How I road trip stress-free in an EV (and you can, too!)

I'm taking a round trip from the San Francisco Bay Area to Reno, Nevada in an electric car

this 2026 Chevrolet Equinox EV. And no, that's not a super long journey as great American road trips go

but it's longer than most Americans say they're comfortable driving in an electric car

So let's take this opportunity to show you everything you need to know about planning a long road trip in an electric car

Buckle up, and let's get right into it. Let's get to know my ride for the next couple of hours

I've chosen the 2026 Chevy Equinox EV, a small electric SUV, which puts it in one of the most popular segments in America today

And starting at around $35,000, it's one of the most affordable EVs you can buy today, putting it within reach of most of you watching right now

Now, this particular example stickers at just over $50,000, but those upgrades are mostly creature comforts, styling upgrades like nicer wheels and carbon fiber trim, and driver assistance features like the GM Super Cruise feature we've got here

It's a hands-off, eyes-on, highway steering assist feature. So if you see me at some point today not touching the steering wheel, that's why

But none of those are going to be pay-to-win features that give us an unfair advantage over the base model

They're not going to boost our range. They're not going to boost our charging speed. By the way, we're looking at 319 miles of range for this front-wheel drive version

which is pretty darn good for the money. And our charging speed at 150 kilowatts isn't the best in the industry

but I think we'll get by just fine today. For me, this is a very casual trip

I didn't really even do that much planning. I just got up, threw my stuff in the car, and headed out of the door

confident that I'd reach the destination that I'm headed to with plenty of charging along the way

But that's because I'm familiar with electric cars. It hasn't always been like this. When I first

started, I took a trip similar to this one from San Francisco to Tahoe, and I was sweating bullets

the whole time between charging stops. It felt less like a journey and more like just dashing

from charging station to charging station. But today we've had years of charging infrastructure

growth, major advancements in electric vehicle technology and range, and I've got hundreds

more miles of electric vehicle experience under my belt that I'm going to share with

you today. I'm super confident that I'll make it where I'm going with no problems whatsoever

Planning a road trip in an electric car isn that much different from planning a road trip in a gasoline car In both situations you going to want to do a little bit of pre so you know where you going how long it going to take you to get there where you going to stop to eat for lunch along the way Only with an electric car you want to put a little bit more

effort in to make sure that your charging stops line up with your bio stops. To that end, you can

use special software to help you plan your trip. A Better Route Planner, for example, allows you to

punch in your starting point and destination as well as the make and model and trim level of your

electric car. With that information, it can plan you a trip, accounting for how much range you're

going to have between stops, how long it thinks it's going to take you to charge at each stop

and give you a very accurate estimate for how long your trip's going to be. That said, pretty much

any electric vehicle worth its salt today, including this Equinox EV, has powerful software built into

the dashboard that's not just connected to the vehicle itself, able to know things like your

current state of charge, your current energy expenditure, and adjust on the fly. But it's also

connected to the web, and it's going to allow it to do things like know what charging stations are

in the area it thinks you're going to need to stop to charge, how long it's going to take you to charge

at those stations, and even what the availability of stations look like. Now, in the early days of

electric vehicles, you used to have to keep five half a dozen apps on your phone for every individual

charging station. These days, more and more vehicles are coming available at what's called

plug-and-charge. That's a system that you set up before you even leave. Actually, when you first

get set up with your car, and that adds your payment information to the vehicle software

and it automatically negotiates that when you plug in at support stations. So you don't really

need to worry about opening the app and getting to the right screen and telling it you're charging

you just plug and charge. That said, I'd recommend that you keep one or two

of the more popular EV charging apps in your area installed on your phone and updated

And make sure that your credit card information is updated before you leave on your trip. It can save you a little bit of trouble if you need it

Additionally, more stations and networks like Electrified America and Tesla Superchargers are accepting the ability to tap and pay

with a phone or a card. I was able to experience this when I stopped at one of the new IANA charging networks

for chargery stations on this trip. Honestly, this is the easiest, most gas station-like way to interact with charging

You just rock up, tap your credit card, charge your car, and you're on your way

No musts, no fuss, no downloading apps or logging in, and no giving the charging network more of your private information than they absolutely need

Now, when choosing where you're going to charge, you need to know what sort of charging port your vehicle has Now most EVs built before say 2024 2025 in North America are going to come with what called a CCS port the combined charging standard

Though around that time many automakers were switching over to what's called NAX, N-A-C-S

or the North American charging system. That's Tesla standard that they opened up to the rest

industry around that time. Either way you go it's a good idea to travel with an EV charging adapter

something like this that's going to allow you to go from CCS to NAX or vice versa depending on your

vehicle. They're not super expensive think under $200 for a reputable one and it's money well spent

to double the places you can charge and if your car is less than two years old there's a good

chance that there's already one in your trunk with the rest of your charging gear. So you've got your

route planned you've got your adapter you're ready to go what are some things you can look out for to

make your EV road trip a little bit less stressful? Well things that can affect your range start with

making sure that your vehicle is well maintained now electric cars require much less maintenance

than gasoline cars there's no oil to change for example but one of the easiest things you can look

out for is your vehicle's tire pressure making sure that your tire pressure is at the manufacturer's

recommended level can reduce the amount of rolling resistance that your ev experiences on the road

and help you get closer to the stated range and many vehicles also come equipped with advanced tire

pressure monitoring systems taking that one little bit of math out of your head now older EVs can also

be more sensitive to temperature changes for a variety of reasons newer EVs have much more

efficient climate control often heat pump based for both the cabin and the electrical systems so

they're less sensitive to those temperature changes but driving in the winter and in the

heat of the summer will have some sort of an effect on your EV's range that you should be aware of

Certain EVs can use their thermal systems to nudge the battery temperature into the sweet spot for charging

which is sometimes different from the sweet spot for operation, so that when you plug in, you get the fastest possible charge without first having to ramp up the kilowatts

It costs the EV a bit of energy to do this, so they best tie into the navigation software to time the conditioning to match your arrival at the station

If you don't use the onboard navigation software to pick your charging stops

or if you're using your phone or phone mirroring like Apple CarPlay, you may have to manually begin the conditioning

So check your car's menu. Now the last thing you're gonna want to keep an eye on is your speed

Now I'm not saying drive like a miser, but you should know that as your vehicle punches through the air every mile per hour that you add requires more energy than the last to maintain that speed Basically the faster you go

exponentially the more energy it takes to keep that speed. So reducing your cruising speed by

5-10 miles an hour or sticking to the speed limit can help you get closer to the stated range on your

EV's dashboard and keep you from getting caught out a couple of miles short of the next charging

station. Even if you do everything right, you may have to expect the unexpected. On my trip

the first stop that my navigation chose was actually a Tesla station that didn't yet support

third-party vehicles, so I had to move on to a second stop, which was a crowded Electrify America

station with a bunch of locals waiting to charge. I took a second to check my charging apps and found

a newer Tesla station just one exit up with a bunch of empty bays. Soon the car was plugged in

and charging happily, I was grabbing lunch nearby. And before you know it, I was back on the road

Charging from 10 to 80% took around 35 minutes and the whole ordeal, including repositioning

for the different charging stations, ended up taking around an hour. Eventually, I made my way

to Reno and then it was time to turn around. On the way back, I finally got a chance to stop at

one of the new Iona Charging Network's rechargeries outside of Sacramento. It was a bit dark

But other than that, it was one of the best charging experiences I've ever had

I was able to use the infotainment in the Chevy Equinox to watch a short cartoon while I charged

and then I was back on the road. Eventually, I made my way home

Overall, the trip had its hiccups, and I'd say that, well, anytime you drive for 10 hours straight

it's going to be a bit tiring. But overall, I'd say it was a lot less stressful than the last time I'd driven these same roads

The Equinox proved to be a trusty steed and a great pick for this trip. I was very impressed with its performance and with the amount of range that it offered

Even when I ran into unexpected issues, I wasn't super stressed because I knew I had the extra little bit of range to get me where I was going

And if it weren't for the GM Super Cruise allowing me to kick back on some of the longer, more boring stretches and the Google built in infotainment giving me something to keep my eyes and ears occupied during the short charging stops, I think I would have been a lot more stressed overall

So there you have it. Some top tips to help you tackle your next EV trip. Do you drive an EV

Is it something that you're thinking about switching to in the future? Either way, you can head over to CNET.com where we've got a deep dive into the current state of the U.S. EV industry

Despite what you're hearing in the news, it's not as dire as you might think. While you're there, you can learn more about the Chevy Equinox EV

I've got a first look coming up and you can check out more tech news. Drive safe and I'll see you next time