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I actually don’t even charge at home anymore. They have free charging at my work, and I can more or less charge my round trip while I’m working. Sometimes on weekends I stop at a free fast charge station to top off, but that rarely takes more than 15 minutes. I plug it in and go browse for drinks & snacks.
I haven’t hardly paid for electricity/fuel in months.
Even if you charge at home it’s not expensive, I figure 2 cents/mile for my Leaf. To be fair tho my state (WA) has the 12th cheapest electricity in the country. Like the saying goes, your mileage may vary.
Yeah. I sometimes have multiple long stops for very long trips, but you’re right, that is very seldom that I have to stop at all. And I just plan something, like lunch, for those occasions.
We have multiple long stops when we road trip, but we’re almost always waiting for someone to get out of the restroom, get their food, or make it through the chaos of Buc-ee’s. Very rarely are we just waiting for the car to charge, and normally we struggle to leave as quickly as it finishes charging.
Having kids is a bigger drag on road tripping then an EV.
My wife & I have done a few road trips in our Tesla now. We bring our two small dogs, so we would be stopping every couple hours for 15-20 minute breaks anyway to let them walk around a bit & pee.
The last trip we took just last month we stayed in 3 different AirBnBs. The first one had a free to use level 2 charger in its garage. The second one was across the street from a municipal lot with free level 2 chargers. The third one was the only one that required our use of SuperChargers every few days. So 2/3 of our trip we had free charging.
Airbnb appears to be encouraging renters to install EV chargers if they can. It’s a nice perk for those of us looking for them.
My parents have an AirBnB and I’VE been encouraging them to add one, there’s not a high-speed charger in the whole town outside of a casino parking lot. Could be a big draw for EV owners to have home charging.
Last time I went I made sure to arrive at 60% charge and that let me get by on 120v for the week.
Definitely keep encouraging them. It’s something we always look for these days. You might even check if their state and/or electric utility offers any incentives for installing one.
When I first got an ev I was like “wow, can’t wait for there to be so many more charging stations replacing gas stations.”
Then I “got” it. You don’t need to charge anywhere but at home unless you are doing road trips.
When I switched back to an ice vehicle (needed a truck, am not millionaire) going to the gas station was the worst punishment ever.
It’s like, imagine if you had to go somewhere and plug in your phone to charge it every few days. Wouldn’t that suck? I lived the dream of going home and plugging my car in, like I do my phone on my nightstand. It’s always full in the morning, I never have to stop at a gas station when I just want to get home after work, I don’t have to stand in the freezing cold as the pump slowly ticks along.
I hope to live that paradise again soon.
In 12 years of owning a Nissan Leaf I’ve used pay charging stations maybe ten times, max. In terms of how little time and effort I put into charging, it pretty much feels like the car just magically runs.
