Recently, I took my wife’s XC40 Recharge on a road trip from Franklin, TN to Davie, FL (about 898 miles as originally planned). We had chosen the XC40 even though it had a shorter range than many EVs because it was really meant to only be an around town car. This worked perfectly until I needed to get the car down to FL and balked at the cost to have it shipped. As I have a history of somewhat crazy road trips, I figured why not!
I planned my trip using PlugShare’s Trip Planner, which was a pretty handy tool for just such an occasion. I later found out that I was a bit generous in my range estimates when choosing my charger locations, and I forgot that charging can be pretty slow from 0-20% and 80-100%. I also underestimated the range anxiety I had when trying to stretch it out to a farther station since I often would be left with almost no backup choice if the charger was occupied or not working. Generally, I turned out to have pretty good luck though.
| Time (CT) | Activity | Location | Charge | Notes |
| 6:12 | Departed | Franklin, TN | 88% | |
| 7:20 | Arrived | Manchester, GA | 50% | |
| 7:56 | Departed | 88% | ||
| 10:00 | Arrived | Chattanooga, TN | 55% | Not originally planned, but was going to be too close for comfort so stopped for a short boost at a smaller charger. |
| 10:27 | Departed | 67% | ||
| 12:16 | Arrived | Marietta, GA | 19% | Saw my first Hummer EV here! Guy said his boss had just gotten one too. Almost wished I had a business card to give him so I could get into his line of work. |
| 13:02 | Departed | 83% | ||
| 14:43 | Arrived | Cordele, GA | 12% | |
| 15:20 | Departed | 74% | ||
| 16:35 | Arrived | Valdosta, GA | 28% | |
| 16:59 | Departed | 69% | ||
| 18:45 | Arrived | Gainesville, FL | 11% | Around this point I realized that the turnpike stations were far enough away that I’d be in big trouble if one was out of order, and reviews made that seem likely. Had to opt-out of the turnpike to a route that adds about 40 minutes. |
| 19:24 | Departed | 78% | ||
| 21:00 | Arrived | Ormond Beach, FL | 30% | |
| 21:24 | Departed | 62% | ||
| 22:19 | Arrived | Cocoa, FL | 21% | |
| 22:59 | Departed | 93% | ||
| 00:06 | Arrived | Port St. Lucie, FL | 34% | |
| 00:40 | Departed | 82% | ||
| 02:07 | Arrived | Davie, FL | 19% | If I had caught one or two more lights, I would have been right at 20 hours. New solo road trip record! |
Nearly all the chargers I stopped at were from Electrify America, and it was very rare that they were full or non-functioning. I did get a few that didn’t seem to be able to hit the peak charge rate that I was hoping for, but almost all were outside Walmart or Target so each was a chance to stretch my legs and replenish snacks and drinks. Don’t have to refrain from liquids when the car will have you stopping in not too long anyway!
I should have done better to leave closer to 100% initially, which probably would have gotten things started on a better foot. I also may have been able to better swing some longer drives/charges, but as this was my first long EV road trip, I still didn’t have a great feel on whether it would be better to optimize charging speed focusing on 20-80% but have more stops vs. endure some slower charging but get closer to 100% to kick off longer legs. Still, it was a heck of an experience, and I got to see a lot of cool EVs in the wild that I hadn’t yet seen. Can’t say I’ll be signing up for another one any time soon though!
