An impromptu mega EV road trip

In total, I charged the car 19 times during the trip using paid, level 3 chargers from Rivian, Tesla and Electrify America. Each stop, I spent about 20 minutes charging and it came to $516.45 total for the entire trip. That may seem expensive, but if you compare it to a gas-powered minivan on a 2,600 mile trip getting 20mpg, with fuel being around $5.50/gallon currently, that same road trip would cost $715. If the van got 25mpg, the fuel costs would still exceed the EV costs at $572).

This is interesting in only because Matthew is the first person to say it still costs money to use their EV. Every EV zealot I’ve read likes to trumpet the “I don’t have to pay for gas” thing. It still costs quite a bit to drive the car on a road trip. (Admittedly, the economics are decidedly different when you limit your driving to around your own neighborhood/city).

Even then, it’s more money than I would have thought. $516.45 is not that much less than the $572 in the grand scheme of things. I’m using the 25mpg number here because I wouldn’t want a vehicle that would get less than that on the highway.

Also, I’d like to come back to this one:

Each stop, I spent about 20 minutes charging

You know how long it takes to get gas? 5 minutes. That 15-minute difference may not seem like a long time, but multiply that by the 19 stops, and that adds up. I did the math. It’s almost 5 hours worth of extra time on the trip.

No thanks.