Driving an Electric Vehicle Across Two Countries
You know that scene in Forrest Gump where Forrest decides to go for a run and ends up running across the country? Well, that’s what happen with Don Louv when he decided to drive his brand new Porsche Taycan Turbo from Portland, Maine, across the Canada, to California. The original goal was to visit his mother in Hawaii and it turned into a 46 day tour covering 11,000 miles across two countries. Its the spirit of manifest destiny with new car smell.
Up until recently the main drawback to EV’s has been range anxiety and charging times. What Don has proven is that it is indeed possible to travel 8-10 hour days on a road trip with an electric car. In an interview with InsideEVs here is what he had to say about the experience:
“The charging network for “everyone else” (non-Teslas) got a slow start, but it is catching up quickly. This trip proves a non-Tesla EVs can drive almost anywhere in the US, and all the way from coast to coast in Canada. The network isn’t perfect. It isn’t always smooth. Often it takes two or three tries to get a charging session going. But in the end, it always works. On rare occasions, you might need to drop back to a Level 2 charger, and go read a book. But eventually, you’ll get there. And with more and more DC Fast chargers coming online all the time, it will just get easier and smoother.”
Don says he suffered no major issues and rode in complete comfort the whole way. The Taycan averaged 215 miles per charge over the entire trip. All of which is good PR for Porsche. It also proves that North America’s network of charging stations can only get better from here.
“Long road trips in a Taycan are much easier than I expected. The car is supremely quiet and comfortable. I could easily drive 8 or 10 hours a day without problems. On the last day, I drove (and charged) for 17 hours, covering over a 1000 miles.”
Would You Take a Long Distance Road Trip in an Electric Vehicle ?
Have you ever taken a road trip in an fully electric vehicle? Would you if given the opportunity? Or are you waiting for charging stations to be quicker than a microwavable dinner?
Jesus Behind the Wheel 