How To Make the Most Out of Your Electric Car on a Cross-Country Road Trip

We have lots of electric cars on the roads today, and most of their drivers would not even consider turning back to an internal combustion engine car. Despite that, electric cars still have a bad rep today, based on the common beliefs forged into people’s minds by sluggish and impractical EVs like the old Nissan Leaf. The fact is, modern electric cars can go more than 300 miles (482 km) with a full battery and fast charging stations can top up in less than half an hour.

Lucid Air for instance, with its EPA range of 520 miles (837 km), has more range than many ICE cars. Plugged for 20 minutes into a fast-charging stall, it will have enough juice to travel another 300 miles. This is still more than most people drive in one leg. Sure, a gasoline car gets a full tank in less than one minute at the gas station, but the human being behind the wheel still needs a coffee break from time to time. And when he stops, he can do it at a charging station.

Cross-country trips are not only possible with an electric vehicle but can also be more rewarding. Not polluting the environment is good, but saving money in the process is even better. To get the best out of an electric car on a road trip you have to take into account making small adjustments to your driving habits. Think different, not worse, because once you get the hang of it, it will become second nature, just like filling up the tank at a gas station.

Electric car owners are advised to charge the car battery to a maximum of 80% to maximize its durability, unless it’s a Tesla with a newer LFP battery. For a road trip you have to charge the car to 100% though, to benefit from the full range when needed. Careful planning and more frequent charging might help with that but having the battery 100% full a couple of times in a year will not hurt the battery that much.

The best way to charge your car is a slow charge at home or a destination charger, but don’t be afraid to use fast charging stations while on road trips. Yes, the high currents and temperatures associated with fast charging will put more strain on the battery, but experience shows a car battery is still in good shape after hundreds of thousands of miles with frequent fast charging. That’s more than a lot of people drive in a lifetime.

When you plug into a fast-charging station remember that charging the last 20% of your EV’s battery will probably take longer than it did to get to the first 80%. This is why it might be less time-consuming to have more frequent but shorter charging sessions than it is to deplete the whole battery and try to charge it fully.

With most electric cars, it is better to use the integrated navigation system, even when you know where you’re heading. This way, the car will precondition the battery for fast charging as you head to the charging station. This means regulating the right battery temperature for the fastest charging rates, as a cold battery will take a lot longer to charge.

With an electric vehicle, it’s not only how you charge that matters, but also how you drive. Avoid using roof racks or boxes, as these compromise the aerodynamics of the car, with a huge range penalty. Maximizing the range also means driving as smoothly as possible. We know an electric car is a lot of fun under heavy acceleration, but this uses more battery. When you break, try to use regenerative braking as much as possible. This way a lot of braking energy is recovered into usable range.

Of course, you can make this into an art of saving energy, just like people with ICE cars do with saving gas. Hypermiling is possible with an electric car, so every gas-saving driving technique will work for electric vehicles too. Like, keep the tires properly inflated, anticipate the traffic, you know the drill. An electric car also has some clever tricks up its sleeves, like the ECO driving mode that conserves battery or the possibility to program energy-efficient routs into the navigation.