Summer is around the corner and you can’t wait to road trip. But wait, can your electric car do long trips? Yes! You can take a great road trip with an electric car. Read on to discover what you need to know about how to road trip with an electric car.
The big difference between driving a gasoline-powered car and an electric vehicle (EV) is refilling the tank versus recharging the battery. Since the spread of gas stations across the U.S. in the early part of the twentieth century, drivers could leave their houses confident a filling station would be available somewhere before their gas tanks ran dry. EV drivers do not yet have that same confidence. Even though utilities pipe electricity into nearly every home and building, finding public charging stations can be challenging, especially in unfamiliar locations, like on a road trip.
The fear of running out of juice in an EV is called “range anxiety.” Most EVs display the remaining predicted range of travel on the current charge level and a driver with range anxiety focuses on that figure with the constant fear of a dead battery.
EVs use a variety of batteries. Their energy capacity is generally measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh), analogous to the size of a gas tank in a car. The more kWh the battery is rated for, the longer the potential range.
Getting the energy into the EV battery takes time.
Level 1 charging uses household current at 120 volts AC (alternating current), plugging into an ordinary outlet. It could take 24 hours or more to charge an EV using Level 1 to charge fully.
Level 2 charging is also AC but flows at 240 volts. You might have an electric oven or electric clothes dryer running on a 240-volt outlet right now. Level 2 charging can be 5 to 15 times as fast as Level 1. Many public stations are Level 2. Depending on the amount of power transmitted (it varies from charging system to charging system), EVs can take about 25 to 75 miles of range per hour.
Level 3 charging uses direct current, eliminating the need to convert from AC to charge the batteries. Also called DC Fast Charging, Level 3 can charge 50 to 150 times as quickly as a Level 1 charger. Tesla’s Supercharger stations are Level 3. Most other public stations in the U.S. are presently Level 2.
An EV road trip becomes a combination of routing and mathematics. Consider these issues:
A few years ago, you could only reasonably contemplate an EV road trip in California, where the most robust charging network exists. But continual improvements in charging infrastructure and EV technology have greatly expanded the possibilities for EV road trips. Adventurous souls have even completed cross-country trips in EVs.
Range varies from EV maker to EV maker and from model to model within a maker’s lineup. Small cars intended for city driving generally have smaller batteries and less range, often in the 100-to-200-mile range per charge. Larger sedans and SUVs carry larger batteries and boast more range, sometimes over 300 miles per charge. Of course, EV prices rise dramatically as vehicle and battery sizes increase, with entry-level models like the Nissan Leaf starting around $30,000 and luxury models like the Tesla Model S starting well over $100,000.
Explore available charging and trip-planning apps. Most have mapping features you can tailor to your specific EV, providing accurate predictions about where you should stop to charge your EV along your route.
Consider using your charging stops to enhance your experience. For instance, given a choice between a charging station at a highway rest stop, or a charging station near a museum or other attraction, and select the latter to use your charging time to explore. You may be surprised how many cultural institutions have installed charging locations recently.
When seeking out a hotel for your EV road trip, check with Best Western Hotels® & Resorts along your route, as more and more properties have installed charging stations in the past few years. Look for the EV-charging-station symbol on the “Hotel Details” section on BestWestern.com.