Roadtripping with an Electric Car
We did it: we took a long road trip with our 100% electric car. Here’s what we discovered:
1. It cost us about $90USD in charging costs from the southwest coast of B.C. to the San Francisco Bay area.
2. It took us WAY longer to get down there. Partly because electric vehicles have reduced range in the cold weather, (and we woke up to -1C in Medford, Oregon), and partly because we didn’t realize that not all fast chargers are created equal. The bottom line is that it took us 14.5 hours to do what normally would be an 11 hour driving day. We changed this up on the way home, never actually doing more than 4-5 hours of driving, so it took about 6-7 hours depending on our charging. However, as we entered the Bay Area and hit unseasonably warm temperatures our range increased.
3. There’s no shortage of fast chargers down the I-5 corridor. Although beware, the Electrify America and EVgo ones are the quickest, (about 45-55 minutes to fully charge), others can take up to 75 minutes. While 75 minutes is still ‘fast’ compared to a trickle charge at home with your 110V plug, after a full day of driving it seems painfully slow.
4. Get the PlugShare app. This was our lifeline. The brown icons are the fast chargers and when you click on it here’s what I think are the two most important things to check: a) what company it is, (see above for preferences), and b) look at the check ins. That’s where you will see when it was last used, and whether it was working. We cruised into a charging site with only 12 miles, (19kms), left on the battery only to discover the charger was out of service. Fortunately, there are toll free numbers on the chargers and the fellow at the other end was able to redirect us to a new nearby charger, even though it was a different company.
5. Get a few charger apps. I recommend the Electrify America and EVgo ones. Those two are all over the place and they’re the fasted ones. You get a better rate with their app, as well as notifications when your car is almost charged and a receipt.
6. Make the charging work for you: enjoy a meal, do some shopping, whatever.
7. You can walk through a drive through. Totally irrelevant until it’s not. We were charging beside a fast food restaurant, (on our very long day of driving), when we realized we weren’t going to get to our hotel in time to get a pizza. I tried to go in to order a take away, but only the drive through was open, so I walked through, explained my situation, pointed out the car charging, and they were great! This was in the middle of nowhere southern Oregon!
Once we got to the Bay Area, the electric car was great! It’s small so it’s easy to zip around and park on their narrow streets and short driveways. Of course it seemed like every 2nd person there drove a Tesla, (that’s fair, as Tesla is a local company), so we saw the opposite of what we have experienced here in B.C.: the Tesla charging stations were packed, sometimes with cars waiting in line, while we, (in our e-Golf), could just cruise right up and plug in.
Driving home was far more relaxing, as we figured out how it all worked and make it work for us. We did some wine tasting, saw some family, and did some much missed U.S. shopping while our wee car charged away.
Some charging stations had beautiful views, but many are located at Super Walmart parking lots, which come complete with the whole Walmart cultural experience, lol!
The bottom line is that if you’re in a hurry, taking an electric vehicle may not be the way to go, but if you have time slow down and enjoy the ride, you can’t beat the cost.
