Long Distance Road Trip Rules Are Way Different (And More Serious) In An EV

Taking a long road trip takes some careful planning, regardless of the kind of vehicle you're driving. Have you booked hotels along the way? What will the weather be like on your route? Do you have enough emergency supplies in the trunk? All of that said, doing the trip in an electric vehicle (EV) takes that planning phase to a whole new level, mainly because you need to decide ahead of time where you're going to stop to charge and how far you can go on a single charge. In fact, Charging is probably the biggest headache of a road trip in an EV.

Charging stations don't populate every Interstate exit the way gas stations seem to. What's more, not any charger will do on a road trip, especially if you're on a tight schedule. DC fast chargers are the only practical choice except when you're charging overnight. On top of that, no EV is compatible with every charger, so you'll need to know which type of charger your car works with before you plan where to stop.

Checking the weather and knowing the terrain is also important. Extreme cold and extreme heat can significantly impact both range and how long it takes to charge an EV. Strong headwinds and driving up steep mountain roads can shrink your range as well. You'll also need to check your speed. Maybe one day, EV charging stations will be as prolific as gas stations are today, and this won't be such an issue. In the meantime, you'll need to plan your trip carefully.

If the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that your EV can go 300 miles on one full battery charge, that means you can drive almost 300 miles before you have to charge again, right? Sadly, no. According to Consumer Reports testing, those laboratory numbers the EPA puts out are, in many cases, 10-20% higher than what you get in the real world, and that's in reasonably good conditions. In fact, EPA numbers often don't match reality for gas cars, either.

Why the difference? The EPA caps the speed during its tests at 60 miles per hour. How fast do you drive on the open Interstate? Posted speed limits are usually 65 to 70 miles per hour, with some locations going as high as 80 mph. We'll touch more on speed later, but basically, the faster you go, the shorter your battery's charge will last. Then there are tons of other things that will affect your range, as well. For example, will you be traveling up steep mountain roads? Make sure you have enough charge to at least get up the mountain — though you can enjoy the benefits of regenerative braking as you go down the other side. Will there be strong headwinds? Will you be towing anything or using climate control? The EPA range estimates don't account for any of those things, yet they all impact how far you can go on your battery's charge.

You don't really have to plan your fuel stops through most parts of the U.S. when you're driving a gas-driven car. Gas stations are seemingly everywhere, so it's usually just a matter of looking for the next exit as the needle gets closer to "E." As we're sure you're aware, it's more complicated in an EV. The American EV charging infrastructure has had its issues over the years. You'll need to look at your route ahead of time and determine where the compatible chargers are. It's also a good idea to book hotels with EV chargers so that you can charge overnight.

Fortunately – like for everything else — there's an app for that. For example, the onboard Tesla Trip Planner app will identify charging locations along your route, even accounting for driving habits, elevation, and how many charging spots are free at given locations. Other trip planning apps that are specifically designed to find EV charging locations include PlugShare, ChargePoint, and Electrify America. But what if you get to the charging station, and the chargers are all out of order? That's why you should choose backup charging locations, too. Make sure that each backup location is within driving distance on a low charge from your first choice for that leg of the journey. Do this as you plan your trip ahead of time.

Electric vehicles don't have that rumble that so many of us love to hear during acceleration. But that doesn't mean it isn't tempting to put the pedal to the floor just to see what your EV can do. An EV's instant torque allows it to get up to highway speed in no time, and keeping the momentum going by driving fast can be enticing. However, driving at high speeds can take a huge chunk out of your range. In fact, driving 80 miles per hour as opposed to 60 mph can cut your range as much as 25%. That's 75 miles off of a 300-mile range. 

In some ways, efficiency works the opposite in electric vehicles as it does in gas-driven ones. Stop-and-go city traffic, which is bad for gas mileage, is good for EVs due to regenerative braking, while constant, sustained highway speeds are better for gas mileage than city driving since they keep the engine in its efficiency sweet spot. On the other hand, that kind of speed works against the efficiency of an EV due to the increased aerodynamic drag. We know: If everyone else is flying down the Interstate at 80 mph, you don't want to be the one grandpa going 60 in the slow lane. And we're not saying you should go that slow — especially if the speed limit and flow of traffic is faster than that — but just be aware of what going faster will do to your range, and plan accordingly.

Let's face it, the elements aren't kind to any type of car, but very cold and hot temperatures can really do a number on an EV. Battery range drops dramatically when the weather goes frigid. AAA did a study on the impacts of temperatures on battery range for EVs and Hybrids and found that at 20 degrees Fahrenheit with the heat on, range dropped by 39% below EPA estimates. Consumer Reports did its own study, where it found that battery range was 25% shorter at 16 degrees, compared to driving in the mid-60s at 70 mph. The organization also noted that taking short trips where the car has to be reheated repeatedly is even worse on range, with a drop of 50%.

It's not just what cold air does to the battery's ability to keep a charge, but it also has to do with climate control. Heaters take a lot of power — especially in EVs, as there is no warm air from a hot engine to utilize. One trick that some drivers use is to rely more on seat warmers and steering wheel warmers than the HVAC. Consumer Reports says having the climate system off makes about an 8% difference, so the discomfort may not be worth it. Temperatures under 32 degrees Fahrenheit can also result in 20-50% longer charging times if the battery isn't already warm from driving, so be sure to precondition your battery before charging. We should note that extremely hot temperatures have similar effects on EV range.

Planning a long road trip in an EV isn't just a matter of knowing where chargers are. You also have to know if those chargers are going to be compatible with your car. Almost every EV is compatible with J1772 chargers. But J1772 is a Level 2 charger, which often takes 4-8 hours to charge an EV battery to 80%. That's fine for home chargers or if you plan to park your car for several hours, but it's just not practical for a road trip. For that, you'll need to focus on DC fast-charging stations, which is where the compatibility issues lie.

All Tesla models use the NACS standard for charging stations, meaning they can use Tesla Superchargers. But what if you drive some other kind of EV, like a Rivian? It largely depends on the model year. Most EVs built from 2025 on have adopted the NACS standard. Most non-Teslas before that were built with CCS1-compatible charging ports. There are a few holdouts, though, stubbornly hanging on to CCS1, such as the Chevrolet Bolt EV, Volkswagen ID.4, Audi Q4 e-tron, and the Honda Prologue. The Nissan Leaf inexplicably uses its own standard, CHAdeMO. In fact, it is the only car in the U.S. to use it, so you'll have a hard time finding stations with a CHAdeMO charger. No matter which of these ports you have, take an adapter so you can use both CCS1 and NACS chargers on your road trip.