WASHINGTON — As roadside chargers have become more common across the country, great American road trips are possible with electric vehicles. But they're not seamless.

A recent Fourth of July visit to West Virginia in the new 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV from this Washington policy reporter, plus conversations with Michigan EV drivers accustomed to electrified road-tripping, revealed that the convenience of gas-powered travel still reigns supreme. That's especially true for those who want to be able to make pit stops wherever and whenever they want.

Still, drivers who have made the switch amid a rocky, industry-wide transition to EVs say the adjustment is manageable. “I wouldn’t say I’m comfortable,” said James Sweeney, a computer consultant in Milford, Michigan, who’s owned a Ford F-150 Lightning EV since last summer. “But I am less uncomfortable road-tripping.”

The annoyances of long-distance EV travel — a dozen phone apps, lines, detours, wait times and equipment issues — are at best tedious and at worst disqualifying. But despite all that, Sweeney and other EV drivers in Michigan have found that electrified road-tripping is doable with a healthy dose of advance planning, patience and, occasionally, creativity.

"No, I've not seen any improvement," Sweeney, 53, said of charging infrastructure over the past year. "What I have seen is I now have a personal understanding of EVs and what I need to do to make an EV work for me."

The 2024 Blazer EV

The most immediately striking parts of the new Blazer come less from its electric powertrain and more from its technology and visual presentation. Chevrolet describes its first-ever all-electric Blazer as "daring," and the spacious cherry red interior fits that bill.

The enormous touchscreen interface does too — though drivers of older, less tech-forward cars might find it difficult to get used to. The same was true of the head-up display projected onto the driver-side windshield showing vehicle speed, speed limit, navigation instructions and more. The car's aerial-view, 360-degree backup camera, however, is an instantly helpful feature.

The electrified part of the driving experience was easy to acclimate to. Like all EVs, the Blazer is practically silent at low speeds and relies on piped-in audio to communicate with the driver that the vehicle is turned on, accelerating or decelerating. The audio is pleasant and even soothing, resembling a Tibetan singing bowl.

Highway driving with the Blazer, because of its single-speed transmission, feels smoother than driving an internal combustion engine vehicle. Virtually all ICE cars rely on gear shifting for the engine to power up and down, which creates the type of physical and auditory feedback any experienced driver will associate with pressing hard on the gas pedal — a term that might need revisiting in an electrified future.

Without that feedback, it was occasionally easy to drift above track limits. (Speeders, be warned.)

The biggest difference in road-tripping with the Blazer EV as compared to a gas-powered car was less about the driving and more about the stopping. The car's 300-plus mile battery range helped limit stops. But, as it would've been for any EV, charging was a primary concern throughout the weekend.

Not-so-fast charging

Juicing up an EV on the go is somewhat rare. The U.S. Department of Energy estimated in 2021 that 80% of charging happens at home, and some drivers gave even higher estimates from personal experience. It's significantly cheaper to charge at home, too. But that means nothing to anyone who wants to hit the open road.

To quickly charge an EV in a manner similar to filling up an internal combustion engine vehicle, drivers need a direct current fast charger, often abbreviated as DCFC. Those chargers have become far more common in recent years thanks to private investment, and public funding from the Biden administration promises to grow the network even further.

But for now, DCFC chargers are still relatively rare in some parts of the country, especially outside major cities and away from major highways. Michigan has fairly good — and fast-growing — EV fast-charging infrastructure, though the same caveats apply.

That changes the calculus for route planning. For summer camping trips and other explorations off of the most well-tread paths, EV road-tripping often requires detours or backtracks toward interstates. Four-hour trips can become four and a half. Six hours to seven.

Navigation apps — so long as there is cell service — can help with this planning. Google Maps is continuing to improve its EV-oriented planning features. Other favorites among EV drivers, like A Better Routeplanner, also help chart a course with relative ease.

For example, most of West Virginia — despite being home to Joe Manchin, the Democrat-turned independent U.S. senator instrumental in the passage of the EV-boosting Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — is sparse with chargers. There are only 12 public stations across the whole state that accommodate non-Tesla vehicles.

Driving west from the nation's capital, there isn't a DCFC connector in West Virginia before Elkins, a city of 6,800 people near the heart of the Mountaineer state that's 210 miles from Washington. The available charger made Elkins an important hub for activities through the weekend, though getting there required a diversion off Route 66 to a charger in Stephens City, Virginia. Later, returning to the District from Monongahela National Forest required a long detour to Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Kim Sandefur, a Kalamazoo, Michigan, teacher who has owned a Tesla Model 3 since 2020, said she's grown accustomed to tailoring her stops to the charging environment around her.

"They could be a quick 10-15 minute charge just to get you back on the road until the next charger. Or, depending on where we are — like traveling to Colorado, you go through Kansas, Nebraska — for some of those you have to do a full 40-minute, 100% charge to get to the next one," she said.

Knowing that up front and resetting expectations might ease the annoyance for some drivers. After all, unexpected delays coming from traffic jams — as many road trippers will attest — can be the more frustrating kind. But they're not the only time addition associated with EVs.

Sweeney, the F-150 Lightning driver, said his typical gas station stop on road trips used to be about 25 minutes. But to charge up his big 131-kilowatt battery pack from 20% capacity to 80% — his electric version of filling up — the stops are more like 45 minutes. "We kind of sit there, you know, checking our phones or doing whatever. It does add time to the trip, more than you would think,” he said. The Blazer EV needed about 40 minutes for similar charges.

Electric vehicles on fast chargers, it's worth noting, behave similarly to smartphones charging overnight. They charge most quickly up to 80% before slowing down to reduce stress on their battery packs.

Those long stops are a little better with good food options nearby, though that often isn't the case. Many fast chargers live at gas stations with typical fare — chips, sodas, hot dogs, etc. — but little for weary drivers and passengers who want a heartier meal. That'll require another stop.

Another potential time-adder is navigating the untamed frontier of charging apps an EV driver uses to start and pay for sessions at plugs operated by specific vendors, like Electrify America or Red E.

“I have literally about 15 charging apps on my phone," said Karl Bloss, a retired chemical engineer who previously worked for Consumers Energy in an EV education role. He owned Kia Niro EV before getting a Tesla Model S and a fully electric Zero motorcycle. Bloss suggested that any EV road-trippers download apps for the chargers along a route they plan to use and spend a few minutes setting up an account.

One silver lining for EV road-trippers — at least with current gas prices in Michigan — is cost, according to Sweeney, the F-150 Lightning driver.

“Now the wife and I figured out that if gas is above, like, $3.40 I'm better off with my (Lightning) truck than an ICE vehicle,” he said. That means Sweeney has been getting a modest EV discount for roadside refueling this summer, with Michigan gas prices hovering around $3.60 per gallon, per data from AAA.

Tesla vs. the rest

The elephant in the room, when it comes to any discussion of charging infrastructure and ease of use, is Tesla Inc. The country's EV leader stands alone with its own network chargers. Its advantages are both geographical and technological.

"Tesla has everybody beat hands down," Sweeney said. "In terms of charging quality, like stations that are active and up and running and whatever ... they've really got it. It's really good, and it charges fast."

“From the time we've gotten the Tesla, I will say we've never had to do our research. There has been no range anxiety,” said Sandefur, the Kalamazoo teacher who drives a Model 3. She had two versions of the Nissan Leaf and a 2012 Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid before that were more challenging for long trips.

“It’s in a different class,” she added, referencing Tesla chargers.

Chargers, more than gas pumps, can be finicky. They occasionally stop working mid-charge, only to start working again moments later. Their touchscreen interfaces aren't always good and can be hard to see in the bright sun, which is especially unpleasant to navigate during a scorching summer holiday weekend.

Tesla drivers — who benefit, for the time being, from a mostly exclusive charging network — seem to experience fewer issues.

Tesla cars use plugs that adhere to NACS, the North American Charging Standard. Those plugs accommodate Tesla Supercharger connectors and slower, Level 2 Tesla Destination connectors. All other major automakers in the U.S. have — so far — instead used the Combined Charging System, or CCS.

Eager to tap into Tesla’s robust and reliable network, many automakers are planning to switch over to NACS for future vehicles, including Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. Ford in February announced a program for EV drivers to reserve a Tesla charger adapter for free. Access to that network, EV drivers said, makes a big difference.

When Ford opened up orders for complimentary NACS adapters earlier this year, Sweeney jumped at the opportunity. “I was order 176 out of something like 86,000,” he said. The adapter arrived in June and his range anxiety has reduced since then.

GM — which uses a CCS plug for the Blazer EV — has signaled its intention to provide adapters too, but they’re yet to arrive. Third-party adapters are available online but several EV drivers told The News that they aren’t trustworthy. “You can save a buck on Amazon, but you don't know what you're getting,” Sandefur said.

Tesla, meanwhile, sells first-party NACS-to-CSS adapters for its drivers who want access to every charging option. The company also offers some “Magic Dock” stations with built-in CCS-to-NACS capabilities, but there aren't many of those. The only two in Michigan are in Ypsilanti and Mackinaw City.

Getting creative

DC fast charging is undoubtedly the standard for road-tripping with an EV. But in some cases, like when driving to harder-to-reach areas of Michigan, drivers said they've had to find other solutions.

Luke Gessner, a Grand Rapids, Michigan, record store owner who has driven a Volkswagen ID.4 since last year, told the story of a recent trip to Beaver Island, a remote and sparsely populated island in the northern waters of Lake Michigan. He searched the internet for charger information and saw little except for "a website that looks like it's from 2001" saying there are free-to-use outlets on the side of certain buildings.

He found a Level 1 EV charger — essentially a wall outlet that drips electricity into a battery pack — at a grocery store that powered his on-island travels.

"Whenever we drove into town from our Airbnb, I would park at the supermarket. I'd go inside and say, 'Hey, can I use that EV charger?' And whoever was working would be like, 'We have an EV charger?' " he recalled. Hours-long charging sessions helped him negate single trips there and back to his temporary abode.

Bloss told the story of his trip to the snowmobile museum in Naubinway on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. He said EV drivers had taken to using the 50-amp plug intended for RVs to instead charge up their battery packs. The trend frustrated the museum management, so Bloss said he and other EV drivers pitched in to buy a wall-mounted charger for them. The cost was about $400, he said.

Bloss acknowledged that crowdfunding chargers is not the most sustainable or systematic way to build out infrastructure for EVs, but thought gestures like this were important for building goodwill toward what he called the "EV community."

Sweeney, for his part, put the brakes on identifying EV driving as any kind of core part of his identity. But he did lament how polarizing the vehicles have become.

"I'm not an EV evangelist. I mean, I stumbled into EVs because my wife had an interest in them and convinced me to do a test drive," he said. "But I am taken aback at the hostility, for lack of a better term, toward EV types.

"I just took the test drive and fell in love with the thing."

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