EV Pioneers

Part 1 of our EV road trip chronicles, in which you learn how much I like to prepare and be organized.

Rafael loading the Bolt for our trip

"In ten years, you'll tell stories about how crazy it used to be that you had to map out charging stations before they were ubiquitous!"

Those were the words of Nathan Wyeth, founder of Link, the service that helped us buy our used Chevy Bolt. He was reassuring me after I’d read the latest story detailing how difficult it is to get around the U.S. in a non-Tesla electric car. 

Today, my husband and I are beginning our EV road trip from Oakland, California to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s taken weeks of planning, resulting in a detailed spreadsheet that lists all our stops and alternates for each — in case chargers are out of order or unavailable. We’ve downloaded numerous EV charging apps and acquired charging network cards that we hope the card readers will read. We fully charged our car before heading out, and we’ve made reservations at hotels with chargers. We’re about as prepared as we can be.

It’s still nerve-wracking.

Are we the intrepid pioneer types? Not really. Rafael and I are both working on our ability to roll with the punches. Now, we’ll have a unique opportunity to practice our still-nascent resilience skills.

How it all began

I don’t love cars, and I don’t love driving. So, why buy a car at all? Some people in my North Oakland neighborhood get by without a car, so I know it can be done. But it isn’t easy in the U.S. (see this woman’s experience living in suburban Zurich versus Chicago), and I’m not the avid biker I’d like to be. It would take me hours to get to my family’s house in San Rafael on public transit, instead of the 30 minutes by car.

While I wish we’d make biking more accessible and beef up our public transit, for now I still rely on having a car. For some time, I’ve wanted that car to be electric, but that seemed out of reach till recently. Then I got the brilliant idea from David Roberts of buying a used Bolt, which would have a brand-new battery because of the recent recall. We took the plunge — and with the help of Link’s excellent service (which turned out to include reassuring me about and giving me tips for our road trip), we finally got the EV I’d dreamed of.

Most people who buy an EV don’t plan a road trip within a few months of their purchase, but the time was right for us. We hadn’t seen Rafael’s 95-year-old mom for almost three years. We didn’t feel comfortable flying if we didn’t have to, especially with mask mandates lifted. And many direct flights to Albuquerque had been cut. You need a car when you get there anyway, so why not bring our own?

Not your grandmother’s road trip

It’s been ages since I’ve been on a road trip that took longer than a day. I feel a bit wistful thinking of the days when we could head out with no reservations, meander a bit, and see where we ended up. On a Christmas road trip to Albuquerque over a decade ago, we stopped at an almost-deserted Zion National Park, easily got a room in a motel whose rooms were little cottages, and had the hotel hot tub in the snow to ourselves. We’d had no idea what we’d find when we arrived at Zion, and it turned out to be one of the most special places I’ve ever stayed.

This trip, in contrast, won’t have room for unexpected surprises like this. In fact, we hope for no unexpected surprises — at least, not in the form of non-functioning car chargers.

Having to plan ahead in such detail takes away some of the pleasure of a road trip. In the big scheme of things, that may not seem like a big deal. Not having a perfect road trip is hardly a problem compared to the real problems in most people’s lives — including mine. But it’s one factor that makes people less likely to buy an electric car. 

I look forward to a day when this barrier to EV adoption will be a thing of the past. As Nathan indicated, that day will come. I think it will come sooner than we might expect. In five years, a trip like this will be a breeze — even if you don’t drive a Tesla. 

Subscribe to Flower Child to find out what happens next on our road trip.

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