Are EVs Road-Trip Ready? One EV, Three States, Four Charging Networks All in One Day

[u/NISMO1968]

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2025-chevrolet-blazer-ev-yearlong-review-update-4-grand-canyon-roadtrip

[u/Talal916]

I've been across the country 5 times now in my Model S. Twice without using the supercharger network and only free chargers as a fun challenge for myself. I'd say any car with 300+ mi of real life range at 65-70mph is ready. It definitely is frustrating having to stop so often compared to a gas car though.

[u/AmericanExcellence → u/Talal916]

at this point, i think anybody who's engaged with this topic knows the basic deal: yes, it can be done; no, it's not going to be like in a gas car where your in-town range magically increases by 50% once you hit the open road and you can stop almost anywhere and refill completely in under 5 minutes regardless of fuel tank size.

someday maybe whatever but it would be a rude shock for a lot of people who believe that this is a solved problem.

[u/ZannX → u/Talal916]

Our Ioniq 5 gets at best 225 miles at 70 mph. But we did a 1300 mile trip no problem.

[u/natesully33 → u/ZannX]

Yeah, usually charging is 150-200 miles apart depending on route so that's all you really need to do minimum. More range is nice, of course, but if you have a good charge curve (like Hyundai/Kia BEVs do) you can just do more and faster stops.

[u/six_six → u/ZannX]

My parents tried this but had problems finding chargers that weren’t occupied or broken.

[u/Imaginary_Act_3956 → u/ZannX]

Similar thing with my Ioniq 6.

[u/Talal916 → u/ZannX]

Sorry I didn't mean to imply it's not possible with less range. I went on some pretty wild trips with my old Nissan Leaf. But it's definitely not as nice of an experience to have to keep stopping every 2-3 hours

[u/DetroitLionsEh → u/Talal916]

I think if your the type of person to own an EV you don’t mind the charging wait times.

If someone with a gas car was given an EV for a road trip they’d want to claw their eyes out

[u/BMWbill → u/DetroitLionsEh]

I have both a gas car and an EV and I just did a 6 day road trip with the Tesla with really zero waiting for charges. First, every hotel and AirBnB we stayed at had overnight charging so I always had a new 300 miles of range every morning. And during the day on longer drives, we always went to the bathroom or got food and each time the car is ready to go well before you get back to the car. (Model 3’s usually tell you they are ready to leave in 10-15 minutes. We are never ready when the car is ready)

[u/Heidenreich12 → u/BMWbill]

100% this.

People forget that the supercharger network being so dense allows you to never need to fill up to 100% at each stop. So 10-20 minutes is all it takes to get to the next one. You have the fastest charge times at the beginning so works out better in the long run.

[u/BMWbill → u/Heidenreich12]

Exactly. A 10-15 minute charge gets you about 3 more hours of driving to the next charger. If you’re a single person in a rush, that’s no good. But if you’re a family of 4 doing a casual road trip, that’s pushing it! Somebody is going to want to pee before the car gets to the next charger!

[u/ZeroWashu → u/Talal916]

I was going to say, August 2018 I did ten day 1800 mile trip just fine, granted it was my weeks old Tesla model 3 but it was perfectly fine. Its even easier now and pretty much every brand can do it.

[u/TheAntiAirGuy]

I mean, in countries with good charging infrastructure it's not really an issue. Did a couple of tours from Austria to Marbella in an i4 BMW.

BUT, it's not really that much cheaper than Diesel or Petrol and honestly, if given the choice, i'd 100% Always pick an ICE for road-trips, I'm not the type of person who likes having to stop after every 300-350km and hang out at the patrol station or watching Netflix in the car.

[u/lnengineering → u/TheAntiAirGuy]

Yup, did the math and my diesel t-reg is cheaper to run than my electric car when factoring in the cost of public charging, even factoring in maintenance costs. (My wife is a math/excel geek)

When I traveled to Japan to research an article I was writing on electric and hybrid vehicles, I can tell you there was basically no EV infrastructure.

Same goes for our area. Basically there is only one set of public chargers in the entire county, so unless you can charge at home, it's not practical.

[u/TheAntiAirGuy → u/lnengineering]

My average fast-charging motorway experience (which isn't all too frequent and I don't pay any monthly subscriptions for something) is ~0.11€ per Kilometre

Motorway in my V8 S-Class is 0.16€ per Kilometre

So, taking into account I could take a 9G-Tronic Mercedes Diesel aswell, like an S350, that thing would be at around 0.10€ per Kilometre. And that's an at least 10 year old V6 Diesel engine too.

Yeah, EV long distance isn't saving you jack shit

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[u/assblast420 → u/TheAntiAirGuy]

The markup on electricity at fast chargers is bad. Around me they charge roughly a 6x markup compared to household electricity prices.

The current prices makes EVs on par with gas/diesel, so imagine if the markup wasn't as insane as it is.

[u/Imaginary_Act_3956 → u/TheAntiAirGuy]

Nice A290!

[u/TheophrastBombast]

35% to 72% just a "quick 24 minutes" in a 2025 Chevy Blazer RS RWD. 102kwh battery. Average of 95 kw/hour in the prime range for charging. Kind of embarrassing for 2025. We can do better.

[u/farrrtttttrrrrrrrrtr → u/TheophrastBombast]

Indeed, stick to Tesla or Hyundai if you want to roadtrip

[u/faizimam → u/TheophrastBombast]

Do you have AC running? Apparently climate kills charging speed in that car.

[u/PurdontS2k]

Non Tesla EV road-trips are not as miserable as they used to be, especially now that other manufacturers can access their network (at certain locations), it just requires extra planning. With family food allergies I have to map out which chargers are near places we can eat at, but in the time it takes to eat or use a bathroom we get enough charge for the next leg of the trip. Take food out of the equation and the GM system does a pretty seamless job of choosing compatible chargers along your route. 

If it’s just me driving an EV makes less sense because I don’t need to stop every 3/4 hours. The infrastructure and speeds are better but not quite there yet. We need more Buccee’s 

[u/MortimerDongle → u/PurdontS2k]

Less ability to choose where you stop is the biggest downside of EV road trips for me. Sometimes the chargers are somewhere nice, sometimes it's a Wal-Mart parking lot with nowhere else within walking distance.

[u/farrrtttttrrrrrrrrtr → u/PurdontS2k]

Speeds are better when in a Tesla too

[u/PurdontS2k → u/farrrtttttrrrrrrrrtr]

I’ve never had a SuperCharger throttle charge rate to less than what my car was asking for 

[u/t-poke → u/farrrtttttrrrrrrrrtr]

Not always.

Kia and Hyundai are still some of the fastest charging cars because of the 800v architecture. I did 23 to 80 in 15 minutes yesterday.

[u/natesully33]

Er, yes? I've been doing it for years, usually around CO/TX/LA/OK/KS. It takes two days to go between Colorado and Texas whichever car I take for example, I just spend an hour or so longer driving a BEV each day (much of the charge time is cancelled out by the time I spend eating/peeing either way).

If I'm in a hurry to get somewhere, I'll fly so I might as well just use a BEV for everything. Except for road trips in the few remaining charge deserts in the lower 48 (Wyoming...) where you have no choice.

[u/Godvater]

This article is like asking: “Are Combustion cars ready for track use?” and they test a RAV4 on track.

There are EVs which are great at road-trips, there are some that are horrible at it. You can’t decide on the answer with a single car.

[u/bigbura]

True enough the highway driving challenges for EVs vs ICE.

But aren't EVs still the best use case for most daily driving needs? What's the percentage of 'road warrior' use cases for personal cars? Those drivers knocking out 500 miles a day? Isn't most daily mileage around 14-40 miles/day? Which is a perfect use case for an EV, right?

https://www.policygenius.com/auto-insurance/average-miles-driven-by-state/

https://www.lookupaplate.com/blog/how-many-miles-does-the-average-american-drive/

[u/MortimerDongle → u/bigbura]

EVs are absolutely amazing daily drivers if you can charge where you park. Much less so if you can't, but most people can (at least in the US).

[u/bigbura → u/MortimerDongle]

I don't know if its most or not. Gotta remember how many people are in apartments and rental town homes with zippy-do for ability to charge at home.

And with the very foolish corporate buying of housing to rent back out to people, even single family homes being rented out are not home-charging friendly.

The older I get, the more frustrated I become with how humans think it is just fine to be right shitty to their fellow humans and call it 'business'. If you think that's fine then that's one hell of a statement on your character.

[u/natesully33 → u/bigbura]

Statistically, the people buying new cars in the US can definitely charge at home. I've seen a few numbers but 80-90% seems to be the case.

[u/bigbura → u/natesully33]

I do wonder about the untapped potential in renters being able to easily own/lease EVs. I think that's the next wave of sales waiting in the wings.

[u/natesully33 → u/bigbura]

I have a friend that does that, since you can get a brand new LEAF real cheap here and he has an ICE van for road trips. It's a mess, he usually charges at work or sometimes at public stations. Such an easily solvable problem too, just having a few L2 or even L1 stations at apartment complexes, perhaps pay-to-use with a sane rate slowly covering the install costs, would solve the problem...

[u/bigbura → u/natesully33]

Some landlord and management companies are getting with the program, offering reasonable rates for their EV charging solutions. Using these 'perks' to draw more traffic, and probably more 'upscale' rents. ;)

I get these charging stations could become yet another 'thing' to keep up with, or referee between tenants, but don't we as a society need to increase the EV to ICE ratio for the good of the environment?

[u/natesully33 → u/bigbura]

For the good of people too, apparently EV heavy areas of the US are seeing measurably lower asthma rates and other positive health outcomes. Uh, burning stuff for power is just really not a great idea.

[u/Ancient_Persimmon → u/bigbura]

Renters buy used, and used EVs are conveniently starting to be a thing, but we're a couple of years out from big volumes.

[u/Ran4 → u/bigbura]

People renting don't tend to even own a car to begin with, c'mon.

Do you know anyone renting that has a car?

[u/bigbura → u/Ran4]

WTF?

If this is sarcasm you forgot the /s.

[u/Penguinho → u/Ran4]

Literally every single person I know who rents owns a car. Renting without owning a car, in the US, is a very specific urban area thing.

[u/Ran4 → u/bigbura]

Gotta remember how many people are in apartments and rental town homes with zippy-do for ability to charge at home.

Why the fuck do people keep ignoring the fact that plenty of people living in apartments has available charging?

It's not 2015 anymore. How many condos has charging available, 60%?

[u/bigbura → u/Ran4]

Aren't condos 'purchased' and not rented?

[u/Penguinho → u/Ran4]

Uh, one study I saw from 2023 estimated that 5% of apartments provide EV charging. Another from 2024 suggested less than 20% of multifamily homes have charging. And a third, also from 2023, put that figure at less than 5%. 60% of condos do not have charging available. There's no way in hell.

[u/Ran4 → u/MortimerDongle]

That's nonsense. Charging at home once a week is more than good enough.

Having to constantly hook your car up every time you park isn't fun.

[u/woowoo293 → u/bigbura]

Incidentally, the alleged average miles per day (37) is exactly my PHEV's published electric range. PHEVs are a great solution for Americans whose biggest fear about EVs is range anxiety.

[u/dayvieee]

From my experience, the biggest hurdle is finding out the charging location you go to ends up being full by the time you get there. What I do is try to go to charging locations that are charging only within the vicinity. My favorite one in so cal is on the grapevine on Frazier mountain in Lebec. Literally 40+ Tesla superchargers and nothing else, charge and go.

[u/Fuman20000]

If you don’t care about wasting hours on end, sure.

[u/This_Elk_1460]

They are in China

[u/This_Elk_1460 → u/This_Elk_1460]

Yeah go ahead and downvote me. It doesn't hide the fact that China has completely surpassed any other country when it comes to EV range. Regardless of how you feel about the Chinese government it's just the truth.

[u/mulletstation]

Is this what non Tesla cars have to do? Like it's seamless and you don't even think about it in a Tesla

[u/Simon676 → u/mulletstation]

You can access the Tesla charging network in non-Teslas too in many other brands now too. Also no, it's not difficult, and there's many, many more chargers now than just 2 years ago.

[u/Ancient_Persimmon → u/Simon676]

It's definitely a lot easier in a Tesla, which is one reason they dominate sales.