A road trip in an electric truck might seem like a daunting experience. How will you charge? Where will you charge? How long does it take to charge?! While there are still some frustrations surrounding a road trip in an EV, we love taking our electric truck on trips.
In our most recent YouTube video, we returned from our Labor Day trip to Breckenridge, Colorado. The trip one way was 565 miles, meaning the total trip was over 1,100 miles! Most of the trip was smooth sailing, but we did run into a few slight annoyances along the way.
The first was having to restart our charging sessions at both of the Electrify America stations we visited on our route home. We experience these issues in both the Rivian and the Lightning, leading us to believe this is more likely an issue with Electrify America than it is an issue with the trucks. Not to mention that we did not have to restart during our charging sessions on an EVGo station on this trip.
We also found our selves a bit frustrated that we had to wait for a charge while in Ogalalla, NE. 3 out of the 4 Electrify America stations were down and the one working station was in use when we arrived. We had to wait around 20 minutes before the he other Rivian R1T was done charging before we could start our charge. Had all the stations been functional, we wouldn't have had to wait.
But, there were some positives along the way. First, the chargers were surprisingly empty for a holiday weekend. While we saw plenty of lines at gas stations, we were often the only ones charging or one of two cars at a station. We spent significantly less on fuel than our friends who brought their gas truck for the trip. While we were at our destination, we only had to grab a charge on a public charger once and we were able to do so while we picked up some supplies. Otherwise, plugging into the wall outlet at our VRBO was more than enough to keep us charged for our adventures.
We have a long way to go before travel in an EV is perfected. But, it's not all disasters and frustrations either. What have your experiences been on EV road trips? What else do you want to know about EV road trips?