5 Reasons Battery-Electric Vehicle Road Trip Range Stinks

Some time back, at a visitors' center in Utah, the lady at the desk cautioned us about our planned route. Seems those exits on the map were "ranch roads", with absolutely no services. We needed at least 126 miles in the tank. That would, of course, leave us looking at the low fuel warning starting at 76 miles. It would have been in the dark. Might be phone service there by now.
Point is, if you get one tier--speaking north to south--west of the Mississippi, even on the Interstate, don't let your fuel/juice drop below 100 miles, or in the case of the Utah route, maybe 175.
Which is to say, some of the range scenarios in the article are simply insufficient.

Amazing article, all about electric cars without a single mention of Tesla, the dominant electric car producer. Y’know . . . the one that has all the loooong range cars, built hundreds of charging stations all around the world, and is the dominant electric car maker. Hmm. Wonder what the goal here is?

In other words, they're great 2nd cars for sporting around town....not so great otherwise.

My wife and I bought a Tesla Model X in 2020, and we have driven it on multiple road trips — one from coast to coast and back, one from the east coast to Chicago and back, and three times down to Florida and back. We bought it with road-tripping in mind, and we’ve been quite happy with it. With a max range of 350 miles, Teslas were the only comfortable SUV EVs that could handle road-tripping at the time we bought it. (We loved the Jaguar I-Pace when we test drove it, but the range just wasn’t there.)

BUT, what you say in this article about not getting your max range when driving a lot on the highway is completely true. You don’t get best efficiency at 75 mph, and you don’t charge often above 80% because that last 20% charges too slow and you want to get back on the road. Depending on how far you are going, this can add up to an hour and a half or even two and a half hours of charging over the course of a day.

So, you need to be honest with yourself about how you road-trip. If you’re the kind that blitzes through the gas station and eats while driving, today’s EVs will slow you down. If you’re the kind who stops more often than just when you need gas, who walks the dog, goes to the bathroom, and/or eats at a restaurant, you can do those things while the car charges, and an EV will add very little to your overall time on the road.

"Long uninterrupted highway trips also have far fewer opportunities for electric vehicles to perform their very best party trick - brake regeneration."

This is an irrelevance. Stopping and starting, even with brake regeneration, doesn't improve efficiency of either EV or hybrids. It improves RELATIVE efficiency re ICEs only.

Sounds terrible. Sounds like a major step backwards in convenience and safety. Today, I had to drive 1.5 hours to a business meeting, (approx 90 miles). Therefore, 180 miles of my “range” spoken for, there and back. At the meeting, we decided I needed a short trip to the bank to finalize the small deal. And then after, I had lunch with my friend, requiring a short drive in the opposite direction to home. All of this at 32 degrees. So given what you said above, if my range meter told me I had 250 miles of range when I left. I would be sweating bullets to make it home.
Also, minor point. Women sitting in line at a charging station, or sitting waiting for their EV to charge, for an hour(?), yeah, that sounds completely safe.

Having owned an EV now for over 10 years the author makes some good points. EVs are not the most practical vehicles for long trips in a hurry.

If you only have one vehicle and you do not have access to home charging Plug in hybrids or e85 vehicles are your best bet. Before switching to all electric vehicles 7 years ago we averaged 68mpg in our 2012 Plug in Prius. It had a 12 mile electric range and my wife used it for commuting and we used it for long trips. We also had a EV we could do all our local commuting in.

EVs are outstanding commuter vehicles and second family vehicles. If you can charge at home you never have to F*** with gas pumps and gas pump diseases, panhandlers, oil changes, and waiting 10 minutes for heat in the winter time. Most all new EVs have instantaneous heat, heated seats and steering wheels. I'm always impressed with how hot my wife's Leaf is in winter.

Regarding range. Consumers need to find an EV that has twice the range of your daily commute. You need extra range for heat, AC, headwinds, rough roads, rainy weather, and extra errands just like gas cars.

In winter in snow country it doesn't matter what kind of car you have when travelling, you need a sleeping bag and some granola bars just in cast. 50 years ago I used to commute between Denver and Grand Junction about ten times a month for work one winter. I never left home in Denver without being prepared. I wouldn't hesitate to go anywhere in my wife's 225 mile range EV in winter. We just finished a trip a few months ago to 18 National Parks and 11,000 miles travelling. EV travel is much easier now than 3 years ago when we did a 15 National Park trip. There are over 7000 combined Chademo/CCS quick charger locations, about 1200 Tesla Supercharger locations, and thousands of RV campgrounds we can stay and charge overnight.

If your family has more than one car you are wasting a lot of money and fun and adventure if one of those vehicles isn't electric. Remember, twice the range of your daily commute, that allows for spare range and it doesn't stress the batteries. For example, my EV is over 10 years old and it had a 75mile range when new. My commute before retiring 3 years ago was 36 miles. My EV still has 65 miles range or 85% battery capacity. It has literally saved 90,000 miles on my expensive 4x4 crew cab and saved me thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dollars not pumping 28 gallons into that beast every week.

EVs are great commuter cars so much better than gas cars, only takes 2 seconds to plug it in and the next day it is ready to go.

Of course you can find a charger in any metro area or even change at home. On a long distance trip you'll have to plan carefully to ensure that you're going to make it to the next charging station.

For all other trips where you don't want to be concerned about running out of power and charging back at home, make sure that you don't exceed the point of no return...

So, think of it this way, whatever your range is cut in in half and leave extra room for good measure. Otherwise, you're going to have to find a place on the way home to ensure you have enough power.

Oh, by the way, sure these cars save money not using fuel, but, it takes a long time to charge. It's not like driving a hybrid which just charges while you drive..

I know people who would like to eliminate all gas cars as soon as possible within 10 years...I really don't know if this is possible given all the demand for electrify on the grid.... So, I think the solution is hybrid vehicles until we can get the charging network built and standardized...

There's too many competing platforms and this is not good for the future of electric vehicles.

The charging to 80% is better for the battery is a nonsense, this is taken care of by the battery management system. You arent charging to 100% of battery capacity , you are charging to 100% of what the maker lets you use (remember Tesla magically turning on more range for people fleeing a hurricane?)

I wonder how many have actually timed the last 20%?

Way to base your article on a car that only gets 250 miles on a full charge. With many vehicles on the horizon getting another 100 miles over that, why focus on that one? And teslas have more range as well, though I'm tired of hearing from "Tesla" people. They're more annoying than "annoying" iPhone people.

On the whole, EVs are better than ICE cars when it comes to efficiency, cost of ownership, convivence for in town driving and much less damage to the environment. As far as road trips, long range Tesla's can go longer than most people can hold their pee and be charged and ready for another 250 miles by the time you finish your potty break, get a coffee and stretch your legs. And, this is just the beginning of EV tech, it's just going to get better and better. There's almost unlimited upside to EVs tech, ICE cars on the other hand are about as good as they will ever get. For example, wireless charging built into the road so you have limitless range and never have to plug your EV in again. I would like to see an ICE car do that trick.

We took our first long road trip last fall, through remote parts of CA and Arizona that often had no cell signal.
The best advice i can give is to 1) stay at hotels with chargers
or 2) plan to stop every few hours for breaks at fast chargers. Electrify America chargers were the best ones we found, overall.
The majority of our charging was free, including a charger at the Grand Canyon that was somewhat hidden (which we located, thanks to Plugshare).
Yes, it takes more planning to road trip in an EV. Yes, we encountered broken chargers - and once, a brief waiting line.
I’m hoping to soon see gas stations reconfigure with at least a few chargers, and places for customers to sit outside.
The good news is that hotel chains (including La Quinta) seem to understand that this amenity is important. Even the owner of a tiny inn where we stayed asked me how she could install a charger, because she gets so many requests from EV owners. Another hotel in Sedona had a dedicated EV space plus a free charger. We made sure to thank the manager and explain that we chose that hotel because of the charger (in addition to the great reviews).
Incentives could help expand our charging networks the way gas stations expanded along Route 66, due to demand. I wish more of our elected officials would drive EVs on long road trips to see for themselves how important it is for local, state, federal govts to help business owners add chargers, especially in shopping centers near major highways.

So we took a 220km range 2018 nissan leaf 20,000km in 2 months. During covid lockdowns to try to buy land. It was hellish, but basically free because the fast charging network was pretty lacking and canada has quite a few free level 2 chargers.... but we only can make trips like that in the shoulder seasons due to lower winter range and no battery cooling in summer. 5 to 15 celsius. Average temperatures... that being said, if there was a 25kwh chademo every 65km, i could stop at each one for 15 minutes and actually enjoy the trip a lot more by taking time to stretch and play with dog and such. People who rush through road trips are basically wasting their time which is why even though it was a hellish experience overall I preferred it to a gas car. Smell the roses people. Life is too short to continuously drive. There is so much you will miss out on seeing. The trip is more important than the destination.