Range anxiety is 'a real thing': 5 things to know before EV road-tripping

Show Caption

I've always been a fan of electric vehicles – until I took one on a road trip.

I was a student of Tesla's early innovations and have watched with interest as other car manufacturers introduce their contributions to the EV movement. While I ultimately did enjoy the luxury of my borrowed 2023 Cadillac LYRIQ – which was built in Spring Hill, Tennessee – the extra work and stress that accompanied my maiden EV voyage was, well ... unexpected.

Range anxiety is a real thing.

Do I really have 150 miles left on this charge? Is the next fast charger really only 75 miles away? What if the range changes and I don't have enough charge to get there? This was the conversation in my head the entire trip as my eyes shifted from the road to the gauge and back constantly. I wasn't prepared for the ambiguity that comes with the car's charge, range estimates, charging times, map inconsistencies, charging station availability and trip duration.

Charge is coming: 500,000 universal EV charging stations headed to a highway near you. What we know

On my return trip from East Tennessee, I felt a bit more savvy, having done this once, so for anyone who's a veteran EV traveler, this advice is for the newbies.

In a nutshell, if you are going to be an EV early-adopter, you will have to be willing to work around some of the inconveniences. It will get better, but right now, going farther than around town can be a hassle. I did make it to my destination and back, but it wasn't the smooth sailing I was expecting.

Here's what I learned:

1. You have to plan ahead

Before I embarked on my trip, Rick Smearman, GM Spring Hill Assembly Plant assistant director, gave me some valuable advice. He had me download four apps (EVGo, ChargePoint, Electrify America and PlugShare.) Wait? I need four apps? Yes. I needed all four because charging stations aren't all uniform. I preloaded credit card information in two of them so I could easily pay at the station.

Oh, and I also needed to use the car's navigation system, which would "condition" the car's battery about 30 miles before charging, so it needed to know when I was stopping to charge. So that's five pieces of technology it took to keep me plugging along.

I was able to plug into the car's system where I hoped to charge and it would guide me there. However, what it didn't tell me is whether that charger was working or whether it would be occupied when I got there. Wait, what? What happens if I get there and can't charge and don't have enough miles left to get to another one? You feel my range anxiety kicking in?

'It's like your local bestie': This startup helps make solo travel as a woman feel safer

2. Your plan won't go as planned

I'm a planner. I love an organized road trip. I know how long a trip is going to take. I factor in time for one stop and pack a cooler with snacks and drinks so I can keep going and, thanks to GPS, can tell you within a fifteen-minute window when I will arrive.

Not in an EV.

When I first plugged my destination into the car's navigation system, it said my travel time would be four hours and forty-seven minutes. Sounds about right. Then I added in a stop to charge. The time estimate changed to eight hours and 12 minutes. Seriously?

Turns out that wasn't correct.

The next variable you can't control is exactly how many miles you will get out of a charge. It depends on the weather. It depends on how the driver drives. It depends on the terrain. And it depends on which of the car's extras you use along the way. My borrowed LYRIQ had a sport mode and a massaging driver's seat. Smearman warned me, "Driving in sport mode is fun, but don't use it on a road trip. It will eat up your charge."

Also, charging itself is like the Wild West. Stations break down. They get busy. And their chargers don't always put out the kilowatts they say they will. You just don't really know until you get there. The apps are pretty good at providing some of that information, but they are hard to check while driving (more on that in a minute.)

Should I buy an EV?: Your buying guide on big discounts, tax credits and when to buy.

I plugged into a 350kw "hyper-fast" charger in a Sam's parking lot in Cookeville. But the charging station screen indicated it was putting out only 144kw. That means getting a full charge can take two to three hours instead of 60 minutes. If you look closely at the charger, it will read "up to" 350kw. Sneaky.

3. EV road trips are best done with a co-pilot

There are few, if any, billboards promoting charging stations. Why would there be? EV drivers are savvy and have apps for that. But when you are traveling alone, it's hard to check two or three apps to see where the closest, fastest, functioning, available charger is that is preferably near a place to eat.

My trip included a pass by the new Buc-ee's in Crossville. Now there's a place you can easily kill an hour while your car charges. Sadly, I looked it up online before I left and saw this particular location did not have any charging stations. That got me to looking for signs. I drove another three hours and never saw one sign indicating charge availability.

I did consult the Tennessee Valley Authority and learned it has lofty goals to massively increase the area's charging network by 2026. Scott Fiedler, with TVA, said in an email that the public utility is working with local power companies and regional partners to develop one of the nation’s most comprehensive EV fast-charging networks.

"Once completed, the Fast Charge Network will include approximately 80 locations, 200 fast chargers, and multiple station owners and site hosts connecting interstates and major highways across TVA’s seven-state service area," he said. "While traveling our interstates and major highways, drivers will never be more than 25 miles from a Fast Charge Network charging location. We plan to have this network completed by 2026."

But until then, charging in an unknown area is still a bit scary.

There were multiple times I wanted to see if I could skip one charging station and go on to the next one. But that would have required me to pull over and reprogram the trip into the car's system and then consult an app or two for additional information.

4. Flexibility is your friend

I chatted up a fellow EV driver at the charging station in Knoxville who was kind enough to help me execute my very first charge. He was charging his Volkswagen ID.4 and had some valuable tips and tricks for me. For example, you can lock the car and leave while it charges. While the apps aren't great at providing real-time charging information, they will notify you when your car is fully charged, which is helpful because the estimated time on the charging station, the car and the app – for me – were all different.

Two vacations in one: How to add a second destination to your trip (for little or no cost)

While one of the 350kw-charging stations at this Knoxville station was broken, the other was taken. So I was relegated to a 150kw "ultra-fast" charger that charged at only 92kw. Despite the car telling me it would take eight hours to charge, I was on my way in about an hour and 15 minutes with more than enough charge to get me to my destination. I hope.

5. IFYKYK

While sitting still on a road trip to charge for an hour can seem inconvenient, a savvy EV-er will make the most of it. I saw people reading, walking their dog, shopping and working while waiting. If you can plan a charging stop at mealtime, for example, you can charge while grabbing a bite and kill two birds with one stone. You just have to need a charge at mealtime and find a charger within walking distance of a restaurant in an area you feel comfortable leaving your car. We did hoof it into the Walmart in Knoxville for a sandwich, even though it wasn't really lunchtime. Honestly, a few work emails and returned phone calls later, the charge we needed was there for $25.83, which is considerably less than a tank of gas.

Short version of the story is road trips in an EV have not been perfected yet. It takes a little extra planning and time. It won't be long before charging stations are more prevalent, thanks to efforts by TVA, Ford, Tesla, the government and others working to increase charging networks across the country, which will reduce range anxiety and improve efficiency.

Charging will get faster and easier. But for now, it's a patience-testing, flexibility-forcing challenge.

Melonee Hurt covers growth and development at The Tennessean, part of the USA Today Network — Tennessee. Reach Melonee at mhurt@tennessean.com.

My EV road trip by the numbers:

• 653 miles driven round trip
• 2.15 hours spent charging
• 12 hours spent driving
• $36.63 dollars spent on charging
• 3 stops to charge
• 0 emissions
• 0 gas station bathrooms