Earlier this year, Glen Ayers and his wife Mary drove their electric car from Massachusetts to California and back, stopping at parks and small towns across the country.
Ayers says going such a long distance in an EV was not difficult. Knowing where to charge up required a bit of planning, but he says they were able to plug in at campgrounds and stations along the way.
“If you’re driving on the interstates, pretty much every 30 to 50 miles, there’s a fast charger,” he says.
Ayers says this was a noticeable increase from a few years ago when he and his wife took a similar vacation.
And the number of EV drivers has grown, too. Ayers says on the couple’s last trip, their car was often the only one at a charging station. But he says this time they almost always saw two or three other cars charging.
“And there were two times where we had to actually wait in line for about 10 minutes … to plug in our car,” he says. “That’s very different from three years ago.”
Altogether, Ayers estimates that he and his wife spent about a third less on charging than they would have on gas.
And by driving an EV, they dramatically reduced the carbon footprint of their trip.
“I hope to never, ever drive a gas-powered car again for the rest of my life,” he says.
Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman/ChavoBart Digital Media
Editor’s note: This page was updated July 12, 2023, to correct an error in the subheadline.
