Can you road trip with an electric vehicle (EV)?
A Chevy Bolt EV at Olympic National Park
Image: Michael Carni/Shutterstock.com
Let’s say you want to leave the city and take a trip into the outdoors, perhaps to your local State Park or US National Park. Or maybe drive to the nearest big city, or a relative’s house that’s a few hours away.
Is an electric vehicle capable of going on a road trip? It all depends on the range & time equation, as well as what your destination is.
Most EVs as of 2023 have a driving range between 200 and 300 miles on one charge.
Obviously, if the roundtrip distance of a road trip is within your EV’s range, the answer is an easy yes. You can simply charge your EV at home before and after your road trip.
But if your destination or roundtrip distance is beyond your EV’s range, most of the time the answer will still be yes, but it may take some research and planning.
Road trips to larger cities in an EV
Road trips to medium and larger cities should be no sweat for EVs with an abundance of public EV charging stations.
Image: Marc Bruxelle/Shutterstock.com
For road trips to medium-sized or large cities, you should be fine. Likely similar to your own city, public charging stations (both Level 2 and DC Fast Charging) should be plentiful in your destination city, whether that be at a hotel, in public parking areas, dining and retail destination, DC Fast Charger clusters.
If you’ll be staying a private residence, you’ll most likely also have access to a standard 120V outlet to use a Level 1 charger with portable EVSE.
Given that charging should be covered at your destination, the only real consideration for a road trip to another city becomes the availability of DC Fast Chargers along the highway en-route.
Why DC Fast Chargers, as opposed to Level 2 chargers? It’s a safe assumption that if your goal is to cover a few hundred miles and make it to the next city on the same day, you won’t want to be stuck for several hours on a slower Level 2 charger.
An EV can take on a good amount of charge on a DC Fast Charger in less than 45 minutes, whereas that same amount of charge on a slower Level 2 charger could take 6 to 10 hours.
The availability of DC Fast Chargers for electric vehicles
DC Fast Chargers are quite abundant along US Interstate Highways, like this one, pictured in Colorado Springs, CO at a gas station just off of I-25. Charging breaks can be combined with lunch breaks to save time.
Image: electricvehiclenation.com
Most of the United States already has DC Fast Charging stations located at regular intervals along interstate highways, particularly along populated corridors. A general look EV charger maps show DC Fast Chargers available along interstate highways roughly every 60 to 100 miles, sometimes less.
Where you may run into sparseness is on rural highways, as well as in lesser populated regions such as Wyoming, Eastern Montana, Eastern Oregon, Idaho, the Dakotas, etc.
Ideal driving distance before stopping to charge an EV
As you begin to plan your route, keep in mind the ideal spacing of DC Fast Chargers.
While EVs can go almost 300 miles, the ideal range from a time efficiency standpoint is a lot less due to the charging curve of EV batteries. While there is some variation between car models, most EVs charge at their fastest rates between 15% and 75% state of charge (SoC).
Outside of those percentages, your EV slows its charging rate tremendously to prevent stressing out the battery. So if you’re charging between 0% and 15%, and from 75% to 100%, you’ll be spending a lot of time attached to the charger to gain that energy. An EV can sometimes take just as long, or longer, to charge from 75% to 100% than it does to go from 15% to 75% while on a DC Fast Charger.
Charging speeds on a DC Fast Charger above 90% can also be as slow as a Level 2 charger.
What does this all mean? Optimally, to make your DC Fast Charge sessions (and road trip) go as time-efficiently as possible, your EV range would only be about 60% of its maximum range, or roughly 120 to 180 miles.
The reduced “optimal range” of your EV based on its charging curve might mean making more stops to keep the charge level between 15% and 75% state of charge, but you’ll be saving time overall versus making less stops and trying to charge from 0% to 100%.
Additionally, the stops might be moot. At highway driving speeds, a 120 to 180 miles of driving equates to a stop roughly every 2 to 3 hours, which you may have already planned for to grab lunch, dinner, take restroom break, stretch your legs, etc.
In conclusion, all things considered, taking an electric vehicle on a long road trip to another city should be no problem due to the frequency of DC Fast Chargers along most of the US’s Interstate Highway system, and the widespread availability of public chargers in medium and large-sized cities.
Road trips to small cities, the outdoors, and national parks in an EV
This rented EV, a 2023 Kia Niro, took a 400-mile long road trip to rural portions of Colorado without any range issues. The range of the EV, over 250 miles, and the availability of DC Fast Chargers along Interstate 25, enabled an “out-and-back” range from the Interstate of over 100 miles each way.
Image: electricvehiclenation.com
Now that we’ve covered city road trips, let’s discuss the whether it is practical to take an electric vehicle on a road trip to a smaller city, outdoors, or national park.
Unlike routes to bigger cities, one of the biggest challenges of road tripping to a small cities and nature destinations in an electric vehicle is that such destinations are typically not located immediately adjacent to an interstate highway and often require driving some distance on a rural highway.
Taking an EV to these destinations may be a challenge until charging infrastructure improves in rural areas. Smaller towns and rural highways often lack public EV chargers, and if they are provided, are typically the slower level 2 chargers, not DC Fast Chargers.
Therefore, if your EV does not have enough range to go roundtrip between your rural destination and the nearest charger, and you’re not planning on overnighting at a location with a Level 2 charger, that’s a problem.
Some national parks, like Shenandoah National Park have EV charging stations within park boundaries, which can be an option to consider if planning an EV road trip to the outdoors.
Image: electricvehiclenation.com
That’s not say it’s impossible, however. The feasibility of taking an EV on any particular rural road trip is very situational and should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Many national parks like Yellowstone, Olympic, Zion, Rocky Mountain, Shenandoah, Glacier, and Yosemite have small towns or cities that have built up next to them (i.e. gateway communities) which are primarily focused on the tourism economy with numerous hotels, restaurants, etc.
It is likely you’ll find EV charging stations, even DC Fast Chargers, at these destinations but as always, do your own research before hitting the road.
A number of parks within the National Park Service even have EV chargers located within park boundaries, however the overwhelming majority of them today are slower Level 2 chargers, and charger quantities are limited.
How much will it cost to road trip in an electric vehicle?
To save money on charging while on a road trip, consider charging on slower Level 2 chargers at your overnight stops, such as hotels.
Image: electricvehiclenation.com
The cost of electricity to charge an EV varies by region. Additionally, public charging fee structures vary greatly between chargers – some charge only for the energy with a consistent rate per kilowatt-hour, while others may charge a flat rate session fee plus a per-kWh energy fee, and others may be strictly time-based on a $/minute or $/hour fee.
Despite all this, one generalized theme is that the faster the charger, the more it will cost per kilowatt-hour of electricity. The cost of electricity from a DC Fast Charger to power an EV is actually pretty comparable to the cost of gasoline on a per-mile basis if gas costs around $4/gallon.
Charging an EV on Level 1 or Level 2 chargers is much cheaper than operating a gasoline car the same distance, so it may be worth considering holding off on charging until you reach your destination if you have enough range to do so.
The cost of DC Fast Charging is another reason to keep that aforementioned optimal charging curve in mind and unplug after around 75% to 80%. Why pay higher rates for electricity on a DC Fast Charger when it’s being delivered as slow as a Level 2 charger once you past that 80% to 90% state of charge?
The Bottom Line
Road trips can be fun and adventurous, but if you are considering taking an electric vehicle on a long road trip, some research and planning may be required depending on your destination.
Electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the nation as a whole is rapidly developing and its availability can be largely categorized into two buckets – urban settings versus rural settings.
In its current state, most long trips to medium and large-sized cities should be achievable by electric vehicle if you stick to driving predominantly on the US Interstate Highway system. There is a pretty consistent availability of DC Fast Chargers sprinkled along interstates at regular intervals, giving EV drivers flexibility and frequency of charging locations.
Where electric vehicle drivers may face some challenges is on road trips to more rural areas that involve driving on long lengths of rural highway to smaller cities, the outdoors, and national parks. The nation’s EV charging infrastructure is still in its early stages in rural areas, but given how fast it is developing, this limitation may become a non-factor in future years.
At this time, it would be best for each individual driver to research their itinerary on a case-by-case basis to determine the feasibility of taking an electric vehicle on a rural road trip.
Most electric vehicles today have driving ranges between 200 and 300 miles, but a consideration that should be taken into account for all road trips is range variability due to driving habits and conditions. An EV’s energy consumption will increase greatly at high speeds, in uphill terrain, and driving with heating and air conditioning on, etc.
One other item to take into account is fitting charging time into your travel plans. Electric vehicles don’t fill up as fast as gasoline cars. A good charge on a DC Fast Charger can take about 45 minutes.
However, you can strategically plan your stops, such as taking a lunch break while charging to negate the effects of charging time. Essentially, plug the car in, buy and sit down for lunch, and by the time you get back to your car, most of the charging should be complete. No time wasted at all.
Another tip to reduce charging time is to consider an EV’s charging curve. Most EVs charge at their fastest rates between 15% and 75% state of charge (SoC), so a good goal would be to maintain the charge level between these two numbers.
It might mean stopping to charge every 2 to 3 hours, but you’ll save more time overall versus waiting for your car to charge from 0% to 100%.
Happy road tripping!