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by breput 1133 days ago
If you do a lot of short range commuting and have a way to charge it at home, a PHEV could work - but good luck trying to buy one right now.

Otherwise get a hybrid or Tesla, period. There are nice non-Tesla EV cars available but the charging infrastructure, even in high EV-density states, is unreliable. This should improve in the next 3-5 years but you can not currently depend on the chance of finding working CCS fast chargers to justify any non-Tesla option for road trips in many parts of the country. Also note that very few non-Tesla fully electric vehicles are currently eligible for the tax credit due to not being built in, or batteries sourced from, North America. Edit: [3]

I recently came back from a 1800 mile road trip across the central western USA in a Tesla Model Y and never had a moment of concern about the charging infrastructure, including rolling into a Supercharger at 4 AM with 2% state of charge and just knowing that it would work. There are definitely areas, mostly west of the Mississippi, with significant pockets without good Supercharger coverage[0] although with an adapter you can also charge Teslas at CCS stations or even at RV parks.

If you want to see how your situation might work, A Better Route Planner[1] and PlugShare[2] are good resources for being able to specify your car and route and see how an EV may work for you. But honestly, just get a Model Y Long Range with the full $7,500 tax credit and enjoy!

[0] https://www.tesla.com/findus?v=2&bounds=57.514620727135494%2...

[1] https://abetterrouteplanner.com/

[2] https://www.plugshare.com/

[3] https://fueleconomy.gov/feg/tax2023.shtml

1 comments

In general, if an area isn’t covered by a Tesla super charger, it isn’t covered by CCS L3 chargers either. Canada is a bit different however.

I have an i4 and am planning our first road trip in it. I’m keeping it simple, we will just go from Seattle to Wenatchee. I don’t think we could make John Day Oregon reliably yet, even in a Tesla that would be hard.

It looks like an easy trip, honestly.

ABRP shows[0] plenty of Superchargers along the route and a suggests only a total of 50 minutes of charging which are nicely spaced for eating and breaks, although I'd probably add a buffer in there as well.

Round trip[1] has more stops, obviously, but easily doable without any more planning than getting in the car and driving.

The i4 is a cool looking car, but maybe you could rent a Tesla from Hertz (the devil) or something like Turo and give it a try?

[0] https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=0ef3d1ec-9efc-419...

[1] https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=44efaba5-b904-4a1...

The i4 can get there, but the last leg is a long one, and you have only one L2 charger for the whole town when you arrive…we’ll, it’s 60kw or so, it might work.
There are nearly as many Supercharger locations along this route as there are in my entire state (more if you drive back through Portland[0]), and I live in a state with an area comparable to Washington.

[0] https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=b74c1630-e07e-4cb...