This is my second time renting an EV. First time wasn’t too bad. We stayed local and only had to charge once.
This Thanksgiving we had to drive from Chicago to Omaha to Minneapolis and back to Chicago. It was approximately 1400 miles total. $289 in electric charges. (that feels a lot more expensive than gas). We had to stop every 2 hours to charge for an hour so it extended our trips by 50%. This was quite challenging when we were in a caravan of cars and the ICE ones beat us by several hours. A 6 hour drive turned into 10 hours. I shaved off a few hours by always running the car down to the last couple miles and charging it to 100%. One time was not by choice as we almost ran out due to a dead zone. We were then charged $50 to fill up 3/4 tank at an EA in the middle of Minnesota. That was kind of our breaking point.
Some positives are it was a smooth ride and felt great in the snow.
We wanted to buy an EV but wanted to see how they fair on road trips in the midwest. This experience may scare us away for a while as it was exhausting stressful and expensive. Wondering what we did wrong since so many enjoy EV.
OP, I’m sorry but it is on you to do your research before planning such a long trip during the busiest travel season of the year (especially in Midwest winter)
No matter what, that experience was going to be rough. Expectations needed to be tempered and you should have planned accordingly.
Some things that you should take note of, which some other users have already written out:
EQB is not a good road trip vehicle. Has slow charging and pedestrian range. Combine that with cold weather, the amount of stops was going to eat into your trip a lot regardless.
Charging curves are a thing. It differs per vehicle, but in general, the higher SOC you get to, the slower the charge will be. Charging from 10-80% will be roughly the same if not faster than charging from 80-100%. Not only did you spend more time charging than needed, but you also may have clogged a charging spot for others (bigger deal with non-Tesla than Tesla SC) I get that range anxiety is a thing, but if everyone on the road charges like that, it makes the experience for everyone worse. There’s a reason why cars get charged idle fees.
EA charging you $50 is likely a holding fee, and will be changed to the correct amount shortly. I had this happen too, and saw the correct amount charged in a few days. Honestly, not on you here, but just a PSA since it’s a common question that gets brought up.
Not harping on you specifically, as non-Teslas just aren’t there for road tripping in general, but some prior research and planning could have made it a bit easier.
Yeah i know for next time. It was a rental so I didn’t have much time to research it beforehand. Kind of just got it and left. It seems I made a number of mistakes including choosing a not ideal vehicle and improper charging.
Oh man, now i feel bad bc there were two occasions where I charged to 100 with other vehicles waiting.
With EA, I was rounding. It was $48 and change. I think i was price gouged bc that location was the only one around.
Don’t worry, we live and learn. EV charging is still in a very early stage, and more complicated than it should be.