My husband has been obsessed with electric vehicles (EVs) for the last few years. He’s always been a car nerd, loves Formula One racing, and falls for the mod cons associated with newer, high-tech cars. This fall break, we decided to go to Niagara Falls. I assumed we would either get there by driving my gas-guzzling SUV or taking a flight. When my husband suggested we take his new Volvo XC40 Recharge, I can’t say I was on his side, but he persuaded me, so I experienced my first EV road trip with my family.
My husband travels a lot for work, so he’s used to the EV charging network. He’s happy to sit in the car answering emails or catching up on Netflix while the car charges. Life as a single traveler is easier. Would our children enjoy having to stop regularly? What happens if the chargers are broken? How do we calculate when we need to stop? How do we know where the chargers are? Is an electric vehicle a feasible transport option for a family road trip? I was about to find out!
This is a disclaimer before we go further: my knowledge of EVs is equivalent to a Grade 1 level and ranks alongside my knowledge of most high-tech devices. I look at and admire them, but the exhaustion of learning something from scratch feels well over my salary bracket. How many of us steer away from a cheaper and more luxurious transport mode just because we can’t be bothered having to try things for the first time? The reason for this blog is to give you an opinion from a typical person, not an experienced EV Vlogger on YouTube.
We have installed a fast charging station in our home garage. So off we went with a full battery and a car packed with me, my husband, my 8-year-old son, and my 10-year-old daughter.
The Positives
The EV System
These cars are super high-tech, more so than gas cars, as the creators understand how this attracts early adapters. The GPS system within the car will accurately map out the route, choose chargers along the way, and tell you how long you need to charge. This was much easier than I thought and at no stage did we have to deviate from this.
Networking with the EV owners
This was a surprising positive for me. The world we live in is becoming much less social; we communicate through phones, we ring through our own groceries, and the world is moving towards much less human contact. This is not true for the EV charging network. Every time we stopped, we began conversing with the other EV users who were also charging. We met many people who had just purchased a vehicle, and the others helped them use the charging station. We also bumped into people who wanted to know about our car and enthusiastically showed us theirs. Its honestly, the most social interaction I’ve had with strangers in many years.
Technology and Communicating
There are many apps and forums filled with EV users answering each other questions and helping people along their routes. One of the main positives for us was an app that we used to warn us of broken chargers. This would not work without engagement from the EV community and how engaged they are. We found the information accurate and in real-time.
Shopping Areas
Charging Stations tend to be at places like Walmart or Meijer. As my husband would set up the charging, I would take the kids to the store to walk about and use the bathroom. The shopping areas were much nicer than the gas station candy and souvenirs.
The Negatives
Waiting in Line
If you drive a Tesla, you go to a Tesla charging station; if you drive any other EV, you use the CCS charging network. There are two sides to this problem. The first is that there are many more Tesla chargers than CCS chargers, and there are many more ‘other EV’ drivers than Tesla drivers. So this did mean we needed to wait at times. We also have to consider that this isn’t like waiting at a gas station, which is a maximum of 3-4 minutes per vehicle. Each car is being charged for 10-20 minutes. This leads me to my next negative.
Charger Rage
As a polite EV user, you could argue that trying to charge your car for longer than 20 minutes is rude, especially if there is a line, but there is no etiquette. Every charger was occupied at one charging station stop, and a few vehicles were waiting. We had plugged in the car and gone to use the bathroom. When we returned, I was confronted by an irate driver who made it very clear that we needed to move along despite not being finished. We hadn’t charged to the level that we needed to move along, and he became angry, going off at us and making many hand gestures to express his disgust. As a woman, it opened my eyes to perhaps another potential place where the safety of women can’t be guaranteed and made me wonder if this was an aspect of EV charging that anyone had considered. I would have felt very unsafe had I been on my own or alone with the children.
Broken Chargers
We came across a few broken/out-of-order chargers. As previously said, the EV community is very engaged, and you can easily find out if a charger is not working. We are still in the beginning stages of EV development, so I would consider this a teething problem and predict it will improve with the development of EV technology and systems.
The EV users are an enthusiastic tribe, and their passion for EV cars is improving every aspect of the technology, from charging times and charging network issues to generally making new EV users feel welcome. The experience was much smoother than I thought, and I’m glad we shared this experience together. EVs within the US charging network are a feasible transport option, even for families. We need to stop for bathroom breaks and fueling anyway, so is it really that bad to add a few minutes on to charge your vehicle?