get plugshare and a better route planner. Plan your route in abrp, validate stations are working in PlugShare and then use Waze to get from station to station. Safest best way, in my opinion. I’m getting ready for a 2nd cross country now.

 

Plugshare is my go-to app. We haven't driven all the way from coast to coast, but we did drive the Bolt from southeastern AZ to central OH. Getting from I-10 in NM to I-40 in TX was a little sketchy, but no show stoppers. I had to use two auto dealers along that stretch, one of which was great and the other a pita. Since then, there are several new chargers along that route. Here's our route with just Chargepoint, Electrify America, and EVgo enabled. Notice the big gap in NM. Enabling Francis Energy more or less fills that in.

We took I-10 from I-75 all the way to AZ and did fine, even in the Bolt. Piece of cake in an Ioniq 5 or 6. We could have used EA at almost all the stops, but we were trying to take advantage of our EVgo $500 credit at EVgo and Charge point. But usually EA was what was available. We'll probably do that route again in our Ioniq 5 the first chance we get.

 

It would help if we knew your start point and destination.

 

Thank you both so much. I'm going to Santa Cruz, CA to Chapel Hill, NC. Are you saying that Francis Energy fills in the gaps where there is no EA? I've been telling myself that if worse comes to worse, I can plug into 110 in a motel and just hang out for a day or two. Does that makes sense to you?

 

Here is an example using only EA from San Diego, California to Detroit, Michigan.

 

We did the southern route, San Diego to Northern VA in a Bolt, I-8, I-10, I-20, I-30, I-40, I-81, I-64, I-95. We returned to CO going through NC and back on I-70.

My experience with I-70 is great, forget I-80 through WY. I-70 in W. KS was a bit of a stretch 3 years ago heading west, but there are more DCFC stations now so it should be fine.

We used L2 once, while sightseeing, all other stops were DCFC. Almost all stops were EA. We didn't find a single hotel with L2, but times are different now and I suspect you would find a few along the routes.

Francis Energy is mainly NM, OK.

EA has made I-70, I-40, and maybe I-10 a priority for cross country.

 

We did the southern route, San Diego to Northern VA in a Bolt, I-8, I-10, I-20, I-30, I-40, I-81, I-64, I-95. We returned to CO going through NC and back on I-70.

My experience with I-70 is great, forget I-80 through WY. I-70 in W. KS was a bit of a stretch 3 years ago heading west, but there are more DCFC stations now so it should be fine.

We used L2 once, while sightseeing, all other stops were DCFC. Almost all stops were EA. We didn't find a single hotel with L2, but times are different now and I suspect you would find a few along the routes.

Francis Energy is mainly NM, OK.

EA has made I-70, I-40, and maybe I-10 a priority for cross country.

That is so helpful -- and encouraging. Thank you!

 

I find ABRP to be overkill for planning trips. In fact, my planning generally only involves using Plugshare ahead of time to scout the routes I plan to take to determine if DCFC is adequate.

While at each charging stop, I look ahead with Plugshare to find the next stop and charge to enough to make it to that stop with 30-50 miles of buffer. I rely on experience/intuition to guesstimate how terrain, temperatures, wind and speeds will change the outcome of the last leg on the upcoming stretch and adjust my 30-50 mile buffer accordingly. When there is doubt, add 10-20 more miles at the current stop, etc. As long as you consider what factors lie ahead, and how they may differ from past legs, the car's range estimates are accurate enough to go by.

Windy and Flatest Route are good apps to have on hand. They can give you more accurate insight into how elevation and wind may impact your next leg on the trip, and only take a minute or two to use. On familiar routes, I don't typically use these additional tools, but on unfamiliar routes, they can reduce anxiety of my passenger (wife) considerably.

Having done many long trips in the last 4 years, I have witnessed considerable infrastructure improvements.

This summer, we will begin to realize benefits from several infrastructure improvements. Many CCS owners will be using Tesla chargers (Ford, Rivian, Volvo, Polestar, GM) relieving some congestion at CCS sites. The GM/EVGo projects at Pilot/FlyingJ are going online (these are great options by the way). Mercedes and Chargepoint are going online with many sites, and Ionna should start going online later this year. NEVI funding is helping accelerate these projects, and is providing some incentive for sites willing to work with Electrify Commercial (EA's commercial division) to add EA locations above and beyond the EA "mea culpa" plan.

Meanwhile, all of the CCS networks are feeling pressure from competing with Tesla, and are taking steps to address reliability. I notice EA is actually starting to show charger status when units are offline. Even though this info isn't reaching Plugshare (yet), a quick look at the EA app can help. And equipment makers are taking steps to refine their design. EA is apparently getting ready to adopt a new supplier with an excellent reputation in EU, so that should help. Many equipment makers are adopting modular, easy to service units, along the lines of what Chargepoint is doing. And new equipment makers are stepping in to the game, some of whom have outstanding reputations for similar products sold in tangential industries.

Last year was a particularly troublesome year for EV travel. Prior years, available chargers were generally never a problem. But last year, the combo of poor reliability and increasing demand at EA sites made it fairly common to have queues at many sites in urban areas. We are finally starting to see some EA locations expand with additional chargers, and additional EA sites popping up in these high demand areas. In my travels, I have seen that most EA sites were originally designed with at least 2X capacity in mind, the equipment cages have room for more equipment, and the conduit is already in place. Let's hope they take action on this in high demand locations.

All this to say. I am optimistic about EV road trips getting easier. On East West routes, EA has several good options, and others are stepping in to add additional capacity. There are still a lot of routes and regions with more difficult infrastructure shortfalls on North/South routes, but the progress is steady in many of these. And by all means, avoid WVA, MT, WY, and the Dakotas.

 

And by all means, avoid WVA, MT, WY, and the Dakotas.

I am planning a trip from western Colorado to Glacier National Park in MT next fall. The route I'd like to take cuts across SW Wyoming where DCFC is sparse. There is an EA station in Rock Springs WY on I-80 that was installed close to a year ago. It isn't operational yet because EA is still waiting on the local electrical utility to install the required transformer. Seems like supply chain issues persist in some sectors. There were some new EV Connect sites opened last year in places like Lander, Pinedale and Dubois that are promising.
Something like ten new DCFC locations in MT which had been in PlugShare's "Coming Soon" status throughout 2023 have been pushed out to the end of 2024 before they are operational. Apparently the original contractor defaulted and the state had to start over. As a result there has been very little progress evident in MT.
Fortunately here in Colorado the situation is much better. The town where I live (pop. 20,000) had zero DCFC prior to late 2020. There are now seventeen CCS stalls available although the six Rivian stalls are still only for Rivians. Hopefully those will be opening up before the end of the year. The eight Tesla SuperCharger stalls were equipped with Magic Dock CCS adapters last fall.
The recent NEVI funding announcement from the Colorado Energy Office includes new DCFC locations in rural areas like Gunnison, Dolores, Durango and Silverton. It remains to be seen how long before these are all operational. EV charging on road trips is getting better in the region but the pace of improvement varies from state to state.[/QUOTE]

 

Good tips, @Arob. As you already know, I also just use Plugshare. However, I like to use it both before the trip and during the trip to check charger status and locations just in case, even on familiar routes. I often change plans along the way. The plan being to run the battery as low as can be done safely in order to do as much charging at the fastest speeds as I can.

I'm not sure if this is common knowledge, the PS has a button on their web interface that will show the elevation along your route. Sadly, the mobile app lacks that feature. Edit: Oops! I take that back. I just saw that the mobile app will show an elevation graph when you select your next charger, but not for the whole trip like the web version.

For wind predictions, I use an app called Windfinder.

I'm definitely seeing improvements in charging availability on my last few trips between FL and Ohio. I've done three round trips plus one way coming south after a circuit from FL to AZ to OH to FL since last June. Each trip was better than the previous one. And those were all in a Bolt EUV. First trip to Ohio with the Ioniq 5 comes up in a little over 2 weeks. I'm expecting a significant improvement in travel time.

 

I've driven from St Paul, MN to San Francisco (and back) via the northern route via Rapid City, SD and plan to do so again this Summer. Although EV chargers are much sparser in the hinterlands, they're also in much better condition and there is seldom a wait. On the road, I always charge to 100% so it's about an hour stop. Most of the chargers are located at WalMart/Target parking lots, so you have time to use the restroom, get something to eat and browse the aisles.

There are many more charging stations available now then my first trip two years ago, even though I was always able to find Level 3 chargers on every trip. The navigation software is much better now, but there's no substitute for careful planning. I would use both ABRP and PlugShare to plan your trip and book your hotels ahead of time. I look to drive in 3-hour blocks (~210 miles) and plan on getting 500 - 600 miles per day.

 

Back in June last year did a big move across from Reno via Las Vegas to New York. EA all the way except some nail biting level 2 charging in Pennsylvania as all EA place there were offline. Total cost was $ 6.56 and that was a Chargepoint I think. Purple dots were hotels and EA close by. Zero issues. Spectacular trip!

 

Houston to Jacksonville FL along I10 just using EA chargers more than doable. Stations along the way are generally every 80-90 miles and operational. I do carry a portable level 2 charger and RV, camp sites are a good overnight location. Many have small cabins and will let you plug your car into 220 outlets they have for RVs to charge overnight.

 

Has anyone used websites that list hotels with Level 2 chargers, such as this one? And if we booked hotels with these chargers, do we definitely get access to the chargers?

 

Hotel chargers are generally first come, first served. If all are in use, you might try hanging out to see if owners come back to their cars and ask if you can unplug them when done. Many of these have long cords.

 

Here is what I use.
All other apps that ask for subscription are pulling database from this platform

 

Here is what I use.
All other apps that ask for subscription are pulling database from this platform

I am not sure that all the other apps use data from OpenChargeMap but it seems a fair number do. OpenChargeMap is a free, open source project so you can make contributions to it by creating an account then make your updates and corrections. No obligation to do so, it just helps out others with TVs who use apps based on this data.

Each time I find a charger that is not on OpenChargeMap or where the details are wrong, I log into OpenChargeMap and make the edits needed. I have to admit I don't do that very often because I mostly charge at home and don't notice all the public chargers around. But I did make an effort to update OpenChargeMap for all the chargers I was aware of in my immediate area (four different DCFC locations and several Level 2 locations).