargers really won’t help you get where you’re going and back again very quickly unless you plan to stay several days in one location.

As of publication, the Lucid Air is your best bet with a range of 520 miles. The Lucid Air is pretty expensive, so the longest-range EV with a modest price is the Kia EV6 which goes for around $41,000 and offers about 310 miles of range.

Technically, yes. Practically, not really. At least not in the way you swap out batteries of your TV's remote or smoke alarm. The batteries in EVs are meant to last for years and years and typically have a lifespan of about 200,000 miles so it's unlikely the batteries will completely give up on you before you give up on the car. We go into more detail in our Can EV Batteries be Replaced or Upgraded? article.

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How to Plan a road trip with an EV

Planning a road trip in your EV? Here are some tips on making the journey as smooth as you can.

Last updated: Jun 14, 2024 • 6 min read

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What to check before you set off
How to find en route rapid chargers available on your journey
What to expect at rapid charging stations
Final tips for long range electric car road trips...

Related Guides:

Electric Vehicle Guides

Electric Vehicle Charging Etiquette

How to Optimise the Range of Your Electric Car

Before you set off on a long-distance journey in an electric vehicle, it's important to do a small amount of preparation. In this guide you'll find some key recommendations that will allow you to charge effectively en route.

Check how far your EV can travel and the type of chargers it's compatible with.
Plan your journey to include stops with en route chargers.
Consider the fact that some chargers might not be immediately available, so factor in extra time to complete your journey.

Essential pre-departure checks for your electric vehicle

Vehicle inspection checklist.

Charge your battery to 80% or more
Make sure all lights work
Test your brakes
Ensure your tyres have the correct pressure for the expected load
Pack your charging cable

Battery status and range assessment

When going a long way, a bit of planning goes a longer way. Before you set off, it’s critical that you're aware of your battery status and range to make it from A to B:

How far you can (realistically) travel on one charge and thus how many en route charges you require. Check out our vehicle guides for more details on your specific EV.
The type of en route rapid charger you can use ( CCS / CHAdeMO / Type 2 / Tesla Supercharger ).
The power of en route rapid charge your car can accept (and thus how long you will be waiting during any charging pit stops).

If you are going to go further than your car can comfortably travel on one charge, you will need to use an en route charger. Read about Rob Cooling's 600 mile EV road trip around UK on our blog.

Tip: If you can avoid an en route charger and charge at a destination, particularly overnight, that is always a more convenient (and often cheaper) experience. Picking a hotel/long stay destination with a 7kW-22KW charger is always a great win.

Locating rapid charging stations along your route

Utilising your electric car’s built-in route planner.

Some car’s usefully host chargepoint data in their sat nav, and some will build charging stops into their route planners. Perhaps the most convenient system for EV route planning comes with Tesla vehicles, whose sat nav calculates drivers’ required charging stops and likely charging duration and routes them to their own dedicated “Supercharger” en route charging network.

Leveraging third-party mapping solutions

Outside the car’s sat nav, the following tools and apps are recommended. But only when you are stationary and not driving!

Pod Point Network - First check the Pod Point App. If there’s a conveniently located and suitable Pod Point for your journey, then you know your car will be charged reliably.
ZapMap - Crowd sourcing and direct data feeds have made ZapMap the UK’s number one universal charge point map. You can filter to the types of chargers and/or networks that you need.

And for those travelling into Europe.

PlugShare - PlugShare is a community based tool that guides users to public charging locations throughout Europe (and further afield). Driver participation means there are reviews and photos of thousands of chargepoints.
Chargemap - Chargemap offers an alternative to Plugshare. Again, drivers can contribute to enhance Chargemap’s information via their mobile app, by adding pictures, comments, charging stations and even edit useful information.

Tip: We recommend not using the very last possible rapid charger; use the one before the penultimate charger en route. Flying by the seat of your pants may briefly feel thrilling, but if that charger fails, or there’s a queue, or you end up using more power than expected (e.g. uphill), then the waiting around is in no way a thrilling experience!

What to anticipate at rapid charging stations

Understanding different access methods.

The common methods include apps, contactless card readers, RFID cards and some just plug and play (Tesla Superchargers). For details on these, please see our guide on public charging access methods .

Evaluating charger availability

When choosing an en route rapid charging location, you should consider the likelihood that it is available when you arrive. Some rapid chargers show their live status, but ultimately this is liable to change while you are driving to the site, which means the best bet is to pick sites with numerous chargers (particularly if you can see there are several available at that time).

This facet of EV motoring is starting to improve, but many sites only have 1 or 2 chargers, so there is a chance that you have an occasional wait.

Deciphering charging speed and expected waiting time

How fast your car rapid charges depends on how much power the chargers can offer and how much power your car can accept - but also where you are in the state of charge (and a little on the ambient temperature). Unlike a 7kW charger which almost exclusively charges at 7kW regardless of how full your battery is, electric cars manage their rapid charge rate to protect the battery.

Different cars’ rapid charging profiles vary, but an approximate typical profile is shown below. This illustrates that it's quickest to charge from 20% to 80%, but charging to 100% can take a long time.

Tip: We recommend rapid charging from something like ~20% to ~80% full to minimise the time spent at the charger. If you arrive almost empty the charge rate will take a little time to “warm up”, while the last few kWhs typically take longer to fill than it’s worth waiting for vs heading for the next charging opportunity.

Essential tips and insights for long range EV road trips

Ultimately long journeys in electric cars are similar to long road trips in conventional cars, so the following tips are valid for all.

Perform important vehicle checks before you set off
Take regular breaks (you’ll soon notice how well this fits with en route charging!)
Stop when you are tired
Take snacks and drinks (whilst being careful to ensure they do not unduly distract the driver)
It is better to get there late than in a damaged car/not at all
Stay zen, the traffic does not improve no matter how angry you get
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How to Take a Road Trip with Electric Cars

David Kuchta, Ph.D. has 10 years of experience in gardening and has read widely in environmental history and the energy transition. An environmental activist since the 1970s, he is also a historian, author, gardener, and educator.

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Public Transportation

Estimating Battery Time

Planning your route, charging on the road, unconventional charging options, ev road trip benefits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Road trips in electric vehicles (EV) are getting easier every year as national charging networks improve.

The average EV range approaches 300 miles. But drivers may still be anxious about running out of battery.

With proper planning and sensible driving, however, it's possible to overcome any range limitations. Electric vehicle owners may even encounter some surprising road trip benefits.

Your battery is impacted by your driving patterns. While one of the joys of EV driving is the rapid acceleration, putting the pedal to the metal puts more strain on the battery and will reduce your range. Set your vehicle to economy mode, which increases the amount of regenerative braking and energy efficiency.

EVs are most efficient when driving in cities or traffic, so you are unlikely to reach maximum range on the highway. Depending on your vehicle, driving at a constant 70 miles per hour may result in a lower range than the official EPA estimate, which assumes a 45% / 55% mix of city and highway driving.

The weather can also impact your battery life. EV batteries perform better in temperate weather than in the cold. Under one test, EVs lost an average of 18.5% of their range in temperatures below freezing, at -2 degrees C (28.4 degrees F).

But keep in mind that Norway has one of the highest rates of electric purchases in the world. You can take a road trip under any weather conditions that you can in a gas-powered vehicle: you just need to plan accordingly.

Plan ahead to identify charging stations along your route before you hit the road. Teslas come with their own route planner, and you can use apps like A Better Route Planner or PlugShare. Google Maps can also be filtered to highlight EV charging stations.

However, plans don’t always match reality. Charging stations that are part of networks often require their own app or RFID cards, and may not accept credit cards. Alternatively, you can arrive at a charging station to find it in use, out of service, or occupied.

dagasansener / Getty Images

Here are some planning tips to make sure you have a smooth charging experience on the road.

Have an alternative charging option at each step of your route.
Try to find charging stations with local accommodations, like restaurants or grocery stores, to make the most of your charging time.
Select hotels with charging stations. It's often free, and you don't have to go looking for a gas station in a strange city. Completely charging an EV battery from almost empty to full usually costs about $10.00, so it’s worth paying a little extra.
Bring your charging cord, an extension cord, and adaptors if you have them.
Don’t try to fill up your battery at every charging station. Just get enough juice to get you comfortably to your next stop, so you can spend time enjoying your trip.

SOPHIE-CARON / Getty Images

Borrowing or renting an EV for a road trip is a great way to gauge your interest in buying one. A rental agreement might even come with charging, essentially granting you free fuel. Be sure to read charging plans carefully, as they will specify where and how you can charge on the road.

If you are staying with friends or family, you can try charging by plugging into their grid. However, since this will cost them money, consider offering to reimburse them or return the favor.

Another option for road trip lodgings in an electric vehicle is RV parks. There are often sites in or near national parks and they often come with 240-volt hookups that give the same power as Level 2 charging stations. Just make sure that the RV park you're interested in has hookups available, as many of those in national parks do not come with electricity hookups.

Don't let range anxiety prevent you from taking a road trip in an electric vehicle. Recent EVs have ample range to get you to your destination if you plan wisely and drive rationally. You may even find they can take you on unexpected adventures.

EV road trips may be novel, but they offer benefits over gas-powered cars when it comes to comfort and safety.

EVs are uniquely suited for highway driving, even if they are less than optimally efficient. The instant torque of an EV's motor allows drivers to accelerate more quickly than a gas-powered vehicle. Quick acceleration improves safety by making it easier to enter highways, pass other vehicles, and avoid dangerous driving situations.

Electric vehicles also enable comfortable sleeping in your car. Plug in your EV at a campground or public charging station, set the climate control to a comfortable sleeping temperature, fold down the rear seats, and you don't need to look for lodging.

However, running the climate control all night will slow down battery charging , so you may not have a full charge in the morning. If you can, set the climate control so that it uses less power once you're asleep. Or bring an electric blanket that you can plug into your EV so that you can sleep comfortably without climate control.

Most electric cars can go 250 to 350 miles on a single charge.

Contrary to gas-powered cars, EVs are far more efficient in the city than they are on highways and other high-speed roads. So, as often as possible, travel slow on road trips.

As of 2022, the electric vehicle with the longest range is the Tesla Roadster, able to drive 620 miles on one charge.

PlugShare is a free app that helps its more than 300,000 active users find public charging stations by reading other user reviews. It features some 140,000 charging stations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Another great resource is EVHotels , specifically for finding hotels with charge points.

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It’s 2022. Can You Finally Take a Road Trip in an Electric Car?

A 330-mile drive into the country doesn’t seem like it should be trouble…right?

By Will Sabel Courtney

Electric cars are officially mainstream. Like ‘em, love ‘em or hate ‘em, there’s no arguing that they’ve become a full-fledged part of the automotive world here in 2022 — not when the likes of Audi , Mercedes-Benz and Ford are cranking them out en masse, with just about every other carmaker close behind.

Why? Well, even setting aside the obvious long-term environmental benefits of swapping millions of cars that spew 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every mile for ones that don’t, electric vehicles offer plenty of perks over their internal-combustion equivalents.

porsche taycan gts sport turismo wagon red

They’re more efficient, in terms of pure energy spent. They require less maintenance — there’s no oil to change, few to no gears to keep tabs on, even their brakes wear out more slowly thanks to regenerative braking that uses the motor’s own resistance in lieu of mechanical stoppers. They generally ride more smoothly than gas and diesel rides, thanks to both the lack of large clattering metal pieces beneath the hood and the added low-riding weight of a big battery pack. And unless you have an oil refinery in your backyard, there’s no way to refuel your internal-combustion car overnight at home every night as easily as plugging in your iPhone before bed.

Oh, and don’t forget, they can be a lot of fun, too. Electric motors can crank out incredible amounts of power from a much smaller apparatus than the gas powerplants used in production cars; the Lucid Air’s motor / transmission / differential / inverter assembly, for example, fits in a roller bag, but makes up to 670 horsepower . As a result, performance EVs can pack enough punch to make up for the portly weights brought on by giant battery packs; it’s not by accident that Porsche’s most powerful production car is powered by electricity. On top of that, the instantaneous reactions of electric motors — which don’t need any revving to reach maximum torque — makes an EV feel punchier than an ICE car of equivalent power in most real-world scenarios.

But while they may meet or beat petroleum-powered vehicles in many categories, there’s one part of driving where old-school rides still seem to have a leg over those newfangled tech-tastic electric machines: long journeys. Or, if you prefer the more romantic term…road trips.

Such travel, after all, is as deeply ingrained a part of the appeal of the car as anything else: the idea of being able to step into your own personal transport and go wherever you like, stopping whenever you like, knocking out a mile a minute while seated in a comfortable chair at whatever temperature you like, carrying practically whomever or whatever you like. Its roots run as deep as humanity’s nomadic nature, our desire for exploration — the gravitational pull of wondering what’s over the next hill that led us out of the Great Rift Valley and on to every inch of the globe — and even the spheres beyond. To ask people to give that up for the sake of the future is to ask them to cease being human. If electric cars are indeed to succeed in supplanting internal combustion ones, they need to be able to road trip — and without much more trouble than we’re used to.

The two charges traditionally levied against EVs in this regard are that they can’t go far enough, and that they take too long to recharge. To see if those still hold true — and to see whatever other challenges might lie between EV owners and their distant destinations — I took two of today’s freshest, cutting-edge electric cars on a road trip I’ve done many, many times before: the drive from my home in New York City to where I grew up in Stowe, Vermont. In November 2021, I did the trip in an Audi RS E-Tron GT ; in December, I did so in a Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 .

Here’s what I learned.

Fast chargers are too few, and too far between.

Glance at the U.S. Department of Energy’s map of public CCS fast-charging stations across America , and you’ll see a sea of green dots that seems to suggest they’re everywhere. (CCS, in case you’re unfamiliar, is the widely-accepted fast charging standard for most new EVs. Unless you drive a Tesla or a Nissan Leaf , odds are good you’ll use CCS.) That is, until you start zooming in, and you realize that at the initial scale, each of those green dots are half the size of Delaware.

The formal DOE count tallies up 3,994 CCS chargers across these 50 states, which seems like a lot — until you realize there are more than 150,000 gas stations in the nation. And while most of those gas stations have several pumps, each capable of refueling a car in five minutes or less, many of the CCS chargers only have a single connector.

For now, at least, there are few enough EVs that finding an open plug usually isn’t a problem…so long as you live in a part of the country where they’re prevalent. Most of them are located in urban areas — not surprising — or along select major routes, like interstates.

The highways and byways of, and connecting to, Vermont seem like an obvious place for such fast chargers. After all, the state is a huge tourist destination, with close to 50 million people within a day’s drive. Under good conditions, the 332-mile drive from NYC to Stowe should be a one-stop trip for the RS E-Tron GT or EQS 580: drive around 180-200 miles until the battery is comfortably below half-charge (the less charge you have, the quicker the battery recharges, so it’s advantageous to try and get it as low as you feel comfortable doing), plug into a high-speed charger capable of refueling the car at max power, spend 20 minutes or so composing a truly biting clapback tweet, then unplug and finish the trip in style.

Trouble is, Electrify America — the only network with widespread CCS chargers powerful enough to deliver 200–270 kW, and the de facto official charging network of Audi and Mercedes-Benz by virtue of their decision to offer limited free charging with new-car purchase — doesn’t offer an EV charger that’s convenient to that halfway point. Indeed, as of this story, they don’t have a single charger in Vermont — nor in West Virginia, North Dakota or Wyoming. One lies directly over the Vermont-New Hampshire border on Interstate 93, making it a convenient stop for travelers from Boston, but it’s 264 miles from New York — and should it be out of commission, there’s nowhere else nearby for desperate travelers to hook onto for a fast charge. The next-closest one is in Chicopee, MA, 192 miles away from Stowe. That’s within the range of most new EVs under good conditions…but as you’ll see below, good conditions can be more elusive than you might expect in rural winter climes.

In other words, anyone traveling from New York City to Stowe — or Vermont’s biggest city Burlington, or the capital of Montpelier, or major ski resorts like Jay Peak, Smugglers’ Notch or Sugarbush — will likely have to make two stops along the way, and likely need to go a bit out of the way to do it.

Adding inconvenience to insult, Electrify America’s chargers also tend to be located in locations that aren’t always ideal for road trippers. For the most part, they’re located in the (far back of) Target and Walmart parking lots, and often a mile or two away from the highway, if not more — usually down unfamiliar local roads, usually while being taunted by the gas stations clustered by the highway in the process.

Once I reached Vermont, I stumbled across another issue: how to sock enough charge into the battery to get me home. EV owners with their own homes will likely opt to add Level 2 chargers to their garage or driveway that can top up the car overnight — but that does little good when you’re away from home, spending your nights in a hotel or AirBnB or relative’s place without one. A household 110-volt outlet — a.k.a. Level 1 — in my mom’s garage managed to add a couple dozen miles per night, but to actually make it to the first fast charger on the way back, I needed more juice than it could provide. Yet even the well-heeled tourist town of Stowe – a place where visitors’ fancy cars often outnumber local Subarus — only has a handful of Level 2 chargers — mostly at local hotels — and a sole fast-charging station at The Alchemist Brewery, famous creator of Heady Topper . Thus, my trips home were interrupted by sojourns to the electric pumps…and sadly, The Alchemist was closed when I stopped by.

Down in the New York area, chargers are more plentiful; unfortunately, electric cars are, too. On my return home in the EQS, I rolled up to an EA station in White Plains that had shown itself to have an open charger not 10 minutes before — only to find it was not only full, but there was a line waiting to use it. I set off for Queens, where a shopping mall between the Whitestone Bridge and LaGuardia Airport claimed to have open chargers…only for me to find that, in spite of what the app said, both were full. And, to add insult to injury, I was charged $3 for the privilege of not actually parking in said parking garage. (Also, both EA stations had one of their four chargers out of commission — a trait I’ve found common to nearly every EA station I’ve tried this year.)

mercedes eqs electric car charging at the alchemist stowe vt

Public chargers are too hard to use.

Much as there are different chains that run gas stations — Mobil, Shell, Citgo, Irving, BP, 76, Sheetz, etc. — there are several main companies running the majority of public electric car charging points. Unlike gas stations, however, most public EV chargers require you to download an app and set up an account (or at the very least strongly encourage you to do so). That means you not only need a smartphone — which, to be fair, anyone buying a new electric car probably has — but also a strong enough connection for the app to work properly. Oh, and the charger also needs to connect to the cell system in some cases, as well, so here’s hoping nobody’s clogging up the local towers TikToking at a school dance or Citizen streaming a fire.

The ones that don’t require accounts that have credit card readers — but in my attempts to use them, I’ve found they work about one time in six. Whether this is because of the hardware, the software or some other factor, I have no idea. (Even more infuriating, while I often couldn’t get the readers to work, my partner could, suggesting they may just not respond to frustration and testosterone.)

Worse yet, sometimes the stations can go haywire and simply not work with no warning. An EVGo station that served me well on my trip home in the Audi then refused to deliver charge a month later when I tried to power up the Mercedes there. If stations were more prevalent, this wouldn’t be much of an issue — but when they’re scattered about as they are now, one malfunctioning charger can be the difference between being home for Christmas and only being there in your dreams.

Electric car range varies greatly based on temperature.

For years, “range anxiety” was bandied about as the major barrier standing between EVs and widespread adoption. It was a logical concern: with electric cars of less than decade ago only capable of less than 200 miles, and most drivers’ desire to not take their cars all the way down to empty regardless of what propulsion system is in use, past electric vehicles could make any one-way trip of more than 100 miles feel stressful.

That’s far less of an issue with today’s crop of new EVs. The RS E-Tron GT is rated for 232 miles of range, according to the EPA; t he independent team at Edmunds , meanwhile, found it capable of doing 285 miles on a mixed-run test cycle. The EPA says the EQS 580 can do 340 miles on a charge; Edmunds, however, found the EQS 450 (which is about 3% more efficient than its more powerful AWD cousin, according to the EPA) capable of going 422 miles on their test route.

Here’s the thing, though. Lithium-ion batteries are a little like your grandmother: they don’t like being too hot, but they really hate being cold. Edmunds tests their cars in California; the ambient temp the day they drove the EQS was 67º Fahrenheit, and it was 77º when they tested the RS E-Tron GT. My drives, meanwhile, started out in global warming-balmy temps of around 50º in New York City, but by the time I reached Vermont — which, in case you weren’t aware, is a bit chilly in winter — temps were below freezing.

Driving up in the Audi, I’d juiced up the battery all the way to 100 percent in Massachusetts, giving me a claimed 220-mile range — more than enough for the 192 miles to Stowe. As the temps dropped, however, the range began falling faster than the odometer was rising. Before long, range-to-empty was dangerously close to the remaining distance shown on Google Maps , forcing me to begin slowing down from my usual 75-mph cruise: first to 70, then the speed limit of 65, then to 60, then finally all the way down to 55. I switched off the climate control, leaving my poor partner to shiver in her parka in the passenger’s seat — at least, until the windshield fogged up, and I was forced to burst-fire the defroster. Even those measures couldn’t cut the mustard in the end; only a last-minute late-night pit stop at an out-of-the-way 50-kW charger in Barre, Vermont gave me enough juice to get to my destination.

The Mercedes faired a bit better in absolute terms, by virtue of the fact that it simply offers more range overall than the E-Tron GT. Even so, while maximum range rang up around 340 miles in warmer temps, it fell to around 265 miles with the temperature in the mid-20s — and even that proved closer to 250 miles of real-world range once it recalibrated for 75-mph highway driving.

And keep in mind, while gas-powered cars are more efficient on the highway than in-town, the polarity is flipped for EVs, which dump electrons back into the battery more often in variable-speed city traffic than they do on the open road. If you’re planning on driving at the sorts of speeds the average American averages on the highway — say, around 75 mph — your real-world range is likely to track close to the conservative EPA estimate suggested by the window stickers on most (non-Tesla) electric cars, even when driving at shirtsleeve temperatures.

That bodes poorly for rural EV drivers, many of whose trips tend to be at continuous high speeds — and come winter, often in range-sucking temperatures. Bottom line: if you’re planning a longer trip to or through someplace like Vermont in the colder months, plan around your EV having 20-40% less range than you’re used to.

Even many fast chargers are too slow.

Peruse the websites of most cutting-edge electric cars, and you’ll see some sort of claim about how quickly they can guzzle up electrons when needed. “the EQS can get a quick boost in just 15 minutes,” Mercedes-Benz USA’s website says , adding further down that, at its maximum charging power of 200 kW, it can go from 10% to 100% in 31 minutes. An Audi release celebrating the launch of the E-Tron GT last year touts its ability to add 120 miles of range in 10 minutes and 180 miles in 22 minutes, when hooked up to a 270-kW charger.

Here’s the thing, though: Those fast chargers don’t always want to serve up electrons that quickly.

If multiple EVs are all charging at the same complex simultaneously, for example, the maximum output may not be available. Or there could be a hardware or software issue limiting the speeds. Or, for whatever indeterminate reason, it might just not want to charge as quickly as it should. Boom — all of a sudden, your carefully-planned nine-minute pitstop can stretch out twice as long. Most of the time, that’s not a problem — but when you’re racing to meet a deadline (catching a flight, getting to a meeting, trying not to miss a performance), those added seconds can make a big difference.

And — looping back to point number one — that’s if you can even find the really fast chargers. As of now, Electrify America is the only network with widespread chargers offering power in that 200-to-270-kW range. A good number of other fast chargers you’ll come across are in the 50-100 kW range. While that’s certainly far better than a Level 2 charger, it still greatly extends the time needed to add decent range when driving long distances. The EQS, for example, needed 50 minutes on a 50-kW charger to go from 85 miles of range remaining to 220 — 50 minutes in which the poor guy in a Leaf who rolled up behind me to recharge on the only fast-charger on his way home from Christmas was forced to sit and wait.

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Even if everything works out exactly the way you want — if your car can charge at 200 or 270 kW or more, if there’s a charger exactly where you need one, if it’s operating at full power — you’ll still be sitting there for three, four, five times as long as you’d need to add the same amount of range to an internal-combustion vehicle. Try as we might, the wonders of man still haven’t invented a mass-producible, cost-efficient battery pack that can come close to matching the energy density of compressed fossil juice, and it’ll likely stay that way for several decades at the very least.

Chargers often aren’t friendly or accessible for many folks.

Honest question: have you ever stopped to take a good look at the layout of a gas station? Apart from a handful of smaller, older ones scattered around the country, pretty much every filling station these days shares a similar layout: four or more brightly-lit gas pumps under a solid roof, with some sort of garage or convenience store attached and manned most, if not all, hours of the day.

Many electric car charging stations benefit from none of that. Instead, they’re often tucked out of the way in the back of buildings or on the far edge of parking lots, with only the patchy light of streetlamps for company at night. Unless there’s someone nearby also charging, there’s a good chance you’ll be all by yourself after the sun goes down.

Being a six-foot-four-inch white male, that was something I’d never considered — not until I had to leave my partner in the car at that quiet, isolated charging spot in Barre while I walked the hundred yards uphill to the nearby 24-hour convenience store / gas station / craft beer emporium. (In Vermont, every gas station is a craft beer emporium.) I came back 10 minutes later, only to find her mildly terrified after a pickup truck had pulled up next to her and blasted her with its headlights, leaving her wondering how to lock the doors. The truck drove off uneventfully — we suspect the driver was just checking out the Audi’s curves — but as she pointed out, being alone in a dark parking lot when an unknown car rolls up is exactly the sort of thing young women are taught to avoid at all costs.

Many EV chargers also don’t seem well-designed for human use. Even at my size and strength, I often struggle with bending and stretching the meaty Level 3 charging cable to my car and plugging it in; the cables are rarely long enough to make the trip without some frustrating finagling. A good deal of chargers are behind concrete bollards or up on curbs, as well — logical steps to keep heavy cars from backing into them, but also steps that make it tough for wheelchair users to reach them in the first place.

If electric cars are truly going to succeed gas-powered ones, they need to be not just as easy to refuel as them — note that I didn’t say as quick , rather, just as easy — but as convenient and safe for everyone, no matter their race, gender, size or level of mobility. Right now, there’s still a good deal of work that needs to be done before we get there.

And of course, there’s always the threat of ICE-ing — when someone in an internal-combustion vehicle, accidentally or intentionally, occupies a parking space meant for an electric car. I only came across such an a-hole once — perhaps unsurprisingly, in New York City, where a gas-powered Mercedes was blocking the spot my electric Mercedes needed to use to recharge. Luckily, however, the charger was one placed by the City of New York — and in a rare instance of clever forethought by that governmental body, the cable mount could swivel away from the charger’s main panel, giving it enough reach to get to my car anyway.

Can you take a road trip in an electric car?

Interpreted strictly, the answer to the question is undoubtedly yes. I did so twice in the span of a month, in two different cars, under conditions that were hardly ideal for an electric car due to low temperatures and a deficit of charging stations.

On the other hand, those two trips were far and away the most stressful of the 100-plus times I’ve driven between New York and Vermont. (The previous runner-up: driving up in a BMW M6 Gran Coupe on summer tires in a mix of freezing rain and snow at night.) Each included at least one instance of borderline panic at the suddenly very real possibility of running out of power on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, several moments of severe frustration at inoperable / uncommunicative charging stations and a constant low-grade anxiety at the ever-dropping percentage of charge remaining as the miles went by. (Guess range anxiety is still a thing.) For the most part, these are small frustrations, but even these micro-annoyances add up to an irritating experience over time for anyone used to taking long trips in gas-powered cars.

ford mustang mach e red premium rear wheel drive

The Audi RS E-Tron GT and Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 are spectacular machines, ones that both redefine their brands and remind us what we always loved about them in the first place. They’re fast, comfortable, eye-catching and luxurious, everything you want in a car in so many ways. Yet today’s current charging infrastructure makes driving these wundercars long distances a struggle that feels like something from the early days of motoring.

Help is on the way. Last year’s monumental infrastructure bill includes $7.5 billion for EV charging stations, with $5 billion going to the states to install them and $2.5 billion more for other public entities to do so. That money should enable the creation of an additional 400,000 chargers across the nation, four times the current number.

Will that be enough? That’s up in the air. An IHS Market analysis claims that plan will only give America two-thirds of the new chargers it’ll need by 2026 if people buy electric cars in expected numbers over the next five years. But it’s a start…and as my experience so far has found, a much-needed one. As Elon Musk’s hairline said in the early 2000s, those new plugs can’t come soon enough.

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The 10 Best Electric Cars For Long Road Trips

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Generally speaking, fully electric vehicles (or EVs) have never been suited for long road trips until recent years. Automakers have come a long way from producing cars like the Nissan Leaf , which is still the cheapest EV you can buy, and are now producing properly competitive machines that match the range of a lot of internal combustion vehicles.

Naturally, charging infrastructure has been set up along highways to support drivers who need to charge up their EVs who are going on long road trips. Tesla pioneered this with its revolutionary supercharger network nearly a decade ago, with many others playing catch-up. But which cars are best suited to this task? Here is a list of 10 of the best EVs for long road trips.

RELATED: These Are The Fastest Accelerating EVs On The Market In 2022

10 GMC Hummer EV – 329 Miles

The GMC Hummer EV is a hugely important vehicle because not only does it represent the return of the Hummer name to the SUV-dominated automotive marketplace, but it also allows its customers to travel a long way before charging up.

GM's estimated top range of 350 miles is hugely impressive, and the EPA's combined figure of 329 miles in long-range form makes the Hummer EV ever so more tempting in the new field of premium electric trucks. The interior of the Hummer EV, has a more rugged aura than many other EVs.

9 Hyundai Ioniq 6 – 340 Miles

The Ioniq 6 follows up from the highly successful Hyundai Ioniq 5 and shares the same platform and powertrain. However, due to a more aerodynamic body, the 6 beats the 5 in terms of range – making it more suitable for long road trips.

The long-range version boasts a 340-mile range, which puts the teardrop EV right into the firing line of the very best from Tesla. This could be the Model 3's closest ever competitor and observing how successful the Ioniq 5 was, the 6 should steal away a fair few Tesla customers, who traditionally use them for longer trips.

A few disadvantages of EVs tend to be higher pricing, low range, and a lack of character in most. The Ioniq 6 challenges all of that and promises to be a more affordable, characterful car with the range to support it.

RELATED: Here's What We Just Learned About The Hyundai Ioniq 6

8 Mercedes EQS – 350 Miles

One of the more luxurious cars on the list comes in the form of the Mercedes EQS. Effectively, this is the S-Class of Mercedes' fully electric EQ range, which already makes it an ideal place to be on a long road trip.

The EQS boasts luxury, the very best in MBUX tech, and the EQS 580 boasts a 350-mile range according to the EPA with potentially more to be verified, as Mercedes themselves are claiming up to 453-miles in the latest update to the car.

AMG have even got their hands on the EQS , which is an exciting prospect.

7 Tesla Model X – 351 Miles

Tesla have long been the dominator of the EV market sector since disrupting the global car industry with the release of the Model S. The Model X followed with its many pros and cons.

The popular Model X with its signature falcon doors has a range of up to 351-miles combined range and is supported by Tesla's immense range of superchargers, which are currently known to be class leaders in electric vehicle charging.

It's a seven-seater car as well, so your entire family can comfortably join for the ride as you travel across states, provided you plan the stops, of course. For 2023 though, the Model X starts at $111,000 which is noticeably high compared to the Model 3.

RELATED: Here Are The Biggest Problems With Tesla Model X Ownership

6 Tesla Model 3 Long Range – 358 Miles

Easily, Tesla's most impactful and important model is the Model 3 – which has been praised for offering an excellent, well-rounded package for fairly reasonable money. At each trim's respective price point, the Model 3 is easily the car of choice if you wish to endure a long road trip.

In long-range form, the Model 3 has a range of 358-miles , and considering it's already taken the U.S. and European markets by storm in terms of popularity, it won't come as a surprise if Tesla update the cars with even more range due to the ever-increasing number of competitors.

The Model 3 Performance in particular is one of the best value fast cars on sale today, and is worth every penny, and arguably still the best EV all-rounder to buy.

5 Rivian R1T – 400 Miles

The Rivian R1T (and R1S sister) took a while to come to market, but when it finally arrived, it caused a stir in the automotive world. The R1T was very fast, very quirky, and most importantly, capable of going very far on a single charge.

For 2023, the Rivian R1T will be even more suited for long road trips with a maximum battery pack which will unlock up to 400 miles of range. This makes the R1T an excellent choice when doing cross-country motoring – which is becoming more and more popular as the EV segment grows.

4 GMC Sierra EV Denali – 400 Miles

The trucks from General Motors were tasked with playing catch-up with Ford, as the F-150 Lightning disrupted the pickup segment and forced other manufacturers to react – and react fast.

The GMC Sierra EV Denali boasts 400 miles of estimated range from GMC, which easily ousts the Ford's maximum range. And the top-spec $100,000+ Denali model, will be equipped with some premium touches. This makes it a great choice for long road trips, something pickup truck drivers often do, so the Sierra EV Denali has that basis covered.

3 Chevrolet Silverado EV – 400 Miles

GM's other response to Ford comes in the form of the Chevrolet Silverado EV, which positions itself as a slightly more direct competitor, since F-150 and Silverado battles have been occurring for decades.

The Silverado EV matches the Sierra EV Denali's range of up to 400 miles in long-range form and currently has the Ford trumped for the customer who demands a long range – usually for work purposes. But as well as the core customer base, the Silverado EV is also set up to be fabulous for long road trips, should the owners ever need a break from carrying the equipment in the bed.

2 Tesla Model S – 405 Miles

Since 2012, the Tesla Model S revolutionized the EV market by pitching itself to be the first and then-only electric vehicle to be able to cover long distances on a single charge and not look compromised while doing so.

The Model S keeps getting better and more sophisticated with age, and in current form, can travel up to 405 miles on a single charge, maintaining it as a competitive class act in the EV world. The Model S is also comfortable, nicely put-together, and effortlessly fast – which are all ideal qualities when it comes to long road trips from state to state.

But if you want all-out speed, then you can't really go wrong with the insane Model S Plaid – which can get from 0-60 mph in under 2 seconds.

1 Lucid Air – 516 Miles

However, the Tesla might have its crown knocked off, as start-up brand, Lucid Motors have revealed the Air which has a truly spectacular 516-mile estimated range by the EPA .

If this ends up becoming achievable, then the Lucid Air will no doubt be the class-leader to beat when it comes to EV range – which so many new customers care about as range anxiety is the main concern. Range anxiety is also a natural feeling when you take such a vehicle on long road trips, but the Lucid Air should comfortably cruise past a lot of highway service stations before its next charge.

Elon Musk, however, isn't so convinced the startup brand will end up becoming a success. It's down to Lucid's management therefore to prove him wrong.

Sources: GMC Pressroom, Hyundai Media, Mercedes-Benz Global Media, Tesla Media, Rivian, Chevrolet Pressroom, Lucid Motors

Electric Cars
Best Vehicles
Lucid Motors

The 7 best electric vehicle road trips in the US

Apr 29, 2024 • 11 min read

On these routes, which span the entire USA including Austin Texas (above), you’ll never be too far from a recharging station for your EV © Roschetzky Photography / Shutterstock

The great American road trip is going electric.

The electric-vehicle (EV) juggernaut rolls on , and as companies continue to add new charging stations to meet demand, hitting the highway in a zero-emissions car has never been easier.

The benefits of driving electric cars are clear. Transportation is the biggest source of planet-warming emissions in the USA , and the switch to EVs helps drivers play their part in mitigating the climate crisis by cutting back on fossil fuels. To top it off, going green saves money: electric car owners spend roughly 60% less on gas than drivers with internal combustion vehicles – a major win as gas prices continue to fluctuate .

Can you do the all-American road trip in an electric car?

A woman plugs in her electric vehicle at a charging station in a desert environment, Western USA

But EV road trips still come with challenges. While gas stations are ubiquitous across the country, finding and using electric chargers on the road can be daunting and time-consuming. This leads to range anxiety – the fear of losing battery life before reaching a destination. To avoid this fear, travelers must consider their car’s range (the average is roughly 250 miles), plan excursions through areas known to have charging stations, and prepare for unforeseen fueling snafus along the way.

Luckily, there are plenty of EV-ready road trips around the nation. All verified using Plugshare (a leading app for finding EV chargers), these are the most reliable, convenient and scenic routes for EV drivers ready to leave range anxiety in the dust.

Hit the road: America’s most iconic road trips

An aerial view of John Coffee Memorial Bridge, across the Tennessee River on the Natchez Trace Parkway, Alabama, USA

1. Follow the footsteps of Indigenous tribes on the Natchez Trace Pkwy

The route: Nashville, Tennessee to Natchez, Mississippi Length: 444 miles

Cruise from honky-tonk Nashville to the Mississippi River’s oldest city on this quest through America’s Deep South. The Natchez Trace Pkwy roughly follows a 10,000-year-old trading route used by Indigenous tribes, and many sites near the path pay homage to the land’s original stewards. You can channel their mindset of connection to nature and sustainability in an EV: you'll find roughly 360 chargers during the drive, with 80% supporting fast charging.

Meander along the route’s two-lane road as it leaves Nashville and winds toward Hohenwald, where you’ll find a monument to Meriwether Lewis , who explored America’s uncharted territory with the help of native experts like Sacagawea. Once you’ve seen the Pharr Mounds – eight Indigenous burial sites built between 1 and 200 CE – spend an evening recharging in Tupelo, once home to the Chickasaw Nation (and later the birthplace of local legend Elvis Presley).

While fueling up in Jackson, Mississippi , visit the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum to learn about The Negro Motorist Green Book . This annual guide once helped Black travelers navigate the open (or not-so-open) road in Jim Crow–era America.

The itinerary ends in Natchez, 10 miles from the Emerald Mound – the second-largest Indigenous ceremonial mound in the US, built and used between the 14th and 17th centuries. Stand in its shadow as you ponder all that’s transpired in the country since the 35ft-high earthwork was first erected.

Plan a budget road trips through the Southeastern US

Hwy 20 winds through Rainy Pass in Washington State, USA

2. Fall in love with Washington State on the Cascade Loop

The route: Seattle to Whidbey Island Length: 440 miles

When it comes to EV infrastructure, Washington is ahead of the curve. This circuitous trip stretches from salty beaches to snow-capped peaks, with find plenty of places to charge up along the way. The Cascade Loop went electric in 2014, and with chargers strategically scattered around the route , even cars with ranges under 100 miles can manage the trip without worry.

Expect a diversity of landscapes on this journey through the Pacific Northwest . Start by fueling up with caffeine at one of Seattle ’s trendy cafes (skip Starbucks and opt for Analog Coffee ), then roll into the wilderness outside the city limits. You’ll zoom east along the Skykomish River’s emerald banks, over the pine-topped Cascade Mountains and on to Leavenworth . This kitschy alpine village, modeled after a Bavarian mountain town, is the closest you’ll get to Munich without hopping on a plane.

After enjoying a proper German bratwurst from München Haus , continue toward Wenatchee – the orchard-packed “Apple Capital of the World.” Lakes, rivers and rolling hills sparkle as the loop heads north through Methow Valley and mounts North Cascades National Park ’s jagged peaks. Farmland comes into view while dipping toward the Salish Sea, and the route finishes along the sloping coasts of Whidbey Island.

8 sublime road trips in Washington State

Brightly painted Cadillacs are buried head first in the ground at Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, Texas, USA

3. Get your (electric kicks) on Route 66

The route: Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California Length: 2500 miles

Not long after Route 66 opened in 1926, it spurred a manifest-destiny era for Midwestern migrants. Mythologized by John Steinbeck as the “Mother Road” in the 1930s, the long trek from Chicago to Santa Monica provided wayward travelers a promise for better tomorrows. It eventually became a symbol of America’s love affair with the car, its small towns flourishing thanks to an endless parade of automobiles destined for the Pacific Coast.

Although officially decommissioned in 1985 to make way for faster thoroughfares, Route 66’s remnants are once again the star of a new kind of auto scene. Drivers can find around 1800 chargers along the historic trail, allowing travelers to go electric on what might be the US’ most renowned road. Allot two weeks to get the most our of this famous journey.

After filling your culture cup in Chicago, head to St Louis and top off your EV while ogling the catenary Gateway Arch . Before leaving Missouri , charge up in Joplin – the local History and Mineral Museum pays homage to road-trip bandits Bonnie and Clyde, who sought refuge here in 1933. Tulsa and Oklahoma City are reasons to pause in the Sooner State before heading to Amarillo, Texas , where you’ll find Cadillac Ranch – an art installation with graffiti-strewn cars plunged bumper-first into the earth. (There’s a charging station 10 minutes away.)

A Tesla charging station at the Blue Swallow Motel , a Route 66 landmark from 1939, invites EV users to stay overnight in eastern New Mexico before heading through arty, new-agey Santa Fe and toward some of the region’s most impressive parks.

Take a detour to the Grand Canyon while passing through Flagstaff, Arizona , then explore the Mojave Desert ’s singing dunes after charging in Needles, California. Once you reach the road’s terminus at Santa Monica Pier , pick up a “Road Scholar” certificate at the 66-to-Cali kiosk – which will provide bragging rights after your epic expedition.

The best driving route around the Great Lakes: hit the road on this epic round trip from Chicago

A car drives across Bixby Bridge in foggy conditions, Big Sur, California, USA

4. Marvel at California’s coastal landscapes

The route: San Diego to Mendocino Length: 600 miles

As you hug the length of California ’s glorious coastline, an EV charger is never more than 50 miles away. This road trip from sun-kissed San Diego to Mendocino County’s ancient redwoods is part of the West Coast Electric Highway , which stretches from Mexico to Canada . Complete the drive along Rte 5 and the Pacific Coast Highway (Rte 1) over a few days to make the most of must-see destinations sprinkled throughout the journey.

Kick your adventure into high gear at Hotel del Coronado , the iconic beachfront resort that’s equipped with Tesla chargers. While heading north to Rte 1, skip LA ’s traffic-clogged downtown in favor of Venice , a coastal neighborhood once clogged with oil derricks and now covered in street art. Recharge your car while walking the quirky enclave’s colorful streets, especially its main drag, stylish Abbott Kinney Blvd.

As you head north, idyllic beach towns delight as the PCH winds toward San Francisco : surf-happy Ventura, historic Santa Barbara and arty San Luis Obispo – which are all equipped with charging stations aplenty. Consider recharging at Hearst Castle while touring the 127-acre San Simeon estate once owned by filthy-rich newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. A charger awaits at the visitor’s center.

The journey’s second half is California at its best: Big Sur ’s rugged sea cliffs give way to ritzy Monterey Bay before reaching San Francisco’s bustle. After you glide over the Golden Gate Bridge , wild forests filled with giant redwoods flank the road to tiny Mendocino, perched on bluffs above the Pacific. If you want to go green here in a different way, you’ve ended up at the right place: Mendocino is part of the Emerald Triangle, America’s largest region for cannabis production.

The 16 best California road trips

A golden retriever with its head out the window of a car, reflected in the rear-view mirror, against a backdrop of mountains, Colorado, USA

5. Catch your breath traversing the Colorado Rockies

The route: Denver to Aspen Length: 160 miles

In 2021, Colorado electrified its 26 Scenic and Historic Byways by installing EV-charging stations every 100 miles. If you only have time to choose one path, pick the Top of the Rockies byway , where visitors can climb Mt Elbert and Mt Massive, the Centennial State’s two tallest peaks. Spend a few days touring the area in summer or fall , when cold temperatures won’t affect your battery’s range.

Begin your journey in Denver – home to hip urbanites with an itch for the outdoors – then drive to St Mary’s Glacier , an easy out-and-back hike near Idaho Springs. In summer, daredevils sled down the glacier’s snowy slopes toward the cobalt lake below.

The actual byway begins near Frisco, known as “Main Street of the Rockies” thanks to its postcard-perfect downtown and thrilling mountain views. From here, zigzag to internationally renowned ski havens like Aspen and historic sites like Camp Hale (built in 1942 as a World War II training site). Picture-worthy vistas surprise and delight around every corner.

If you’ve got extra time, consider continuing to the Collegiate Peaks byway , an electrified route dotted with the highest number of 14,000+ft mountains in the US.

Rockies roads: the most thrilling drives in Colorado

Newport Bridge, Taylor's Point near Jamestown, Rhode Island

6. Roll around Rhode Island

The route: Narragansett to Providence to Newport Length: 65 miles

A larger quantity of miles doesn’t always add up to more quality. A tour of charming towns in the country’s smallest state makes for a summertime road trip free from range anxiety. Even cars with low-range capacity can hack this haul without a problem. Split the drive into two or three days to properly enjoy all three destinations, each equipped with plenty of EV chargers.

Start by hanging ten in Narragansett, New England ’s surf capital. The town’s population balloons from roughly 15,000 to 34,000 between May and September, with visitors arriving en masse to exploit sandy beaches and coastal hiking trails that have attracted travelers for over a century.

Providence , Rhode Island’s quirky capital, makes a good case for staying overnight. The city’s riverfront passes a lively mix of 18th-century houses and contemporary skyscrapers, all within walking distance of restaurants fit for all tastes. Plant City is a two-story smorgasbord dedicated to veganism, while Dune Brothers Seafood serves New England clam chowder from a lobster-red shack on wheels. After taking a brewery tour to spots like Bayberry Beer Hall and Moniker , you’ll need a night’s rest before retaking the driver’s seat.

Gilded Age Newport provides Rhode Island’s grand finale. Spend the day touring opulent 19th-century summer cottages once occupied by families like the Astors and Vanderbilts, then watch the sunset while traipsing along Cliff Walk , a 3.5-mile seaside promenade. The historic setting might not seem like the place to find EV charging stations – but think again: according to Plugshare, this picturesque peninsula boasts nearly a dozen.

The best drives for leaf-peeping your way through New England

Cars along Ocean Drive at night, Miami Beach, Florida, USA

7. Follow the Atlantic Coast across 14 states

The route: Portland, Maine to Miami, Florida Length: 1600 miles

Thanks to Electrify America , one of the country's largest networks of EV charging stations, it’s possible to cover the country’s entire eastern seaboard on a zero-emissions road trip. Sail down Interstate 95 on this adventure from Maine to Miami and you’ll find charging stations nearly every 70 miles.

If the thought of a multi-state trek sounds exhausting, consider splitting the trip into three geographic sections. The first third will take you through New England’s historic coastal cities. Gobble down a lobster roll in Portland – Maine’s most populous seaside town and a culinary hot spot – before heading south past LGBTQ+-friendly Ogunquit; Portsmouth, New Hampshire (settled in 1623); and into Boston , the birthplace of the American Revolution. Recharge in Providence, RI, or along breezy Long Beach in Stratford, Connecticut , before leaving the Atlantic coastline.

New York State’s best road trips

Compare America’s former capital cities on the journey’s second leg. First up is New York City , the nonstop town that served as the nation’s first seat of power. Recharge in Fort Lee, New Jersey before passing Trenton (the capital in 1784 and 1799) and then Philadelphia , which became the country’s go-to from 1790 to 1800. Crack open a blue crab shell in scrappy Baltimore , the capital for a two-month stint, before contemplating the current state of affairs in America’s white-walled political powerhouse, Washington, DC .

The road trip’s southern section will take you through Richmond , Virginia – a town rich in history and covered in modern murals. While skirting through North Carolina and South Carolina , veer off the I-95 to experience Raleigh’s college-town charisma and sip sweet tea on a side porch in Charleston . An adults-only ghost tour to haunted pubs in Savannah , Georgia will energize your spirits before driving down Florida ’s Atlantic coast. Grab lunch in Jacksonville’s Five Points, the city’s super-cool central district, then drift down I-95 through suburban beach towns to Miami. Finish the epic adventure by jumping in South Beach ’s electric-blue waters. Florida’s warm ocean will be a far cry from Maine’s frigid coves.

11 things any visitor should know about Florida

This article was first published Jul 28, 2022 and updated Apr 29, 2024.

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Electric Vehicles

Best Electric Cars and EVs for 2024

Buying an electric vehicle is expensive but also a great investment. CNET breaks down what to look for and rounds up the best EVs.

Electric cars are going mainstream. What began as a trickle of niche EVs just a few years ago has become the fastest-growing segment of the automotive industry.

Over the last 15 years, I've evaluated and driven hundreds of cars, trucks and SUVs for review here at CNET. I've also driven just about every mass-market electric vehicle ever sold in the US, and even some that have yet to hit the road. In this list I've used that experience to help you understand what you should look for in a good electric car, how these battery-powered machines work and where the technology is heading in the future, near and far.

With the Biden-Harris administration's plans to build 500,000 EV chargers nationwide , tough new EPA emissions standards and certain states eyeing new combustion car bans as early as 2030 , automakers and consumers alike have turned more focus toward the adoption and growth of plug-in cars by the end of this decade.

Today, more than two dozen automakers offer a combined 40-plus full-electric models boasting over 200 miles of range, unique high-tech features and, increasingly, performance that outclasses comparable gasoline-powered models. If you're thinking about buying an electric car, there have never been more choices for you than there are today.

What is the best overall electric car?

Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y are the 800-pound gorillas of current EV landscape.

There aren't just more EVs to choose from. There's also a wider gamut of available cruising ranges, prices, performance and luxury options, allowing prospective buyers to fine-tune their choice to meet their specific needs and budget. Whether you're looking for basic transportation for zero-emissions commuting or a high-end technology showcase for road-tripping, there's an EV that fits the bill.

Of the EVs available today, Tesla's Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV offer the best balance, broadest appeal and, thanks to their full qualification for federal EV tax credits , one of the best values for most drivers looking to make the jump to electric motoring. Identical in every way other than interior volume, the Models 3 and Y boast more than enough range to tackle a week of commuting on a single charge -- 358 and 330 miles, respectively -- or a long road trip with minimal stops for charging.

As Tesla vehicles, the Model 3 and the Model Y SUV also have native access to the Supercharger network, the most widespread and reliable DC fast charging networks in the nation. They're by no means perfect -- CNET editors certainly had our share of issues with our long-term Model Y -- but that's balanced by Tesla's consistent over-the-air software improvements and their best-in-class performance.

Best electric cars of 2024

2023 Tesla Model 3 Standard Range

Best electric car for most people.

Starting at $41,630, the 2023 Tesla Model 3 Standard Range is a tough act to follow, costing less than some combustion-powered sedans in its class once the dust settles after up to a $7,500 federal tax credit and any qualifying state EV incentives. Shoppers with a bit more room in the budget can opt to upgrade to longer ranging and more powerful dual-motor variants, but this configuration's 272 miles is plenty for year-round daily driving with the occasional road trip, while its efficiency (4 miles per kWh) is the third highest on the road today, keeping operating costs low.

The Standard Range battery is mated with a single-motor, rear-wheel-drive variant of Tesla's electric powertrain. Its 0 to 60 mph sprint of 5.8 seconds won't snap your neck, but it's more than quick enough for strong, silent merges and passing. Plus, it's available with all of the cutting-edge dashboard technology and driver aid tech offered on the automaker's more expensive models.

Excellent performance, the highest range for the price
Affordable price bolstered by federal tax incentives
Native access to Supercharger fast charging network
Dashboard tech moves too many basic features to touchscreen
Reputation of inconsistent build quality
Expensive Autopilot and FSD driver aid tech upgrades

Additional Attributes

Range: 272 miles
Efficiency: 4 mi/kWh, 132 mpge
Max DCFC: 250 kW, 10 to 80% in 18 minutes
Features: Available FSD driver aid, connected 15.4-inch dashboard display
Starting price: $41,630

2023 Chevrolet Bolt EUV

Best affordable electric car.

Starting at just $28,795, the 2023 Chevrolet Bolt EUV is one of the most affordable electric cars on the road today. Larger than its sibling, the Bolt EV , this unassuming subcompact crossover rocks more interior volume than its competitors while still remaining extra compact and city-parkable. The ace up the Bot EUV's sleeve is available GM Super Cruise -- a surprisingly high-tech addition to this basic budget EV -- easily the best hands-free highway driving assist technology I've ever used, making long commutes significantly more relaxing.

At 247 EPA-estimated miles per charge and a 55-kW DC fast charging max, the EUV isn't the best pick for long road trips, but the compact runabout still offers plenty of wiggle room for city and suburban commuting and running errands. Unfortunately, you'll have to act fast to get one. GM has announced that production is coming to an end this year with orders closing for good shortly before the final examples roll off the line in November 2023. Once it's gone, the next best affordable EV will be significantly more expensive.

Small, but surprisingly spacious
Excellent urban driving range
Available with GM Super Cruise hands-free highway assist
Dashboard tech leans heavily on Apple CarPlay, Android Auto for navigation, entertainment and more
Slow charging speed discourages long road trips
Production ending at the end of this year
Range: 247 miles
Efficiency: 3.45 mi/kWh, 115 mpge
Max DCFC: 55 kW, 10 to 80% in 46 minutes
Features: Super Cruise highway assist, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay
Starting price: $28,795

2023 BMW i7 xDrive60

Best luxury electric car.

The new i7 is BMW's flagship electric sedan, hitting the road with 536 horsepower, 549 pound-feet of torque and every gadget and gizmo in the German automaker's arsenal. The i7 boasts up to 318 miles of electric range, features generated electric motor tones composed by Hans Zimmer and is one of the first Bimmers available with the automaker's updated Highway Assistant, which provides Level 2 hands-free driving at speeds up to 85 mph.

Inside, you'll find perhaps the most opulent cabin that BMW has ever assembled, with crystal controls, high quality leather and cashmere trim. If you think the dual 12.3-inch and 14.9-inch dashboard displays are huge, wait until you get a gander at the 31.3-inch 8K BMW Theater Screen that folds down from the ceiling to entertain rear seat passengers with Amazon Fire TV apps powered by 5G data.

Large and luxurious
Long range and fast charging are great for longer hauls
Available with BMW's first hands-free Highway Assistant tech
One of the best rear-seat entertainment screens in the business
Less range than Lucid or Tesla
Range: 324 miles
Efficiency: 2.63 mi/kWh, 89 mpge
Max DCFC: 195 kW, 10 to 80% in 34 minutes
Features: BMW Highway Assistant, hands-free soft close doors, 31.3-inch 8K BMW Theater 5G rear seat entertainment with Amazon Fire TV
Starting price: $125,195

2023 Lucid Air Grand Touring

Ev with the most range.

California-based EV startup Lucid takes the electric car endurance crown with its 516-mile Lucid Air Grand Touring . To accomplish this feat, Lucid stuffed its large sedan with a massive 112-kWh battery pack, but that's only half the story. The Air also features an impressive aerodynamic design that helps it cut through the air with very little drag and compact electric motors with an efficiency of 3.8 kilowatt-hours per mile. At the other end of the spectrum, the Air's performance is equally impressive with up to 1,050 horsepower and a 2.6-second 0-to-60 mph sprint.

All that power will cost you. The Air starts at $87,400, but the Grand Touring model tips the scales at $138,000… and that's not even the most expensive spec .

The most range of any EV on sale today
Touring and Pure specs tie for most energy-efficient EV
Tons of storage space including two full-size trunks
Wicked fast 3.0 second 0 to 60 mph
Now available with wireless Apple CarPlay
Extremely expensive
Awkward dashboard tech, no Android Auto
Limited driver aid tech relative to competitors at this price
Range: 516 miles
Efficiency: 3.8 mi/kWh, 89 mpge
Max DCFC: 300 kW, 10 to 80% in 16 minutes
Features: 34-inch curved main display, Wireless Apple CarPlay, Alexa voice command
Starting price: $138,000

2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 SE Long Range RWD

Most energy-efficient electric car.

Hyundai's Ioniq 6 is the newest model on this list, hitting dealerships earlier this year, but it also ties for the most efficient electric car you can buy today. The 6's aerodynamic sedan body rides atop the Hyundai Motor Group's E-GMP electric vehicle platform -- which also underpins SUVs like the Ioniq 5 , Kia's EV6 , EV9 and the Genesis GV60 -- giving it the edge in range and efficiency over its extended EV family. In its thriftiest Long Range RWD configuration, the Ioniq 6 cruises up to 361 miles and covers 4.17 miles per kilowatt-hour. That's an EPA-estimated equivalent of 140 mpge.

Beyond simply being thrifty, the Ioniq 6's battery-electric platform enables up to 233-kW DC fast charging making it one of the fastest charging EVs we've tested.

Efficient, aerodynamic design
High efficiency means potentially lower operating costs
Comes standard with excellent, but not overwhelming dashboard tech
Standard V2L bidirectional charging port (adapter required)
Lozenge-shaped design already looks dated
No front trunk
Range: 361 miles
Efficiency: 4.17 mi/kWh, 140 mpge
Max DCFC: 233 kW, 10 to 80% in 17 minutes
Features: Standard V2L bidirectional charging, wired Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, available Remote Smart Parking
Starting price: $46,615

2023 Ford F-150 Lightning 4WD Extended Range

Best electric pickup truck.

The 320-mile F-150 Lightning is one of the best modern full-size pickups that I've driven, electric or not. The Lightning's utility is enhanced by its electric powertrain, freeing up space under the hood for a massive "frunk" storage space and enabling the powerful Pro Power Onboard mobile power bank system. But what really makes the F-150 Lightning so good is how much it feels like a normal Ford F-150.

The Lightning makes very few compromises to the winning formula that has made the F-Series the best-selling vehicle in America by a country mile. It'll face serious competition when Chevrolet and Ram's electric pickups reach the market in the coming years, but for now, Ford is the king of the hill.

Massive front trunk
Familiar F-Series truck features and design
Excellent suite of standard and available driver-aid tech
Tends to blend in with other F-Series vehicles
Truck shape and weight hurts overall efficiency
Range: 320 miles
Efficiency: 2.08 mi/kWh, 70 mpge
Max DCFC: 155 kW, 10-80% in 30 min.
Features: Available Pro Power 240V V2L mobile power delivery, Ford Blue Cruise hands-free highway assist
Starting price: $73,135

2023 Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD

Best small electric suv.

The Tesla Model Y is everything that EV enthusiasts love about the Tesla Model 3 with a bit more cargo space. The Y's taller seating position, extra headroom and additional cargo capacity have made it slightly more popular than its sibling, narrowly edging out the Model 3 as the best-selling electric car in America. Heavier and with a larger aerodynamic profile than the 3, the Model Y can roam up to 330 miles per charge. That's enough to stand head and shoulders above the rest of its class.

Add to that access to Tesla's extensive and, more importantly, reliable Supercharger public charging network and the promise of constant improvement via over-the-air updates (that is, software updates to enhance performance) and it's no wonder the Model Y sells so well. And like the smaller Model 3, the Tesla Model Y also recently regained qualification for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit, bringing its starting price to an adjusted $41,630.

Native access to Tesla Supercharger network
Massive range for the money
More spacious than Model 3
Controversial Autopilot and FSD driver aid tech are expensive upgrades
Reputation for subpar build quality

Additional attributes

Range: 330 miles
Efficiency: 3.85 mi/kWh, 123 mpge
Max DCFC: 210 kW, 10 to 80% in 17 minutes
Features: Available FSD driver aid, connected 15.4-inch dashboard display, optional third-row seating
Starting price: $51,880

2023 Rivian R1S Dual Motor Large

Best three-row electric suv.

Rivian won my heart with the quirky and adventurous R1T electric pickup and now it's back with a more practical take on its battery-powered truck platform. The new Rivian R1S wraps the automaker's design around the more family friendly two-box silhouette of an SUV. The result retains the whimsical elements that I love -- the pill-shaped headlamps and instantly recognizable light bars at either end -- but makes room for more adventurers onboard.

Rivian has also launched its new dual-motor electric powertrain option . Yes, this is a step down from the power of the quad-motor setup, but it's also a big step up in range, efficiency and affordability making the 533-hp, 352-mile R1S Dual Motor with the Large battery pack the sweet spot for all but the most hardcore off-road enthusiasts.

Bold, eye-catching design
New dual-motor powertrain offers more range and efficiency for less money
Even more powerful Performance upgrade available
Touchscreen-heavy dashboard may turn off traditional truck and SUV shoppers
Driver aid tech needs more time to bake
Range: 352 miles
Efficiency: 2.33 mi/kWh, 78 mpge
Max DCFC: 220 kW, 10 to 80% in 23 minutes
Features: Access to Rivian Adventure Network charging stations, Gear Guard camera based security system, over 36-inch water fording depth, excellent off-road capability
Starting price: $84,000

2023 Porsche Taycan GTS

Best electric sports car.

The Porsche Taycan is expensive (it's a Porsche, after all) and its range falls short of the class-leading Tesla Model S , but there's more to enjoying an EV than just range. Driving a Taycan tells a completely different story, and I'm confident that the sweet spot GTS model is the most fun you can have in a sporty EV today. With 590 horsepower in this spec and a 3.5-second 0 to 60 mph sprint, the Taycan GTS is quick, but it also corners and connects to the road with a precision like no other EV I've ever driven. And the build quality, much like its driving dynamics, is basically unbeatable.

The range, officially estimated at 246 miles for the Taycan GTS, is more than adequate for daily driving, but it's also not difficult to exceed that when driving with a light foot. We reckon Porsche is underpromising here so that it can overdeliver on real world range. Plus, the automaker's 800-volt electric architecture charges quickly -- it's capable of climbing from 10% to 80% in 23 minutes at a powerful charging station.

In addition to the sedan profile, the Taycan is also available in Sport Turismo and Cross Turismo electric sport wagon configurations for bonus style and utility.

The most fun I've ever had behind the wheel of an EV
Excellent build quality and design matches the price tag
The GTS is the sweet spot for range and performance
Expensive for the range promised
Less cargo space than Tesla Model S
Range: 246 miles
Efficiency: 2.44 mi/kWh, 83 mpge
Max DCFC: 270 kW, 10 to 80% in 20 minutes
Features: Driver-focused Porsche Advanced Cockpit, PCM infotainment with integrated Apple Music and Spotify, standard Apple CarPlay, Android Auto
Starting price: $140,950

Comparison of the best electric cars for 2024

Factors to consider before buying an EV

Range: How far an electric car can go on a single charge is usually the first number shoppers check when considering an electric vehicle. Longer range means fewer stops on long trips and more peace of mind between charging stations on the road. Range can also be significantly affected by factors such as extremely cold or hot weather, along with your driving habits. Plus, all batteries will degrade somewhat over the lifespan of the vehicle, so consider picking an EV with a bit of extra wiggle room in the battery pack. That said, while range is important to the driving experience, it may not be the most important number on the spec sheet.

Efficiency: The most overlooked number on an EV's spec sheet, but I think it's the most important for a daily driver. Efficiency tells you how much electricity an electric car, truck or SUV uses when cruising, measured in miles per kilowatt-hour or kilowatt-hours per 100 miles. With this number and your local energy rates, you can easily calculate how much it costs to operate an EV and how much you could potentially save compared to a conventional combustion car.

Chevrolet Bolt EUV at an Electrify America station

An EV's maximum DC fast charging speed can have a big impact on how long a road trip takes.

Charging: Most EVs can recharge overnight at a level 2 home AC charger, and starting each day with a full battery can eliminate a lot of range anxiety . But for long road trips (or for apartment dwellers who can't recharge their EV every night), an EV's DC fast charging experience can have an even larger impact on EV ownership than its range. Most EVs I recommend can cover at least 200 miles between stops, but DC charging speed can mean the difference between that being a quick 20-minute break or being stuck waiting for up to an hour. You'll also want to consider what EV charging networks (Tesla Superchargers, Electrify America , Rivian's Adventure Network and others) cover your most-beaten paths.

Features: An electric car is more than just a battery, motors and a charging port. It's also a car, which means it needs to be a good car that meets your needs for passenger and cargo capacity, cabin technology, safety and driver aid technologies and style. Some EVs even offer bidirectional charging , which allows owners to draw power from an EV's battery pack while parked, keeping the lights on at home during a blackout or powering a camp, work site or tailgate party.

How we test electric cars

I've driven almost every EV model sold in the US over the last 15 years -- from the 62-mile 2012 Mitsubishi i-Miev to the 516-mile Lucid Air Grand Touring -- but the process always starts by getting behind the wheel and driving them in real world conditions on public roads. For each car I test, I cover over 200 miles behind the wheel on a mixed driving route that includes dense urban roads (complete with potholes), long stretches of highway driving and some good fun twisty mountain roads mixed in for flavor.

On the road, I test the DC fast charging speed and experience, evaluate driving dynamics including handling, acceleration and braking performance and also compare my real world experience, tested range and efficiency with estimates reported by the US EPA, both to double check the official numbers against the real world and to make sure my experiences represent those of the typical American driver. Along the way, I also check each car's cabin comfort, dashboard tech and driver aid and safety features to get a feel for where each vehicle fits in my experience testing hundreds of combustion, hybrid, hydrogen and, yes, battery-powered cars for CNET reviews.

Editor Antuan Goodwin demonstrates the Kia EV6's V2L adapter

I've been reviewing cars and car technology at CNET for over 15 years.

Other EVs we tested

I've fallen head over heels for our long-term 2022 Kia EV6 Wind AWD , which has a similar powertrain and performance to Hyundai's Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6. I prefer the look and suspension tuning of the EV6 to its cousins, but would probably recommend the Ioniq 5 to EV newbies for one reason: It comes with a charging cable. The EV6 does not, which means you'll need to source your own. The Kia does, however, include Hyundai/Kia's flexible V2L bidirectional charging adapter , which is nice.

Volkswagen's ID.4 boasts solid range, performance and value and is more spacious than other electric SUVs in its class. However, awkward dashboard touch controls and strange ergonomic design decisions -- such as the omission of rear window switches on the back doors -- kept it from clicking with me.

I also enjoyed my time piloting BMW's iX and, particularly, the i4 M50 . Both are excellent options for drivers looking for luxurious alternatives to Tesla's Model Y and Model 3, but they each have a more conventional dashboard design, more premium fit and finish and more driver-focused performance.

2022 Kia EV6 Wind AWD long-term test car

Our long-term 2022 Kia EV6 Wind AWD has been enjoyable and reliable for over 6,000 miles of testing.

How much range should I look for in an electric car?

How much range you'll need from an EV will vary depending on your individual needs and driving habits. For most drivers with an average American commute -- around 55.2 miles according to the most recent US Census Bureau data -- an EV in the 200 to 300 mile ballpark will provide adequate range for daily driving, unexpected errands and the occasional road trip. This leaves some wiggle room for apartment dwellers, who may not be able to charge every night and for drivers who live in areas with extreme heat or cold weather, which can sap as much as 41% of EV's stated range in the most extreme cases.

Check out our explainer on how much range to target when buying an electric car.

How long does it take to charge an electric car?

Broadly, there are three levels of EV charging that you need to know. DC fast charging is the fastest charging method used by public charging networks, such as Electrify America, EVgo or Tesla Superchargers, getting you from 10 to 80% full (the most efficient range for fast charging) in as little as 18 minutes or up to an hour. Level 2 home or public stations average around 9.6 kW, getting you around a day's worth of driving with an overnight session. Level 1 chargers plug into the familiar NEMA 5-15 home outlet -- the same one your TV or laptop uses -- and can take from 12 to 24 hours to trickle charge at Level 1, making this only really useful as a last expedient when there are no other options.

Are electric cars more expensive than gas-powered cars?

Within the same class, EVs tend to be more expensive than their combustion-powered cousins due to the rare and costly materials that make up their large battery packs. Economies of scale and new production processes could eventually result in at the point of purchase price parity, but for now prospective buyers will want to look to any available federal and state tax incentives or rebates to offset the cost. Additionally, EVs can be less expensive to operate , potentially saving money over the long term.

Are electric cars as safe as gas-powered cars?

A battery's weight could affect handling and braking distance, and an inexperienced driver could be caught off guard by an EV's strong acceleration, but those aren't risks unique to electric cars. On the other hand, EVs often use the most modern driver-aid technologies and passive safety features in an automaker's portfolio, which can tip the safety scales in their favor .

Electric cars do require first responders to handle them differently in the event of an accident or fire. Despite a few high-profile fire-risk recalls , however, multiple studies show that EVs are actually significantly less likely to catch fire than combustion cars .

Are electric cars better for the environment than gas-powered cars?

Lacking tailpipe emissions, transitioning to electric cars can greatly improve local air quality, but in areas where electricity is generated with fossil or carbon-based fuels, EVs will still have a macro environmental impact. Factor in the mining of rare battery and motor materials and the answer becomes less clear.

Many major automakers have pledged to build carbon neutral supply chains, factories and manufacturing processes, which could further reduce EVs' global environmental impact. Meanwhile, moving regional electrical grids to renewable sources while individual homes make use of rooftop solar generation can make an electric car more and more environmentally friendly over its lifetime.

North American Car, Truck and SUV of the Year (NACTOY) Awards Juror

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Man Does The Math To Brag About EV Road Trip Savings But Finds It Would Be Just As Cheap And A Full Day Quicker In A Hybrid

By Jason Torchinsky
June 18, 2024
231 Comments

There’s a tweet that is currently going somewhat viral, all about a long road trip taken in a Tesla Model Y . It’s a 3,605 mile road trip, which is absolutely no joke by any standards of a road trip. What’s notable about this trip is that the taker of this trip, Alex Gayer, kept some nicely meticulous records and did some math to figure out how much time was spent charging, how much money was spent, and what the equivalent would be in miles per gallon. One gets the sense that this was all done to brag about his Tesla, which is fine since we don’t kink-shame here, but interestingly, I think the end result of this is not an aggrandizement of Tesla, but actually a pretty solid argument in favor of plug-in hybrids!

As I think we’ve made pretty clear, we’re very pro hybrids, especially plug-in hybrids . They may not be the absolute platonic ideal of perfect efficiency, but they make a lot of sense for the flawed, messy reality we all actually live in. There’s a pragmatic beauty to hybrids. Yes, you’re dragging around two entire types of drivetrains, but the capabilities of those drivetrains dovetail so well with each other, with each one’s strengths filling in the weaknesses of the other – electric motors’ instant torque helping the combustion engine, the reclamation of normally lost kinetic energy from braking, the energy density of gasoline, all of these traits combine to make a system that’s more than the sum of its parts.

Let’s take a look at this proud Tesla owner’s math and see what we think of all this. First, let’s look at the overall trip:

Just took Model Y on a 3,605 mi road trip. Wanted to see what the worst case might look like for charging costs. 5 passengers total, fully loaded frunk and trunk, we drove as fast as conditions allowed and hit several rain storms, used heavy A/C, kids playing video games from the pic.twitter.com/amcO0lhpbc — Alex Gayer (@alex_gayer) June 18, 2024

Damn, that’s a long trip! Based on that map, it looks like it took, what, 24 recharging stops? Alex breaks down some of the math for us, helpfully:

Here are my statistics: Trip Miles: 3,605 Total kWh: 1310.58 Wh/mi: 363.55 Total spent charging: $421.84 Avg. Cost per mile: $0.12 Avg. Cost per kWh: $0.32 Total Time Spent Supercharging: 10 hours 58 minutes (did not include destination charges) — Alex Gayer (@alex_gayer) June 18, 2024

So, we have 3,605 miles, with an average cost per mile of 12 cents, and just under 11 hours of charging time for the trip. Oh, and that doesn’t count “destination charges” which is charging done once they reached their destination for that leg of the journey. The total spent on electrons to feed into those big lithium batteries came to $421.84. Okay, all that seems in order. But it was this next tweet that I really think got everyone wondering:

The average price of gas at the time was about $3.516 per gallon. The money spent charging could have purchased 119.98 gallons of gas. This means that to have made the same trip in a gas-powered car for the same cost, I would have had to achieve an average of 30.0 MPG. — Alex Gayer (@alex_gayer) June 18, 2024

Okay, so I suspect everyone here is thinking the same thing: 30 mpg? That’s, um, normal? Like, almost anything can hit 30 mpg on the highway now, right? And the way this is phrased – “ I would have had to achieve an average of 30.0 MPG ” – makes it sound like this is some incredible feat? Big-ass modern SUVs can pull off about 30 MPG now. I just had a press V8 Mustang that was hitting about 30 mpg on the highway recently, too. This isn’t nuclear fusion here.

Okay, so using Alex’ numbers here, let’s figure out what an equivalent trip in a combustion car that gets 30 mpg highway would be like. Let’s say we’re taking an Acura Integra, why not, which gets a combined 30-33 mpg (city 30/highway 37, if you’re curious) and that car has a 12.4 gallon gas tank.

So, the range of that car at a conservative 30 mpg would be 372 miles, so if we divide 3,605 miles by 372 that means we’d have to stop for gas 9.69 times, which we’ll round up to 10 because we probably want more Nutter Butters and Munchos and pee breaks, anyway.

Each tank of 12.4 gallons at $3.516 is $43.60 to fill the tank (completely, which is unlikely, but whatever so that comes to $436.00 for all the gas, a bit more than the electricity, but effectively the same, since it’s unlikely you’ll be draining that tank to bone-dry each time.

Now let’s think about time. Let’s err on the side of slowness and say each fill-up takes 15 minutes, so we have 10 stops, which means 150 minutes, or two and a half hours total. That’s a hell of a lot less than 11 hours. It’s eight and a half hours less, in fact.

And, keep in mind, 30 mpg is just a baseline here – it’s not hard to find all sorts of cars, like Toyota Priuses or Honda Civics or Volkswagen Jettas or Toyota RAV4s or any number of other cars that get well over 30 mpg, 35 and up, even 40 mpg for highway mileage is not uncommon. So the reality is likely to be less fuel needed and less fill-ups than we calculated here.

Of course, people on eX-Twitter pointed out these facts, Alex pointed out that in non-highway use, his Tesla gets well over 30 mpg, often up to an EV equivalent of 90 mpg . And that’s true! But it’s also true that plug-in hybrids can get similar equivalent mpg numbers when running on battery power in-town, and can also take advantage of having a combustion engine that quickly refuels when being used on a long road trip.

If we look at the electric-only ranges of PHEVs, we can see that most of them can cover the average American daily commute distance of 12 miles just on battery power:

Jeep Wrangler 4xe : 22 miles
Ford Escape plug-in : 37 miles
Chrysler Pacifica PHEV : 32 miles
Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe : 26 miles
Hyundai Tucson PHEV : 33 miles
Mazda CX-90 PHEV : 26 miles
BMW X5 xDrive50e : 38 miles
BMW 330e : 23 miles
Toyota Prius Prime : 44 miles
Toyota RAV4 Prime : 42 miles
Lexus RX450h+ : 37 miles

Hell, even the worst of these can pull off almost the whole back-and-forth commute without needing to start the combustion motor at all:

I know Alex Gayer didn’t really intend it to be this way, but I think his carefully-tracked road trip tweets will actually do a lot of good, just not in the everyone-should-get-a-Tesla sense. I think it’ll do good in the we-should-all-seriously-consider-plug-in-hybrids sense. Sure, they’re conceptually a clunky compromise, but in reality, in actual practice, they really do seem to offer the best of both worlds.

Had Alex and his four companions and all their luggage been in a plug-in hybrid, they could have spent the same amount of money and finished their trip an entire eight and a half hours earlier, which perhaps could have spared them seven or so hours of listening to Alex talk about how awesome his Tesla is.

I kid, Alex, I kid! I’m delighted you love your car! We should all be so lucky! But if we’re talking hard numbers, I think this whole thing has been a win for the plug-in hybrids.

I hope you had a fun trip, though!

Ford Is Delaying EV Plans So It Can Build More Hybrids

I think i found the big flaw in the otherwise great toyota corolla cross hybrid, america focusing on electric cars and not plug-in hybrids was a huge mistake.

BigFeatured , Charging , EV , gas , Hybrid , Model y , PHEV , Plug-In Hybrid , road trip , Supercharger , Tesla

Jason Torchinsky

Earlier this year I did a trip from the Poconos to Indianapolis to see my sister. The vehicle we used was a 2022 Toyota Sienna Hybrid. Going cross country we averaged 35.2 MPG with 5 people, car seats and luggage.

Thank you for the great comparison! That’s awesome mileage.

My A6 Allroad has a mild hybrid setup and it gets about 34MPG if I drive sensibly on highways.

Toyota Hybrid technology is unmatched.

Pretty amazing for such a people & stuff hauler.

My math comes out to the fact that I’ve saved over $13k on gas in the 5 years I’ve owned my model 3.

I do 8 hour road trips regularly throughout the year and while it might take a bit longer to get places I usually find when charging the car is ready to go at about the same time I am after getting a coffee etc.

If anything this i think this proves how great EVs can perform. Keep in mind this is an extreme situation. Huge distances. Fully loaded with both people and gear. Moving at a good clip. A/C etc on and it did as well as the best gas cars. Under normal daily driving conditions they are IMO superior certainly in terms of monthly cost.

I am not a Tesla fan-boy and other than for the charging network I have to real allegiance to them. I am lucky to be able to charge at home. I understand if you can’t an EV might not make sense. I didn’t get home charging until year 2 so I understand the hassle. But if you can charge at home and aren’t required to cover massive distances on a regular basis you’re never going to convince me a PHEV or ICE is better than an EV.

Forget the MPGs, BEV vs ICE vs PHEV, etc. This just makes me itch for a good ‘ol epic American road trip. Darn shame my PTO is already spoken for… and the toddler at home. No more 15 hour driving days for me for a bit.

I chose to do this trip on public transportation (Greyhound), thus saving money and CO2, it took me three extra days, but I only got stabbed twice.

That same trip would have cost $259.21 in my Prius, at my real-world average MPG of 48.9. I would have fueled up 8 times at most (I usually stop between 450 and 500 miles, depending when I hit one fuel bar), taking 2 hours of fueling time based on the 15-minute stop.

While I do agree with the analysis here, let’s keep in mind that it’s only cost based.

Alex’s trip still emitted less CO2 than it would have in a hybrid (depending on the grid’s energy mix), and that’s worth mentioning.

Not necessarily. Around here the emissions breakeven for EVs is only 34 MPG due to heavy fossil fuel usage in the electrical grid. It’s entirely possible this trip could have been done faster, cheaper, and cleaner in a hybrid.

That power consumption on the Tesla is pretty high. It implies more like 85mph. At that speed, the 30mph hybrid is also going to fall pretty far short of 30mpg. My Volt is rated something like 40mpg highway on gas, and it’ll probably do that easily at 60mph, but at 85mph it may not even break 30mpg.

I wish the article had included the gas-only MPGs for each of those PHEVs. The Jeep 4xE gets only, like, 20 MPG after the battery runs out. So while it might be good for some people for daily city driving, beyond that it’s pretty crap. For long trips, like the one this article is about, it would be complete dog doo doo.

Not to say that I’m not generally pro-PHEV though.

My 2.0T Wrangler Unlimited gets 25MPG on the highway pretty easily. When the battery “runs out”, it still gets recharged going down hills, etc and can contribute some power back to the vehicle while it’s on the highway. Much like a traditional hybrid. I’d be surprised if the 4xe can’t do 25 on the highway as well even when you’ve exhausted the pure EV mode.

Can we now restrict the choice of hybrids and ICE vehicles in the comparison pool to vehicles that will have the same acceleration/passing performance and in general – the same performance as the EV used, and re-run the math ?

Just curious.

Why? The point of the original post was the efficiency. Yes the Tesla is fast, but no cars are really slow anymore. For a point of comparison, my 2005 Honda Accord V6 gets ~28 on the highway and is rock solid at 120 MPH with the A/C blowing frost in my face. I can assure you the VTEC allows rapid passing. And I would have made it there much faster. Speaking of economic efficiency, it cost me $4500 used.

Just trying to keep it to comparable size and comfort. But yes, as far as efficiency being the part discussed – you’re right.

I am not sure if a Tesla is larger or more comfortable than your average 4-door: Accord, Camry, etc. I mean, yes, you can get the speakers to make fart noises next to the passengers, which is cool.

and now you have to add 10 hours for time wasted charging despite all that awesome passing performance

How about we just account for the time saved by all that additional performance and shave twenty minutes off the total time travelled?

Torch, which has fewer tailpipe emissions? Isn’t that the point? And no, don’t get me started on lifetime cradle to grave emissions. I have the facts on hand and I’m willing to use them like a blunt instrument.

Dude, this guy a comparing a fully loaded Tesla with Sentry Mode on, a mini fridge, and video games getting 30mpg to a hybrid getting 30mpg. He’s completely subtracting all that weight and power from the hybrid and saying “look! They both get 30mpg!” No way a hybrid fully loaded is getting 30mpg.

I often drive people’s cars between Florida and Massachusetts as a side gig. My wife and i can get to Jacksonville in a pretty consistent 20 hours. We’ll often stop for one sit down meal, but otherwise keep stops to 10-15 minutes.

Did it in a 2018 model S once. Cut him a discount because it came with free supercharging. Took 30 hours. I told him i couldn’t do a discount anymore because even though i saved $2-300 in gas, it took 10 hours longer. I baked in a night’s stop in Florida as a safety which i needed to make room for the flight home.

You can totally do a long road trip in an ev. But if you like to make time, stopping every 2 hours is a total momentum killer

What platform do you use? That seems like an awesome gig

I don’t get this. First it’s on Twixter. Second, he actually did the trip in his Tesla, so give us the actual numbers!! Sure, it is one datum. When we get a thousand data, then we can analyze

And to do a road trip efficiently, one has to waste time planning the trip. EV planning seems to take on a lot more time. And, yes, as someone already posted, this trip is about half an oil change, and fractions of other ICE maintenance, so add that in. Oh, and subtract the difference of the cost of tires.

That $0.32 per kwh is what I pay in the Boston area for electricity. Been saying everything in this article for years… You have to account for climate, driving style, road conditions and fuel/electricity costs and weigh them all against all of the other criteria used to purchase a vehicle.

Yeah, there is a huge difference in power costs depending on where you go. Here in Idaho, on hydro, the highest residential power rate (charged only after 2000 kWh and only in the summer) is 14.43 cents. Outside of summer, the highest is 10.86 cents. Most people, even with EVs, end up paying less than 10 cents in the winter and less than 12 cents in the summer.

You see a lot more EVs than you might expect given the politics here, since the savings can be pretty significant.

As usual, everyone, including the author, is externalizing the cost of gasoline (and the energy generated for the Y for that matter).

“Cheaper”, “More efficient” is always going to be relative until we start looking at the whole system, rather than individual results.

But I guess I shouldn’t expect anything else in the neoliberal hellscape we live in…

On a road trip with a full family, there is NO WAY you’re only stopping every 372 miles.

11 hours of charging is 22 half-hour breaks, which is a 30 min break every 160 miles (on a 3600 mile trip). A good chunk of that time would be spent on bathroom & food breaks anyway.

I just did a 450 mile round trip this weekend on my 270 mile range EV (BMW i4 m50), and the cost of home charging + supercharging came out to $28, or $0.062/mile. I spent the 20 min charging time eating.

On home charging alone, I average $0.026/mile. That’s equivalent to 115mpg on $3/gal gasoline, in a car with 536 horsepower and INSTANT acceleration.

I’ll start by saying that I appreciate the time Alex took to crunch the numbers. Getting the equivalent of 30mpg in a crossover with 5 people in it is pretty damn good. We’re not that far removed from a time where breaking 20mpg in that situation would put a smile on your face. Really though, the trip he took is the perfect use case for a modern hybrid. I’ll use the example of an Accord hybrid because I have first hand experience with taking one on a 600 mile round trip. With 3 people and 1 week’s worth of luggage we averaged 55mpg. If you toss in a couple more people and their stuff, which is doable because it has a large trunk, I would guess you are looking at 45-50mpg. The powertrain is understressed cruising at 70 because the car has good aerodynamics and is switching between low RPM gas use and electric. It also only weighs about 3,300 pounds since it doesn’t need a huge battery.

Eco-friendliness will hopefully go to the EV in the future due to using renewable energy. Right now though in the US, the electricity you are recharging the EV with is mostly generated with fossil fuels. The transition to renewables is slow because we have a massive amount of infrastructure to replace and the progress can easily be slowed or stopped after any given election. That’s every 2 years where a change in president or congressional majority can fuck up everything. You also have to consider the possibility of anti-renewable legal action reaching the Supreme Court, where a free luxury vacation or motor coach has as much of an influence on the ruling as any kind of legal reasoning.

Everyone seems to get caught up on cost of fuel, mpgs and so on. The bigger issue (eclipsing all else) for me is the wasted time.

I love our EV for DD duty. Plug it in the garage and skip standing around at gas stations. But road tripping… nope. Not interesting in spending hours of my vacation sitting at a truck stop charging. So, unless we can make it to our destination (and there is charging there) I’ll pass on that hassle and take the other car. Fill it with petrol and go and spend my extra 8 hours at the beach with my feet in the sand.

I have an EV and I think it’s a fine vehicle but I look at this and think who in their right mind would want to do this trip?

He just proved that it is technically possible but also quite pointless – you can just rent a van if you have to take a trip of that distance and probably come out money ahead just by saving on the wear and tear for his vehicle even if it wasn’t an EV.

I think renting is a great value in a lot of ways. Even in the ICE world.

I know so many people that buy more car than they use 99% of the time because (insert something they do like once a year: road trip, towing a camper or boat, when grandparents are in town and need 6 passengers in a car.)

Get something that is awesome at DD, costs less, is easier to get around in and is probably more fun. And then rent a few times a year for your special cases.

Cost of operation for PHEVs needs to include ICE maintenance.

Beyond 1-2 oil changes per year, free from many mfgs for up to 3 years, there isn’t much to worry about for the term most people keep vehicles.

Then they should amortize the average annual repair cost of both the PHEV and the Tesla into the trip. But… Average Annual Repair Cost: Acura: $501 Tesla: $832

https://jalopnik.com/advisor/auto-warranty/tesla-maintenance-cost In general Tesla’s are more expensive than the average car.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/01/hertz-is-selling-20000-used-evs-due-to-high-repair-costs/ https://www.geekwire.com/2023/spendy-and-slow-tesla-repairs-frustrate-drivers-as-automotive-tech-drives-up-cost-of-collisions/

Both cars have brakes, suspension, wheel bearings, ball joints, wipers, tires, and a plethora of sensors. I don’t think EVs are the simple maintenance-free devices they get portrayed to be.

The 1,775 HP Bugatti Tourbillon Is A Hybrid V16 Rocketship

What was the car that vladimir putin gave to kim jong-un, i’m going to turn this prius prime phev into a hot hatch.

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Electric cars have a road trip problem, even for the secretary of energy

Camila Domonoske

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is working hard to convince more Americans to embrace electric cars — and she knows this means the country's charging infrastructure needs to improve, fast. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is working hard to convince more Americans to embrace electric cars — and she knows this means the country's charging infrastructure needs to improve, fast.

When Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm set out on a four-day electric-vehicle road trip this summer, she knew charging might be a challenge. But she probably didn't expect anyone to call the cops.

Granholm's trip through the southeast, from Charlotte, N.C., to Memphis, Tenn., was intended to draw attention to the billions of dollars the White House is pouring into green energy and clean cars. The administration's ambitious energy agenda, if successful, could significantly cut U.S. emissions and reshape Americans' lives in fundamental ways, including by putting many more people in electric vehicles.

Granholm approaches a charging station to charge the Cadillac Lyriq she was riding during a four-day road trip through the southeast early this summer. The electric vehicle had charging problems due to an "isolated hardware issue," Cadillac says. But Granholm's team encountered plenty of not-so-isolated problems too. Camila Domonoske/NPR hide caption

On town hall stops along her road trip, Granholm made a passionate, optimistic case for this transition. She often put up a photo of New York City in 1900, full of horses and carriages, with a single car. Then another slide: "Thirteen years later, same street. All these cars. Can you spot the horse?"

One horse was in the frame.

"Things are happening fast. You are in the center of it. Imagine how big clean energy industries will be in 13 years," she told one audience in South Carolina. "How much stronger our economy is going to grow. How many good-paying jobs we're going to create — and where we are going to lead the world."

Going along for the ride

The auto industry, under immense pressure to tackle its contribution to climate change, is undertaking a remarkable switch to electric vehicles — but it's not necessarily going to be a smooth transition.

Not every vehicle in Granholm's caravan was electric. The Secret Service, for instance, rode in large traditional SUVs. Camila Domonoske/NPR hide caption

Not every vehicle in Granholm's caravan was electric. The Secret Service, for instance, rode in large traditional SUVs.

I rode along with Granholm during her trip, eager to see firsthand how the White House intends to promote a potentially transformative initiative to the public and what kind of issues it would encounter on the road.

Granholm is in many ways the perfect person to help pitch the United States' ambitious shift to EVs. As a two-term former governor of Michigan, she helped rescue the auto industry during the 2008 global financial crisis, and she's a longtime EV enthusiast. (Her family recently switched from the Chevy Bolt to the Ford Mustang Mach-E.)

That makes her uniquely well positioned to envision the future of the auto industry and to sell the dream of what that future could look like.

But between stops, Granholm's entourage at times had to grapple with the limitations of the present. Like when her caravan of EVs — including a luxury Cadillac Lyriq, a hefty Ford F-150 and an affordable Bolt electric utility vehicle — was planning to fast-charge in Grovetown, a suburb of Augusta, Georgia.

Her advance team realized there weren't going to be enough plugs to go around. One of the station's four chargers was broken, and others were occupied. So an Energy Department staffer tried parking a nonelectric vehicle by one of those working chargers to reserve a spot for the approaching secretary of energy.

Planet Money

As carbon removal gains traction, economists imagine a new market to save the planet.

That did not go down well: a regular gas-powered car blocking the only free spot for a charger?

In fact, a family that was boxed out — on a sweltering day, with a baby in the vehicle — was so upset they decided to get the authorities involved: They called the police.

The sheriff's office couldn't do anything. It's not illegal for a non-EV to claim a charging spot in Georgia. Energy Department staff scrambled to smooth over the situation, including sending other vehicles to slower chargers, until both the frustrated family and the secretary had room to charge.

This charging station in Grovetown, Ga., was overcrowded. An electric school bus that was driving on a statewide clean-energy road show needed one charger; another charger was broken. Camila Domonoske/NPR hide caption

This charging station in Grovetown, Ga., was overcrowded. An electric school bus that was driving on a statewide clean-energy road show needed one charger; another charger was broken.

Getting it together

John Ryan, a driver of an electric BMW, pulled up after everything was settled. It was his turn to wait.

"It's just par for the course," he shrugged. "They'll get it together at some point."

Federal money is now headed to states for building up fast EV chargers on highways

"They" would be the government, the automakers, the charging networks like Electrify America and ChargePoint, and the companies like Walmart, Shell and 7-Eleven that are entering the charging game.

And they are, in fact, desperate to get it together. Carmakers have hundreds of billions of dollars of investment on the line, and they are embracing Tesla's technology and teaming up with rivals to try to tackle the charging problem. Meanwhile, the U.S. government is pouring billions into a nationwide network of electric chargers, trying to fix the very problem Granholm was encountering.

I drive an electric vehicle myself, and I've test-driven many more as NPR's auto reporter. I know how easy it can be to charge when everything goes well and how annoying it can be when things go poorly.

Riding along with Granholm, I came away with a major takeaway: EVs that aren't Teslas have a road trip problem, and the White House knows it's urgent to solve this issue.

Solving the road trip problem

The road trip has long loomed large in the American automotive imagination.

Road trips are a tiny fraction of the trips Americans take; drivers mostly commute or drive around town. And at home, charging an EV is much easier (not to mention cheaper) than fueling up with gasoline; you just plug in overnight, and you're good to go every morning.

On a practical basis, making sure everyone can charge at home would seem much more important than building road trip chargers. And this is a real concern for some drivers.

But for many drivers, it's not charging at home that worries them: It's what they'll do on the road.

An electric vehicle charger stands in front of an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall and training center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Camila Domonoske/NPR hide caption

An electric vehicle charger stands in front of an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall and training center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

According to the auto-data giant J.D. Power, worries about public chargers are the No. 1 reason why would-be EV buyers are reluctant to make the switch, even outranking concerns about high prices. And driver satisfaction with public chargers is getting worse, not better .

Tesla chargers are significantly better than the competition, and most of the electric vehicles in the U.S. are Teslas.

Tesla is opening up its exclusive network to more vehicles, which could transform the charging experience as soon as next year, but not all automakers have embraced Tesla's technology. And although Tesla dominates the EV market, the Biden administration wants every automaker to go electric quickly and every driver to have access to fast, reliable charging.

"Ultimately, we want to make it super-easy for people to travel long distances," Granholm told me.

But as she knows, long-distance travel in non-Tesla EVs is not always "super-easy" today.

Problem 1: Planning is cumbersome

The secretary's trip had been painstakingly mapped out ahead of time to allow for charging. We stopped at hotels with slower "Level 2" plugs for overnight charging and then paused at superfast chargers between cities.

That required upfront work that a gas-powered road trip simply doesn't require. My car can hypothetically locate a nearby charger on the road — as with many EVs, that feature is built into an app on the car's infotainment screen — so I shouldn't have to plan ahead. But in reality, I use multiple apps to find chargers, read reviews to make sure they work and plot out convenient locations for a 30-minute pit stop (a charger by a restaurant, for instance, instead of one located at a car dealership).

At a stop in South Carolina, Granholm told audiences she recognized the importance of making chargers easy to find on apps.

For chargers to qualify for new federal money, the energy secretary explained, "they have to be every 50 miles and within 1 mile off the charging corridor, and they have to be app enabled. So you have to be able to see with your phone, is this charger available so that I can go use it, right?"

Granholm talks to executives from Albemarle, a maker of lithium, a vital component of electric vehicle batteries, in Kings Mountain, N.C. Pictured behind her is NPR reporter Camila Domonoske. Conor McCabe/Department of Energy hide caption

Granholm talks to executives from Albemarle, a maker of lithium, a vital component of electric vehicle batteries, in Kings Mountain, N.C. Pictured behind her is NPR reporter Camila Domonoske.

Problem 2: Not enough chargers

One reason road trips take so much planning: Some parts of the U.S., including much of the southeast, simply don't have many high-speed chargers, also called DC fast chargers.

I happen to live on the edge of a charging desert. In my Virginia hometown, there are no DC fast chargers except for a Tesla Supercharger station, which I can't use ... yet. That's not a problem, since I charge at home. Much more problematic is that if I want to drive through West Virginia, I can access only 11 fast chargers in the entire state. That's actually progress; three weeks ago, there were only eight.

Where chargers are in short supply, drivers sometimes have to wait — like Granholm's team did in Grovetown, Georgia. The experience could get even worse as the number of electric vehicles on the road increases in coming years.

"Clearly, we need more high-speed chargers, particularly in the South," Granholm told me at the end of her trip.

Big carmakers unite to build a charging network and reassure reluctant EV buyers

She emphasized the $7.5 billion investment that the Biden administration is making in building more public chargers — money that's currently being distributed to states.

"By the end of this year, I think we'll start to see [those chargers] popping up along the charging corridors," she said.

Problem 3: Not fast enough

There was another DC charging station about a 10-minute drive from that stop in Grovetown. But that station's chargers were nowhere near as fast. In fact, aside from chargers reserved for Teslas and one charging station just for Rivians, it was more than an hour's drive to the next actually-fast fast charger.

And that brings us to the next problem with America's fast charger network: It's too slow.

When DC fast chargers were first built, 50 kilowatts (a measure of charging speed) was considered speedy. Times have changed. Many newer vehicles can charge at least three times faster than that. But those older chargers remain on roads, making up a sizable chunk of the country's fast-charging infrastructure.

A common sight for electric vehicle drivers: This station is not operating at full speed. Camila Domonoske/NPR hide caption

A common sight for electric vehicle drivers: This station is not operating at full speed.

That doesn't matter much for cheaper vehicles that can't charge very fast anyway, like my Bolt. But for newer, faster-charging vehicles, especially big ones with giant batteries, it could be the difference between waiting 20 minutes to charge — or waiting an hour.

This problem is easing over time. Most new chargers are on the faster end of the spectrum, and the federal incentives are available only for chargers that are 150 kilowatts or faster.

Problem 4: Not reliable enough

Of course, having a superfast charger doesn't do you any good if the dang thing doesn't work.

On the secretary's road trip, that stop in Grovetown included a charger with a dead black screen. At another stop in Tennessee, the Chevy Bolt that I was riding in charged at one-third the rate it should have. Electrify America says that's not an isolated problem; a faulty component has caused a number of chargers to be "derated" while the company works on a fix.

Companies like Electrify America — funded by Volkswagen as part of its penalty for the Dieselgate scandal — are among the private players that have helped build out America's current charging infrastructure. But reliability is proving to be an issue.

How fast can the auto industry go electric? Debate rages as the U.S. sets new rules

J.D. Power found that when non-Tesla drivers pull up at a charging station, they leave without charging 20% of the time, because the chargers were either all busy or not functioning.

The federal government has responded with a new requirement: Highway chargers that get federal funds will have to prove they're operational at least 97% of the time.

The good news: Charging can be great

Despite overcrowding, broken chargers and slow speeds, charging on the road worked most of the time for Granholm's team.

"I think two days in, I would totally buy an EV," an Energy Department staffer who was driving an EV for the first time mused halfway through the trip. "Like, it would be pretty easy to do a road trip. You have to stop for lunch anyway, so you stop, charge, keep going."

Road trip charging can be cheap too. Granholm's 770-mile trip cost one of the Energy Department's drivers just $35 total, less than half of what gasoline would have run in a similar vehicle.

On a more basic level, Granholm's team was ultimately able to charge in every town it stopped at. There was no risk of being stranded, which was the fear of very early adopters of EVs, back before public chargers were available.

And if you have a garage, a driveway or EV chargers at your workplace, day-to-day charging is even easier. Personally, I plug my Bolt into a standard outlet when I'm home and into a Level 2 charger at NPR's headquarters when I'm in Washington, D.C. I don't sit around and wait for it to charge; I just go about my life. And when I'm ready to go, so is the car.

That's not "just as easy" as filling up a gas-powered car. It's significantly easier.

Tesla Superchargers in San Rafael, Calif., on Feb. 15. Tesla invested in chargers as a way to sell cars, building them where people would want them, regardless of whether the chargers could individually be profitable. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

Tesla's super Superchargers

And then, of course, there are the Tesla chargers, which simply work better than the other chargers out there.

J.D. Power has found that Tesla drivers successfully charge at 96% of the Superchargers they visit.

Tesla invested in chargers as a way to sell cars, building fast, reliable charging stations where people would want them, regardless of whether the chargers could individually be profitable.

Tesla also defied the rest of the auto industry in using its own charging technology rather than the carefully negotiated industrywide standard.

Opening up the walled garden

The strategy paid off. For years, Tesla kept its network of Superchargers as a walled garden. Tesla drivers raved about them, but no one else could use them.

That started to change this year when Tesla struck a deal with the White House to open some chargers to the general public. And the walled garden blew wide open after Ford announced it was adopting Tesla's charging technology. Future Fords will come with the Tesla-style plug, and starting in January, existing-Ford owners can buy an adapter and plug in.

The idea was born — where else? — on a road trip.

Ford CEO Jim Farley recently told NPR he was driving with his kids on a family vacation, past a huge, conveniently located Tesla Supercharger station. His kids wondered why Farley, who was driving a Mustang Mach-E, couldn't just stop there to charge.

Ford is losing a lot of money in electric cars — but CEO Jim Farley is charging ahead

Farley explained that they couldn't because those were Tesla chargers.

When he explained why they couldn't charge there, his kids were blunt, as he recalled to NPR in an interview in August: "'Well, that's stupid. They have, like, a lot of free open spots there.'"

And the idea for the Tesla deal was born.

The road to the future

Those private-led efforts — as well as the muscle and money provided by the government — could prove a game changer.

"The private sector has stepped up," Granholm told me toward the end of her road trip. The response to federal incentives has been, as she put it, "a blockbuster."

Granholm has long been an energetic and optimistic pitchwoman for the electric vehicle future, even before her current position.

On her road trip this summer, she made the case again and again that switching to green energy and clean cars will save money, create jobs and promote national security, on top of being a crucial component in the plan to fight climate change.

"If you're not persuaded by climate change or you think it's not happening, well, you should be persuaded by lowering the costs," she told me.

And as Granholm knows, the cars themselves can be persuasive. Stop me if you've heard this from an EV driver before — but a quiet, speedy vehicle that never needs an oil change is just plain nice to drive, charging headaches and all.

Or ask Holmesetta Green. I met her when she was sitting on a curb in the back corner of a Walmart parking lot, parked right next to Granholm, waiting for her Volkswagen ID.4 to charge.

Green, a 79-year-old retired teacher, frequently makes the six-hour drive from her home in Louisville, Ky., to her hometown in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

Biden administration proposes new fuel economy standards, with higher bar for trucks

It was hot that day. Hot hot. "You ever fried an egg on a sidewalk?" Green asked me. She wished out loud for a charging station in a park, with a bench in the shade.

I asked her how she likes her SUV. And her answer summed up the anxieties and the hopes of both the Biden administration and the auto industry at large.

"It's not enough chargers over on the major highways," she said. And charging is "kind of slow."

"Other than that, I wouldn't take $100,000 for this car," she said, smiling ear to ear. "We love it. We love the electric."

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How to travel long-distance with an Electric Vehicle in Malaysia?

S o, you’ve gotten an electric vehicle ( EV ) and now you want to take it for a road trip. There have been a lot of questions about EVs in Malaysia. Like, are EVs practical for a long-distance drive? Is it hard to find a charger? Will I get stranded without any juice left? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Over at SoyaCincau.com, we’ve driven a lot of EVs and personally, I have an Kia EV6 as a daily driver with over 15,000km on the odometer so far. We have done several long-distance road trips and most recently, we completed a single charge challenge with the Hyundai Ioniq 6 by driving from Taiping to Johor Bahru .

Understand your EV’s range and charging speed

Firstly, not all EVs are built the same. There are different motors, batteries and efficiency figures which affect the overall driving performance. You need to understand your EV’s real-world range on a full charge.

Most EVs these days can do 400km and above, but there are some with smaller batteries which do 300km or less. If your destination is say 350km away, an EV that can deliver 400km of real-world range should be able to do the job on a single charge. If the destination is further away, you’ll need to plan a charging top-up along the way. Of course, you need to buffer the range a little bit more as it all depends on your driving style.

Another thing to take note of is your EV’s supported charging speed. For long-distance drives, you would need to use DC fast charging but the charging rate is different for each car. Some can do over 200kW, while others may do 100kW or less.

For AC charging, this is the most cost-effective way to charge when your car is not in use. For example when you’re at a hotel, shopping mall or at a tourist attraction.

Most EVs can do 11kW on AC where a full charge can be achieved in about 5-7 hours. But there are other EVs especially from China like BYD Atto 3 / Dolphin and GWM Ora Good Cat that charge slower at 7kW. A full charge may take 10 hours or longer, depending on the battery size.

There are some EVs like the Renault Zoe or the Lotus Eletre that can accept 22kW on AC. With this charging rate, you can get a full charge in as little as 3 hours (for the Zoe) which is amazing.

Plan your EV charging route

Unlike petrol stations, the reality is that EV chargers are still not widely available in Malaysia. However, the situation is improving gradually as more charge point operators are deploying more EV chargers nationwide. Finding a place to charge your EV isn’t very obvious since most charging locations don’t display a huge sign like petrol stations.

It is still possible to have a seamless long-distance trip on your EV, just that you just need a little bit of planning.

In a typical road trip, you definitely need some toilet breaks along the way and you can plan those breaks with a bit of EV charging. A quick 10-20 minutes of DC fast charging is usually sufficient for a decent top-up.

So if you’re travelling somewhere, find out what chargers are available at the destination as well as for the midpoint of the journey. At the moment, there are quite a number of EV chargers between Johor to Penang and there are some chargers between the East Coast and the Klang Valley. When you reach the destination, we recommend finding AC chargers as they are much cheaper to charge when your car is not in use for several hours.

Recommended apps to plan your EV journey in Malaysia

So how do you find EV chargers and where should you charge? Here are a couple of apps that you can download to make your road trip better.

The first app is Plugshare ( Apple App Store , Google Play Store ) which is basically like the Foursquare of EV chargers. Not only you can view all chargers on the map, but you can also check out details of the charger, which network is it on and also read the reviews and comments for the charger. Plugshare is also a great place to find out how to get to the charger, especially if it is inside a building’s basement car park. DC chargers are marked in orange while slower AC chargers are marked in green.

Also, we recommend performing a check-in so that people know that you’re using a charger and the rate of charge you’re getting. This is great for the EV community so that everyone knows the status of the charger.

A Better Route Planner

Another recommended app to plan your journey is ABRP or also known as A Better Route Planner ( Apple App Store , Google Play Store ). You can select your EV model, choose the starting and end point of your trip, and it will recommend charging stops along the way. It even recommends the duration and percentage of each charge as well as the expected state of charge for each stop.

You can even add filters like having fewer or more stops along the way, and also how much charge remaining you would like to have when you reach the destination. There are a lot of options to plan the route including changing the recommended charging location to alternative chargers and adjusting the time to charge for each stop.

Good driving habits improve efficiency of your EV

Your driving habits have a huge impact on your EV’s mileage. If you’re light footed you can probably squeeze more range from a single charge and get somewhere closer to the advertised range. If you’re heavy-footed with lots of aggressive overtaking, you would get a much lower range.

You might hear people saying that EVs won’t survive a traffic jam during Balik Kampung trips. Actually, that’s a myth and EVs do better than petrol engines when it comes to crawling traffic. When you’re stuck in the jam, the motors are not using any energy and the batteries are merely used to run the aircon and electronics which is about 1kW. In stop-and-go traffic, EVs are highly efficient as they use regenerative braking to recoup energy back to the battery. In fact, having a lower average speed of 50-80km/h on an EV offers greater energy efficiency than driving at over 100km/h.

To really get the most out of your EV’s battery, just keep to the speed limit and you’ll do just fine. Personally, I’ll recommend setting adaptive cruise control at the permitted maximum speed limit (e.g. 110km/h) and sticking to the left lane unless overtaking.

Best way to charge your EV for long-distance trips

Here’s where a lot of first-time EV owners get it wrong. You probably heard some users complain about EVs taking too long to charge or spending over RM100 just for one charging stop, which can be avoided. With an EV, you don’t really need to charge it to full all the time. I know it is an old habit with petrol cars where we tend to do a full tank.

With EVs, there’s something called the charging curve and essentially, the charging rate slows down significantly when the battery reaches 80%.

Similar to smartphones, EVs often boast about their fast charging speeds from 10 to 80%. The reason for that is that the time to charge from 80-100% may take longer than charging from 10-80%.

So, don’t waste time and money trying to charge your EV to 100%. Instead of wasting over 40 minutes at a charger, you should probably do a quick 20-minute charge while you go for a toilet break, and then move on and charge at the next R&R when the battery percentage is low.

When you’re at a DC charging stop, just charge what you need or up to 80%. If you plan your journey properly and there’s a charger at the destination, just make sure you have enough range to get there with about 50km of extra buffer.

Of course, there are some exceptions. If you’re driving a short-range EV with small batteries like the Mazda MX-30, Mini Cooper Electric or the older Nissan Leaf, then you’ll probably need the 100% charge to reach the next stop if the range is not enough.

Recommended charging networks for DC fast charging

From our experience with interstate road trips, we would recommend Gentari , JomCharge and ChargEV . Most of their new DC chargers are using kWh-based pricing which is a much fairer way to pay for EV charging, especially for EVs with low maximum charging speed. These are some that are priced per minute but their rates are generally pretty reasonable.

Our least favourite DC fast charging network is Shell Recharge along the North-South Expressway . These chargers cost RM4 per minute which is expensive and on top of that, you need to have at least RM200 in your ParkEasy account in order to start charging. We recommend that you stay away from these chargers unless you really need to use them as a last resort.

Of course, there are other charging networks out there like ChargeSini and TNB Electron which are pretty decent as well. So search around using the PlugShare app because there could be a better EV charger around the corner.

EV challenges that you should know

During the festive season, there’s always a concern about long queues to charge, which does happen at popular stops with just a single charger. If you want a higher chance of an available charger, do find alternative EV charging hubs with more nozzles or stations. You can search around using the Plugshare app.

If a charger is offered for free, it is likely there will be a long queue during peak seasons. So it might be more worthwhile to pay a little bit more for a charger that’s more likely to be available.

Most, if not all EVs, don’t have a spare tyre and most brands do this in the name of weight saving. In most cases, newer cars including hybrids and EVs come with a tyre repair kit but from my experience, that can destroy any chances of repairing the tyre. You see, most repair kits that use a liquid sealant are just a temporary one-time solution. Whether or not it works, you’ll have to replace it with a new one which can be a costly affair .

My suggestion is either get the car towed to a workshop or get one of those DIY tyre repair strips. If you’re travelling on tolled highways, you can contact the highway assist team to help jack your car and patch the tyre with the DIY kit.

How to travel long-distance with an Electric Vehicle in Malaysia?

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Roadtrip Safety: 5 Things You Need To Know

The official kick-off to summer often begins with road trips, whether it’s visiting family and friends or simply taking a few days off to relax after a long winter. This time of year marks a busy season for drivers on the roads. With more vehicles out there, what can drivers do to remain safe during these trips?

Summertime and warm weather bring excitement, but also some tragedies. Over the last several years, January and February generally experienced the fewest motor-vehicle fatalities, while July, August, and October experienced the most. Increased road traffic can lead to more accidents, but this doesn't have to happen. By practicing certain skills, all drivers can help keep themselves and others safer on the roads. Here are five driver safety tips for your summer road trips:

1. Prepare for the Unexpected

First, it’s important to remember that many people are anxious to get to where they’re going. Their mind is on their destination and not on the drive to their destination.

For that reason, drivers need to watch out for the unexpected. Look for vehicles that have a fair number of bags visible — and weekend getaway supplies. That’s one sign the driver may have their mind on the destination and not on their driving.

To give yourself more time, greater awareness, and less stress, make sure to maintain a 4-second minimum following distance between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you. This space allows you to stop in time if the driver ahead of you brakes quickly and harshly. If the roads are wet or you have a heavy vehicle, increase your following distance to allow enough time to stop.

To determine what the following distance should be, choose a stationary object, such as a sign or post, and then count the seconds from the time the vehicle's back bumper in front of you passes that object until your vehicle's front bumper reaches the same landmark.

Whenever possible, avoid staying directly beside another vehicle. Rather, Leave Yourself an Out® . The safest position is with few or no vehicles around you. This space gives you room to move if you suddenly need to. It can also give the drivers around you room to move if they’re not paying attention to the traffic.

Another thing to watch out for during holiday weekends is road rage. While many drivers are excited to get to their destinations, many may also be frustrated because of traffic or road construction delays. Impatient drivers may run red lights or attempt to squeeze into spaces in traffic where there isn’t much room.

Expect these actions and adjust to them. Remember that the right-of-way is given, not taken. If someone is determined to take the right-of-way from you, allow it. The few seconds you lose will not prevent you from reaching your destination — but safely giving those seconds up will help ensure you reach your destination safely.

2. Watch Out for Distractions

Long weekends bring with them their own set of driver distractions . Prior to setting out, make sure to account for additional traffic and road construction. Have alternative routes planned for such instances.

If you’re using a navigation system , plan your route before getting on the road so you can concentrate on the drive. To avoid an added distraction, ensure the GPS is providing voice directions and not only visual directions. Taking your eyes and mind off the road for just a few seconds means you’ll need an extra few seconds to refocus on your driving environment. Those few seconds can mean the difference between getting into a crash or avoiding one.

There’s no question that a mobile phone creates a huge distraction for many drivers. Keep your phone silent during your trip. Let your passenger be the co-pilot and do the texting and calls if needed. If driving alone, place your phone somewhere out of reach so that it doesn’t cause distractions. If you need to make a call or check your device, pull over to a safe location first.

3. Seat Belts Save Lives

There is no question that seat belts save lives and reduce injuries. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration , 14,955 lives were saved in 2017 from seatbelts alone. Making the decision for you and your passengers to wear seat belts helps ensure that all inside your vehicle stay safe. Protecting your family and passengers during busy traffic is your responsibility as a driver.

With traffic and the risks of sudden stops and quick lane changes, wearing a seat belt is a good option to help reduce injuries and fatalities during the holiday weekend.

It’s important to remember that when something in motion stops suddenly, anything or anyone not restrained will continue to move in that direction. That includes any occupants of the vehicle. A properly worn seatbelt keeps each of the occupants upright, including the driver, and it allows the driver to stay in control of the vehicle.

4. Watch Out for Drunk Drivers

There’s no question that drinking and driving is a huge problem on holiday weekends. Drinking is a common aspect of celebrations and unfortunately, people tend to forget they’re in no condition to get behind the wheel of a vehicle after consuming alcohol.

In the United States, about 37 people die each day in crashes that involve drunk driving. Roughly one person every 39 minutes. And it’s not just the driver who is at risk. Innocent people are also involved when someone chooses to drive drunk.

Because of the additional threat of drunk drivers on the road, it’s essential to apply the Smith System principle of Get the Big Picture® . As a driver, it’s your responsibility to make sure that you are always paying attention to what’s happening on the road around you. Look at the traffic on either side of you and use your mirrors to see what is going on behind you.

5. Plan Ahead

Although many people are anxious to reach their destinations, heading out when the traffic is most extreme may extend the length of the trip and cause added frustrations.

Consider traveling during off-peak times. The riskiest time to travel is right after most people finish work on Friday afternoons. Driving during off-peak hours means fewer vehicles and less congestion on the roads. Giving yourself extra time to get to your destination helps reduce some of the stress about arriving on time.

Stay as patient as possible. Understand that driving during long weekends takes time and other drivers will exhibit risky behaviors. You have no control over their actions — but you can plan to stay calm behind the wheel. Controlling your actions is all you can do to keep yourself and your passengers safe.

Keep Yourself and Your Family Safe

Knowing how to manage everything from harsh weather to distracted drivers on the roads during holiday weekends provides you with tools that can save lives.

Smith System’s Driving Family video offers the proven Smith5Keys® principles for family drivers, empowering you to be safer every time you get behind the wheel.

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