Roadshow’s EV Week continues with 10,300-mile highway vacation success

Q: My spouse and I just returned from a two-month vacation more than 10,300 miles in our Hyundai Ioniq 5. We went from Cupertino to Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Dallas, Nashville, East Lansing, Lake Erie, Massachusetts, Cape Cod, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington and again by means of several countrywide parks to Jackson Gap and then property.

Getting rapidly charging stations took many several hours of arranging routes with a big map and then laptop apps for Electrify America, Chargepoint and other chains.

The car’s navigation procedure also lists close by stations. The best pace chargers (350 kw) ended up specially buggy, and at least 20 p.c of the time, the initial one particular we tried out did not perform.

Only 2 times did we locate no working chargers. Evidently, Electrify The us installs chargers but does not have area folks below deal to resolve them. We ended up instructed it can take a week or so for some chargers to be fastened. Phoning support desks was occasionally effective when they could reboot a charger.

Chargers never want to go earlier mentioned 80 % of your car’s battery capability, and gradual down drastically when they strike 80 p.c charge. Our car supposedly receives 303 miles, but chargers judged 80 % to be everywhere from about 215 to 260 miles. Driving more than 65 mph with the air conditioning on dropped mileage a whole lot. Realistically, we acquired to prevent each and every 150 and 180 miles. Every end took shut to 30 minutes to obtain, connect and charge.

The journey was entertaining, and we in no way ran completely out of ability, but in some cases we fearful.

The vehicle executed amazingly nicely, which includes by means of downpours and when we bought dropped on a steep, 4wd filth road. We needed only washer fluid en route and tire rotation (and a automobile clean!) when we got back.

Anne Raphael, Cupertino

A: It sounds like a wonderful excursion. Many thanks for sharing your working experience.

Q: We acquired a 2017 Chevy Bolt electric auto in January 2020, one of our finest purchases at any time. Our “range” is about 250 miles with no stress.