Mat Gallagher took a Kia NIRO EV on a journey from Chicago to Boston and New York – and then back Chicago. He gets into the finer details of his adventure, but here is his conclusion »
Does an EV work for road trips?
The short answer here is yes, though you do need to plan your trips better. The limiting factors remain the range of the cars and the availability of charging points. While I never had trouble finding a charger, they are nowhere near as readily available as gas stations, and rarely in the same place. Only two of the stops I made were with chargers at existing gas stations. The others were in industrial estates, Walmart parking lots and rest stops.
Most of the charging stations had a maximum of five spaces for electric cars to charge and not once did I have to wait for a space. But as the number of electric cars on the road increase, this is not likely to be the case for long. If every gas station invested in its own bank of chargers, it would make things a lot easier.
Range will also play a massive consideration in the number of chargers needed. As the average range of electric vehicles increases to 400 or even 500 miles, most journeys won’t need to involve a stop at all. With a 500-mile range, even my longest journey of the trip would have only needed one charge.