What I Learned About the Future of Electric Cars on My Family’s Summer Road Trip
Skift Take
We drove 2,400 miles and juiced up at 14 charging stations in August on a round-trip journey from New Jersey to Florida, and back. Our experience and my diary of that trip hopefully serves as a playbook for the companies that are still innovating for this still-nascent way to travel.
When Covid-19 entered our lives, people started re-thinking how they vacation and some are choosing alternative modes of transportation. My family has switched entirely to road-tripping post-Covid-19. To date we’ve driven to Florida, Georgia, and Minnesota twice with plans to drive to Cape Cod and Georgia later this year — all in an electric car.
Why did we switch? I’ve always dreaded flying with kids. Two young kids, two car seats, a stroller, plus all the luggage. And it’s expensive — four plane tickets plus a rental car can easily cost over $2,000.
If you’ve ever driven a long distance with young kids you know that you need to stop often for bathroom breaks and the stops take some time — with my family these stops can last 15 minutes if we move as quickly as possible or over 30 minutes if we need to eat a meal. It so happens that this is about how long a Tesla takes to charge at a Supercharger — stops average to about 25 minutes each eve