Have you ever taken a longer road trip (more than 500 km or 300 miles) in an electric car? How was your experience? How was the charging infrastructure? Share your comments below!
Hi…. my name is Mike. My wife & I live in the San Diego, CA area. Last May, we drove our 2022 Model Y LR to Bass Lake (about 30 minutes outside the south entrance to Yosemite National Park). We spent several days there visiting Yosemite and the Bass Lake area. California has lots of Tesla owners and plenty of Superchargers especially along main highways. From Bass Lake, we drove two days north up to our favorite Oregon Coastal town, Depoe Bay, OR (more than 1,000 miles north of San Diego). On our return trip, we took the coastal route along the coast of Oregon and part of Northern California down to Mendocino, CA. After a couple of days here, we crossed over back to Interstate 5 for an easy return home (again with plenty of Superchargers along the way) with zero range anxiety. The navigation was astonishingly accurate in predicting percentage of battery energy upon arrival at the plotted superchargers. It told us upon arrival we’d need to charge for (usually about) 20 minutes. And then, the car had enough energy to reach 2 to 2 1/2 hours later, the next Supercharger refueling stop. We tried and often found the faster 250 kilowatt Superchargers. So, supercharging was usually very efficient and pretty quick. I think there were only a couple of times when we needed to charge for 40 minutes or more (due to longer distance to next supercharger). We also drive (several times per year) from our home in the San Diego area… nearly 500 miles over to the scenic red rock area of Sedona, Arizona. On the way, we usually supercharge in Yuma, AZ… Gila Bend, AZ… and top off at New River, AZ (near Anthem) before driving Interstate 17 up into the mountains to Sedona, AZ. Supercharging in Sedona is limited to some older (slower I think 70 kilowatts) superchargers. Mariposa Latin Grill (our favorite Sedona restaurant) has a free destination Tesla charger. So, we usually take advantage of free charging when we dine there. Driving back home to San Diego, our first Supercharger stop is Gila Bend… then Yuma… then El Centro before driving from the desert over the mountains to the coast. Yes… if you go off main highways for a bit of distance, your road trip requires a bit more planning. However, especially watching other RU-vid videos, you will learn road trips from San Diego to Vancouver BC are very doable. Hope this helps.
Hey Mike, thank you for giving us a lot of detail about one of your recent road trips in an EV. It's great to hear that it was a seamless process while also putting a lot of miles on your Model Y LR. My son and I did a trip from Bellingham, Washington to Redding in California (then back again) a while ago...and it was awesome. No problems charging the Model Y. Thanks again for the wonderful input, really appreciate you taking the time to do this!
Agree. This needs to change otherwise the adoption of EVs will suffer. People will complain (and rightfully so) that it takes a long time to charge their car.
Any idea how you precondition the battery on a Kia Soul EV? I have a 2023 model & I’m Canadian too. Also, Ontario has such terrible charging infrastructure in comparison to AB & BC. We get maybe 1 DC fast charger few and far between while you guys tend to have 2-4 DC fast chargers per site.
There is no battery preconditioning in the Kia Soul EV. The only thing you can do is turn on winter mode and it will try and keep the battery at a warmer temperature. Click the EV button, then the settings cog wheel and you will see winter mode located as the third option down. The only other thing you can do is yoyo the car a bit before arriving at a charger. In terms of ON I will have to go and see it for myself…I’ve heard that the infrastructure there is severely lacking.
@@LeftCoastEV This is what I thought even though the 2023 Kia Soul EV shares the exact same media OS & software updates as the Kia EV6 which has battery preconditioning added in the last update & the Connect app says Battery Preconditioning is Off whenever I log on. Kia likes to make things confusing. In Toronto proper there’s lots of DC fast charging but even just heading out to the 905/York Region/Simcoe area there’s nothing but slow level 2 charging. Visiting family there in my Soul is always a struggle. In Ottawa we have some but it’s as I mentioned, each DC fast charger site is few & far between spread across the city and only 1 charger per site, with maybe 1-2 level 2 plugs as well. Teslas were too expensive but even then we have just 2 fast chargers for a city of 1M people & a whole lot of Teslas on the road. They usually also take our limited CCS plugs with adapters.
I heard that the charging situation in Ontario was lacking, but I didn't know it was this bad outside of the Toronto area. Especially that, so far, the only Superchargers that Tesla opened up to other EVs are in Ontario. I wish we would get some Magic Dock upgrades out West, but so far no news. Now I really want to go and see it for myself...would love to do a road trip showcasing how far behind the province is. As far as the Kia goes, I have the same software update and my APP also shows batter preconditioning, but no way to enable it. Which is a shame, especially when winters are cold and it would be nice to arrive with a warm battery at a charger and maximize speeds. Finally, I also hear you about Tesla drivers taking CCS chargers...it's way cheaper to charge on CCS then the Supercharger. Same thing here in AB and when I was still in BC lots of chargers were occupied by Tesla owners.
Charging at 250 + is an amazing perk for Tesla. The software looks real good too. We went on a few trips and 50kw was all that was available, a lightning was charging when we pulled up and was still there when we left. Give us an update when you get your KIA sorted out. I think a lot of people would benefit.
Tesla NACS infrastructure is the best that we have in North America right now. This is for sure. Of course once I get the Kia sorted I will make an update video.
In June of '22 we took a road trip in our classic Hyundai Ioniq 28kWh from Halifax to Ottawa and back, through NB and Quebec. It went amazingly well but I planned every step of the way meticulously. Had very little problems with charging, surprisingly. The infrastructure, once you get into Quebec, is quite good. But it was before the tourist season really ramped up. I suspect July and August would have presented more issues with charging. The 50kw chargers just don't cut it. And that is mostly all we have in NS and NB. And usually only one per location! In Sept of '23 we took a similar road trip to Ottawa and Toronto from Halifax in our Tesla Model Y, through Maine, and back through NY, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. It was such a pleasant trip using the Tesla Supercharger network. Although I still planned it meticulously, it was such a breeze. I never had to worry about broken or busy chargers. Although we got lucky on the first trip. it wasn't much of a thought on the second one. Nice to share in your trip in Alberta.
Classic Ioniq is still such a great EV and I would say the perfect starter for someone who needs a city car and does the occasional road trip. I heard that the infrastructure in Quebec is really good. They recently had a new installation done by Kempower, first one in Canada. I’m hoping to fly east soon and check it out. Thanks for sharing your road trip experience with us!
We’ve done a couple of 1,000+ mile roads with our Ioniq 5 through Colorado, Utah and Idaho. We never had any charging problems using mostly Electrify America with our two years of free charging. There are parts of Utah and Idaho with limited to zero charging infrastructure but Colorado is pretty good. I make it a point to choose hotels with EV charging available wherever possible. I also let them know that is why I stayed there.
I always try and book hotels that either have Level 2 charging or allow me to use one of their outdoor plugs. And I always make it a point to tell them that I am staying here due to their friendliness towards EV drivers. I really do hope more hotels will install chargers in the future, it's awesome to just arrive and wake-up to a fully charged car in the morning. I have not done any road trips in that part of the US, but it's on my list for (hopefully) this year. Thank you for sharing your EV road trip experience!
The biggest challenge is lower speed 65-70 and the 20/25 minute realistic stops. I want to be able to drive 75-80 and charge in 10 minutes and or have true winter highway range of 350 miles at 75-80mph
What I like the most is the reliability of the chargers. Never once have I encountered issues with charging…can’t say the same when I drive my Kia Soul EV.
