Electric vehicles and longer trips
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Anonymous
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We're rarely driving further out than an hour each way, but we do occasionally. For those of you who own EVs, and sometimes drive far enough to need a charge mid-way:
Is it a pain to have to sit a charging station for a half hour? Do you very easily find charging stations along your route, and are they reliable? Anyone have an EV and advise against purchasing it if we're ever using it for non-city driving? Thanks! |
Anonymous
| I pretty much always take our other car for those trips. It’s very rare. I use the EV daily otherwise. |
Anonymous
We're about to try this for the first time with a new EV, but it doesn't seem like it'll be so bad. There are plenty of fast charging stations we can use for free between here and our destination, and we should only have to stop at one, for about 20 to 30 minutes, according to A Better Route Planner. That's not so much longer than a gas/bathroom/snack break would take in our other car, so seems like a few minutes extra stopping is worth the other benefits of the EV (free charging, in this case, plus for us, it's a nicer car than our gas one is). |
Anonymous
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It seems like you can plan, but you want to make sure you have a really good handle on your car's range and that you know the locations of more charging stations than you think you'll need.
I have a plug-in hybrid, and the battery-only range is much lower at highway speeds. |
Anonymous
| Thanks all. Can you also tell me -- when you get to your destination, if they just have an electrical outlet, is there something you bring with you that adapts your car charger to that standard outlet? |
Anonymous
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Telsa tells us how far we are from each charger that exists along the route, what our battery will be when we are near to it, what the level will be when we reach our destination, and gives a warning when we are running out of options and absolutely must stop; but we've never pushed it that far. If we stop for a pit stop or to get a cup of coffee, we park and plug in while we're in the store, and by the time we leave its charged enough. No need ever to wait for a full charge, just enough plus a cushion to get where we're going.
Those are for 4+ hour trips. One hour each way wouldn't require a charge (though if we needed to stop anyway, we'd likely plug in, cause why not?). |
Anonymous
Not needed for ours. Plugs into regular outlet. |
Anonymous
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We've had a Tesla X for the last five years and love it. We've taken it on a bunch of longer trips. To answer your questions:
Is it a pain to have to sit a charging station for a half hour? -Not at all. They're all near restaurants or at least a Wawa (along our routes), so it's perfect timing with a bathroom break and to grab a snack or meal. Do you very easily find charging stations along your route, and are they reliable? -Yes and yes. Tesla charging infrastructure is terrific. Anyone have an EV and advise against purchasing it if we're ever using it for non-city driving? -Not at all. When you get to your destination, if they just have an electrical outlet, is there something you bring with you that adapts your car charger to that standard outlet? -Yes. We've done that multiple times when we rent a house through VRBO or stay with friends. Very easy. |
Anonymous
| I don't think you have to ask an EV owner for this information. You can search for charging stations along your route on google maps and do a little simulation in your head of whether it's worth sitting around for 30 minutes or more on your specific trip. For me the answer is a clear no. For non-tesla electric vehicles (I refuse to buy a tesla) there are very few charging stations even between somewhere like DC and virginia beach. If I want to drive an EV spiritedly and/or get stuck in a bunch of traffic, I would have to constantly bite my nails about running out of charge on the way. And yeah, sitting around for 30 minutes anywhere SUCKS. A restaurant? Who wants to stop and eat fast food when they're trying to make time on a trip. It's bad enough pulling off and spending 7 minutes getting gas. Turning a 3 hour trip into a 3 hour 40 minute trip is just not acceptable for me |
Anonymous
For what it's worth, A Better Route Planner, which is a pretty popular route-planning app, says you can stop at an Electrify America station at a Walmart in Stafford, Va., for 10 minutes en route from D.C. to Virginia Beach and arrive in Virginia Beach with 11 percent battery life if you drive a VW ID.4. If you wanted to make sure you didn't have to bite your nails about range, you could make it a 15- or 20-minute stop, though you also pass three more Electrify America stations and like eight or nine other charging stations near your destination, so you'd probably be OK. |
Anonymous
You can plug into a standard outlet, but charging is very slow that way. You might be better off looking for a DC fast-charging station you could use there to charge fully in about 35 or 40 minutes. |
Anonymous
Mine (Leaf) comes with a cord that plugs into a standard outlet. It’s always in the trunk, just in case. |
Anonymous
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We have a Tesla, and have used it for a 4 hour one way trip. Had to stop to charge once on the way there, and by the time we had all visited the restroom and grabbed a snack we were ready to go again.
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Anonymous
| Tesla owner here. We have a regular 8 hour trip to see family. It requires two stops - one is a 10-15 minute pit stop. That’s just enough time to park, plug in, have everyone go to the bathroom, stretch for a minute, then head back out. The second stop is about 30 minutes and we time it with lunch. The best charging station isn’t near our preferred restaurants so we swing by a restaurant to pick something up and then eat in the car at the charging station. It works well and is no more painful than a normal road trip. |
Anonymous
| Your Tesla has a range of what, about 350 miles? I think the ID4 we're looking at is at more like 250-300. |