Key To Successful EV Road Trips: Preparation
By Barry Rosenberg
Two years ago, my wife Lee and I took a road trip in our 2021 Tesla Model Y EV to Charlottesville, Virginia from our home in Denver. We made side trips to see friends, family, and national parks along the way and I estimate we travelled about 4,000 miles on this trip.
I realize many people who are considering buying an EV fear that if they travelled long distances, they might run out of battery going from one place to another. However, while I am anxious about most everything in my life, I did not suffer from range anxiety on this trip. Perhaps Lee and I were a little cavalier, but we had taken many long trips around Colorado and a longer trip to the Grand Canyon before heading to Charlottesville. The trips were relatively seamless because we had access to our GPS and knew where chargers were along the way.
Our Tesla has a range of approximately 300 miles, which allows for drivers to go significant distances between stopping to top up the battery. It is necessary to note that a “mile” on an EV is a calculation rather than a standardized measurement of distance. For example, if you are traveling at 80 miles an hour, have several passengers and/or pets in the vehicle, are going uphill, are exposed to headwinds, have low tire pressure and/or need heat or AC, you will suck up much of your battery unless you mitigate some of these factors as much as possible.
About twice a week, we drive up to a mountain trail from Denver. The actual distance from the city to the trail is roughly 40 miles. The trail is at an elevation of 7700 feet, whereas our home in Denver is at 5280 feet. Even though the actual distance is 40 miles, the “EV milage” is around 60 miles. To assure I don’t suck up the battery, I set an alarm before I make the trip to remind myself to charge the car. I usually have 200 miles of battery so if I use up 60 miles on the trip up, I should have 140 miles on my battery when I drive downhill.
Just as EV miles can be negatively impacted by environmental factors, so too can they be positively impacted. By going downhill from the trail to Denver, I get a “boost” to my battery of approximately 20 miles—so instead of 140 EV miles, I’ll have 160 to get me from the mountains back home.
The Boy Scouts motto of “be prepared” is apropos when driving an EV, but modern technology allows the car to do much of this preparation for you. On the trip back from Virginia, the car’s computer routed us to a charger maybe 100 miles away from where we were on the highway. However, the weather changed suddenly, and a formidable headwind started to drain our battery. The car used its GPS to reroute us to a different charger, and we ultimately had enough battery from this charge to skip the previously-suggested stop.
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Information on tax incentives for electric vehicles:
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