How one driver’s EV trip across the United States and Canada went (mostly) smoothly, and what could make it better.
A major issue for many who are considering EV adoption is an anticipation of range anxiety, especially when taking extended trips. Dispelling these concerns was one of the motivations of Paul Reisberg, retired chemistry professor, as he tested the limits of his Tesla Model Y with an 11,000-mile trip around the US and Canada. Along the way, he preserved his mental health with stops at 15 previously unseen national parks. This following is his journey.
Better Range Matters
Ten years ago, my first EV had a range of 110 miles, and I never felt comfortable taking a trip as far as NYC. Now, I have a car with a claimed range of over 300 miles. I have taken multiple trips to NY and Maine and have even gone as far as Washington, DC without a worry. I was confident I could succeed in visiting my sister in California. There are over 200,000 public chargers in the US and thousands are added each week, but only a tenth are level-three, rapid chargers; and these are not evenly distributed. Around Boston, they are about 5-10 miles apart. But, in the charging deserts of West Texas, New Mexico, and North Dakota where I planned to go, they can be over 200 miles apart.
Over the 6-week trip I learned what situations can create anxiety and what can be done to alleviate it. The feeling I would often have being similar to what I had felt using mass transit in a European city for the first time. I know the system is good, but until I experience it, there are many unknowns such as payment methods, ticketing, transfers, and frequency of service which must be learned.
Everything Impacts Range
The kinds of concerns that I have were around how my range would be affected by large elevation changes, high speed limits, strong headwinds, heavy rains, and extreme temperatures. These had never been a concern on the east coast, but West Virginia is hilly, and the Rockies are high and much of the country has 80 mph speed limits.
I encountered dust storms, blinding rains, lightning induced wildfires, more dust storms, nickel-sized hail, gusts of up to 64 mph, onslaughts of tumbleweed by the dozens, towns with power outages, and multiple days with temperatures above 120 degrees. Additionally, I narrowly avoided both a tornado and a major fire evacuation of an area ½ the size of Massachusetts.
The Bottom Line
I made the 11,000 miles without incident and with a sufficient charge every day.
A quick summation of the trip: It’s an enormous, beautiful country that is mostly empty, largely on fire, and with lots of extreme weather.
Fires Everywhere
Heading to Joshua Tree National Park I encountered my first fire. I could see the smoke up ahead and called family to guide me as to whether I needed to detour (I did). They guided me to a map of active fires in California of which there were over 70 burning everywhere. In addition to California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan each had scores of active fires requiring me to check apps for possible detours in each state and province.
There were fires everywhere and the skies were smokey everywhere. Lovely sunsets, but I never saw a starlit night the entire time. The worst fire was in Jasper National Park. There had been an extant fire closing part of the park and skies were getting increasingly hazy from fires in British Columbia to the west. As I was leaving, heading to Banff, driving the 3½ hours through the park, I encountered a thunderstorm that started multiple uncontrollable fires. These quickly led to an evacuation of both the park and the town of Jasper just 2 hours after I had left it. Over the next few days half the park and the town of Jasper were destroyed.
Extreme Weather
During the trip there were several severe thunderstorms and alerts of damaging hail and possible tornadoes. When I finally arrived at the NY border and there was a storm alert, I thought to myself at least I don’t have to worry about tornados anymore. Well, it turned out that a few hours before I entered Buffalo, a tornado had just passed through the city.
You get the point; lots of crazy weather everywhere. In each area of the country, people were aware of climate changes, but it was experienced differently in different locales. Fires, smoke, and upper ninety-degree temperatures plagued the Canadian Rockies while Phoenix has had flash floods and recently hit its 101st day in a row with temperatures over 100 degrees. El Paso has its worst drought in 130 years, while Houston is hit with sequential floods and failure of the power grid.
Gaps Between Chargers
Back to range anxiety. It would certainly help if there weren’t gaps of 100-200 miles. Knowing there is charging every 50 miles or so removes almost any concern. When the town I intended to charge in had a power outage in British Columbia, it was fortunate that the next town over also had a fast charger.
Impact of Speed on Range
Speed is a big killer of range as drag increases with the square of the velocity. Going the posted limit of 80 has twice the drag of going 55 mph. I got through the North Dakota charging desert without fear by just slowing down. Just as advocates of Slow Food point out its superiority over Fast Food, I found slowing down and not rushing through a place as fast as possible was much more enjoyable and relaxing.
Along with stopping every 2-3 hours to charge and chatting with other EV owners and curious bystanders, I was left with more of a feeling of having been at a place than just whizzing through it
What We Need for EV Charging to Work
I’ve concluded that EV charging needs three things to alleviate people’s fears.
- Reliability – I only got as far as New Your before I encountered my first broken charger. Public chargers should be licensed and regularly inspected just as gas pumps. It should never enter someone’s mind, “What if the charger is broken?”
- Easy to Use – All chargers should be tap and pay like a gas pump. I had over a dozen apps on my phone to deal with the various charging networks. Some require memberships, others registration and passwords, some need a card, others want information like my phone number and birthday. This has to go.
- Easy to Find – Eliminate charging deserts. Also, there should be a universal map of all existing public chargers. I often found chargers that were not on one listing or another. It shouldn’t be necessary to check multiple sources to find a charger.
In the end, I felt that driving an EV forces a more mindful approach, one that ultimately is more pleasant and present. As with most things, having done it once I feel I could do it again with greater ease and wisdom.
