Can You Take a Roadtrip in an EV?

I recently drove thousands of miles in my electric car just to find out

Range anxiety is “the fear that an electric vehicle will not have enough battery charge to take you where you want to go to.” It’s a key factor most Americans – including me – consider when choosing a gas or electric car.

And that’s perfectly understandable! In contrast with folks in other countries, Americans drive a lot. We travel over 3 trillion passenger-miles by car each year. That’s an average of 9,500 miles for each licensed driver and about 1/3 more per capita than the next major OECD country, France¹. We should be sure that our cars can keep up with that demand.

When my wife and I chose our first car in March 2024, range was top of mind. We don’t commute by car, mostly using it for personal travel and longer trips, and we live in an apartment building so access to a charger was an issue. We ultimately landed on a Hyundai Ioniq 6, which came with a 361-mile estimated range (and a below-average MRSP). On top of that, Hyundai included two years of free fast charging with Electrify America (EA), the nation’s second-largest fast-charge network, an addition that would help make road trips cheap.

So far, it’s been a great pick for us: we charge up every few weeks and don’t think about it the rest of the time. Maintenance is included and infrequent since EVs don’t require oil changes. We get more than the EPA-estimated range during the spring, summer, and fall, when we do most of our driving.

However, this holiday season, we put our understanding of range anxiety to the test. We plotted out 3,200 miles of driving over two weeks: 1,100 miles up to the Northeast to see family for the holidays, and a 2,100-mile road trip through the U.S. South and Midwest – notably including states with some of the worst charging infrastructure in the country. All of this with sub-freezing temperatures on the forecast (EVs are more efficient in warm weather than cold).

The trip to the Northeast was uneventful. We took I-95 North from Richmond up to New York and Connecticut. It’s one of the busiest and most charger-lined corridors in the country.

The real challenge was our 2,100-mile loop. It took us south past Atlanta, then west through Oxford, MS, north to St. Louis, and back East again. The three of us (our dog Zoey joined) were intimidated but eager to begin.

When we first plotted out the trip, we intended to make the whole journey charging only with Electrify America. Since we’re within the two-year window of the free charging plan, this would mean we wouldn’t pay a dime for fuel along our journey. Groovy!

Not so fast. We learned Electrify America had only one charger along our route in Alabama, zero in Mississippi, and zero in West Virginia. In short, we’d have to map out alternative power stations along 700 miles of interstate. Further, the ~330 miles from Memphis to St. Louis would push the limits of our winter weather-limited range.

So, we mapped out alternatives along the route (other fast chargers on networks like Tesla and ChargePoint), packed our bags, and headed out. We’d pass through 14 states over the next six days. By the end of the trip, both my wife and I would have been to every U.S. state east of the Mississippi. Not bad.

Having familiar breaks along the route ended up working great for us. We’d stop every few hours and plug in while Zoey stretched her legs and played some fetch. We planned fill-ups around at public parks, arboretums, and dog parks at truck stops.

In Alabama we passed the James Miller power plant, America’s single highest greenhouse gas-emitting facility. In Arkansas, we passed solar farms interspersed with livestock and crops. We spent hours on flat Missouri roads and walked through towering architecture like Gateway Arch National Park and the Bass Pro Shops at Memphis Pyramid (which I think deserves honorary national park status…).

Along the way, we charged the car 17 times, each shown on the map below. These ranged from 10-minute stops at free fast chargers along the way to overnight fill-ups while we slept. The color of each charge denotes the price we paid for electricity – all the dark blue dots are free, while other colors range in price.

All in, we paid $60 for charging along our route. Most free charging was thanks to our two-year membership with EA. But some came from booking accommodations with free chargers – we strongly recommend checking hotel websites and weighing included electrons alongside the price. It’s a luxury to show up with a near-empty battery, go to sleep, and wake up with a full charge without a thought.

The one bright red marker in Missouri is where we stopped at a nice fast charger between Memphis and St. Louis, not checking the price ahead of time. We paid about $30 for energy at a whopping rate of 61¢/kWh. For reference, the average residential electricity rate in the U.S. is around 18¢/kWh. So 61¢/kWh is like paying $10/gallon on gas. In short, we didn’t check the price ahead of time and got fleeced. Ouch.

Including that mistake, we paid a bit under 3 ¢/mile of travel. For comparison, the average newly sold car in the U.S. gets around 26 mpg; at $3/gallon, that’s 11.5 ¢/mile, meaning our fuel cost was about one-fourth what it would be with a new gas car.

All in all, a road trip with an EV is certainly feasible, even through former charging deserts like the Deep South. Driving electric can save you money because battery-powered cars are typically cheaper to charge than gas cars are to fill with gasoline. But longer trips can take some extra planning to know where you’ll take breaks. Consider options with longer range to help your range anxiety, check if any charging packages are included with your purchase/lease, plan some stops along the way, and you’ll be ready to go!

1. Note: Iceland is omitted from the chart due to having under 10 billion annual passenger miles traveled