Next
How-to guide

Your first EV road trip: the checklist to run before you go

Published August 30, 20265 min readHow-to guide

Plan your charging stops, know how much battery to keep in reserve and which apps to install before you set off. All of it in 7 points.

Driving an EV out of town is easier than most people expect, but it does need a different kind of planning from a petrol car, because charging stations are still nowhere near as dense as fuel stations.

  1. 1Plan your charging stops in advance. Use an app to find stations along your route and pick at least two per leg, in case a charging point is out of order or there is a queue.
  2. 2Never let the battery drop below 15% on the road. Start looking for a station at 30% so you still have plenty of options.
  3. 3On DC charging, stop at 80%. From 80 to 100% the system slows the charge right down, so you spend a lot of time waiting for very little range.
  4. 4Run the air conditioning as normal. Speed is the real enemy of range: at 120 km/h you use roughly 25% more energy than at 90 km/h.
  5. 5Download every major charging network app and link your payment card before you leave home.
  6. 6Always keep an AC cable in the car. Plenty of hotels let you plug in free overnight.
  7. 7EVCNX customers get the charging card and app in the car from the start: unlimited charging at partner stations on the road with nothing to pay on the spot, and you hand the car back at any battery level.

Written by the EVCNX Carrent team

Back to all articles
Your first EV road trip: the checklist to run before you go | EVCNX Carrent