Please join me over the coming weeks as I undertake a road trip in my Tesla Model S, aka Lenny, to Indianapolis for a Tesla Owners meetup and then onto Wisconsin and Minnesota before returning to Washington, DC. In Wisconsin, I’ll visit with the River Revitalization Foundation about their successful campaign through RE-volv.org to fund a solar installation; I’ll also visit the Midwest Renewable Energy Association in rural Wisconsin. We will then challenge our EV road tripping skills by going deep into Northern Wisconsin to visit the Apostle Islands. Wisconsin, as you will see in future posts, is a bit of a charging desert.
Throughout, I’ll be sharing insights about traveling long distances with an electric vehicle (EV), the various charging solutions along the way, and the tools I use in undertaking such a journey. Fortunately, traveling long distances in an EV becomes easier by the day as more long-range EVs enter the market and the charging infrastructure expands.
As an introduction to undertaking road trips with an EV, we need to explain some terms used to differentiate electric vehicles and the charging infrastructure.
Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV): A PHEV is very similar to traditional hybrid vehicles that you already know, like the Toyota Prius but have larger (but still relatively small) batteries and use external power to charge the batteries (thus the “plug-in” moniker). Unlike traditional hybrids, PHEVs can run entirely on electric for a few miles (typically 5–20). Upon depleting the battery, the vehicle operates like a traditional car.
As a result, PHEVs are simple to road trip because you just fuel them at any gas station. With their small batteries and small EV-only range, there is no way to undertake a long trip using only electricity. Therefore, the following posts are not relevant for PHEVs.
Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV): This hotly debated term offers a useful descriptor for a middle-tier of electric vehicles. EREVs have a gasoline engine to extend their range, but unlike PHEVs, they have much larger battery packs and thus longer EV-only ranges. The gasoline engine typically serves as a generator to create electricity to supply to the battery rather than as a way to directly propel the car forward.
The Chevrolet Volt embodies the term EREV. Now with over 50 miles of pure electric driving, the Volt offers nearly as much range as some of the low-range battery electric vehicles, but can switch to gasoline and go hundreds of miles further. For most owners, in most daily situations, an EREV operates exclusively in electric-only mode.
A few people have taken long electric-only road trips in EREVs, but it is more of a stunt than something an average person would do.
We use our Volt to travel from DC to New York regularly but would never try to make the trip without the gasoline engine.
Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV): These are pure battery-powered vehicles. When the battery depletes, the car stops. Examples include the Nissan Leaf, BMW i3, Ford Focus Electric, and Tesla.
When I write about making long road trips in an electric vehicle, I’m writing about doing so in a BEV.
As of July 2017, there are 27 BEVs on the market (or secondary market), but not all of them are road trip capable. Only 14 models have a range greater than 200 miles, which I think is the minimum needed. People have made road trips with sub-200 mile BEVs, but doing so becomes the sole focus of the journey. From my perspective, the EV needs to add to the road trip experience if it is to be considered a good candidate.
The chart below shows which BEVs currently meet the 200-mile range criteria. Only one is not a Tesla, but that will change over the coming two to three years as ever more manufacturers release long-range EVs, including Volkswagen, Volvo, and Nissan to name three.
InsideEVs.com has a great electric vehicle comparison chart that is well worth bookmarking.
But range alone is not enough to determine whether an EV is road trip worthy and capable. I’m going to leave most of the charging discussion to future posts, but here are a few terms to know:
Level 1 (L1): Level 1 charging is a regular household outlet (i.e. 110 Volt and 15 Amp circuit). On a road trip, you would never want to use L1 charging because it can take days to charge your car. We will have to resort to L1 charging in upper Wisconsin but have a way to fit that in so it doesn’t impede our schedule.
Level 2 (L2): L2 charging is the bread and butter charging infrastructure around the country. These chargers are great if you have a few hours to charge, say while you are at a mall, work, or amusement park. They provide a pretty good jolt of juice, but you cannot rely solely on them for a road trip.
L2 chargers use a connector called a J1772, and you will see references to J1772 in many applications and charging literature. I hate all the geek speak, but at least for now, it is something we have to know.
Level 3 (L3): Commonly referred to as “fast charging,” L3 chargers are what you seek for road trips. Tesla has their supercharging network, and other companies are rapidly expanding their networks as well. Sadly, there are three competing L3 standards in the USA, and you will need to know which your vehicle can use. Those standards are:
- Combined Charging System (CCS)
- CHAdeMO
- Tesla Supercharging network: While Tesla has said they are willing to open this network up to other manufacturers, no others have taken the offer (yet). It is currently the fastest charging network and is deployed across the country in such a way that almost every portion of the USA is reachable with a Tesla via the supercharging network.
A road trip capable electric vehicle must have the ability to charge with at least one, and preferably two, L3 standards.
Fleetcarma.com has an overview of charging terms. Discussions about charging will be a recurring theme in upcoming posts so don’t worry if it seems horribly confusing. It isn’t; it just takes a little time to get used to the terminology.
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If you’re interested in purchasing a Tesla, contact me for a referral code and receive $1,000 of the purchase price and free supercharging for as long as you own the vehicle.
