this post was submitted on 31 May 2026
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You're focusing on something that's a small percentage of driving for most people. Focusing on the 1% of the time exception case prevents a lot of the positive experience that could be going on 99% of the time.
But even with that, you're also not accurate on the actual experience of an EV road trip, I see a lot of incorrect assumptions in what you're saying. I don't think it's any kind of maliciousness on your part, just lack of knowledge.
First of all, I'm not constantly and dangerously checking my phone for the next charging station info while driving like you have said.
I'm only ever focused on getting to the next charger. Just like you'd get to any other destination.
I leave home with 100% battery and the idea, okay, first I'm going to stop at X charger at the 160 mile point from here, it's just off the main interstate I'm taking to my destination. I share its address into Waze or Google Maps or whatever, just like navigating to anywhere else... this takes like three seconds every time, and I'm not driving when I do it.
When I get there, I come off the highway and GPS navigate to it like any other destination.
I arrive, plug up, and while the car charges over the next 10 to 15 minutes, I use the bathroom, get drinks or a snack or whatever, set the NEXT charger's address into the navigation. Once I have enough charge to get to it, I unplug, drive off. and the next leg starts. So on and so forth, until I arrive to the ultimate destination.
The main difference on the trip between the EV and the gas car is that I pre-plan the fuel stops before I start the trip, instead of just impromptu stopping when I'm low on gas. That's literally it.
And again, that planning takes less than 5 minutes to do, at my convenience, and before the trip actually starts. I'm totally fine with paying that tiny bit of time on occasional road trips to avoid all of the extra time and expense of maintaining an entirely unneeded gas car.
I'm focusing on the 1% because 1% cases are what drives purchases in most cases. Renting a car for 1% of your trips is often expensive enough that it's cheaper overall to just buy the one car that will do everything instead of finding an alternate for the 1%.
Yes, I know you can take an EV on long trips. People do it. However, everyone is planning in ways that people with gas cars don't. Because with a gas car, as you're driving along, you see your fuel gauge running towards low so you stop at the next exit: there's a gas station there. You don't worry about headwind or temperature causing you to use more fuel or some other situation.
Is that really more annoying than all the repair work and climate guilt that comes with an ICE vehicle? Is that 5 minutes more valuable than all the time you spend working to make money to spend on gas and repairs?
Most people consider the climate something that other people should worry about while they can do their own thing.
I find EV owners greatly exaggerate the amount of maintenance and effort that a modern ICE vehicle needs compared to an EV.
Also, I do own an EV and I use it for local trips. For now, the minivan is bigger and that's what we are using for the road trips anyway. However, in the last road trip, I did look at the charging situation and I realized that, yes, I could have taken the EV but chargers were not near as convenient as gas stations are right now.
I think where our mindsets differ is that you, and other people, value the ultimate convenience of just impromptu stopping when the gauge goes low. No one wants to do the little bit of extra brain work to plot the course for navigating an EV. Even though it's actually far less extra work than most people imagine it is, due to the tools that are available to you.
Whereas I'm telling you, it's well beyond worth it for that little bit of extra effort. I spend thousands less every year, with huge reductions in fuel and maintenance costs, than I would be spending had I kept my last gas car I had before making the switch last year.
I have absolutely zero regrets. And I believe most people would be there too if they switched... the experience is just too good.