Recently, while youtube, I saw a video of a gentleman who decided to sell his 500 mile range EV, mostly because of the perceived poor state of the non-Tesla public charging network. Granted “out-of-spec-Dave” does like to do multi-state road-trips, driving hundreds of miles in a day. This is very different from my driving habits as a much more leisurely road tripper. But this got me thinking, 800 km range is enough to get me from Toronto to Quebec City, just about the longest I would consider doing in a day. Provided one could get overnight charging, and possibly some grazing during the day, the much more abundant L2 charging stations can keep your high-range EV going on a roadtrip.
Range, is much discussed when it comes to electric vehicles (EVs). And for good reason, with public chargers often broken or unavailable, range can take a lot of stress out of road tripping. Lucid motors made headlines a few years back achieving an EPA rated range in excess of 500 miles (800 km) (source). The Lucid Air Dream Edition range, comes with a 118 kWh Gross battery pack, achieving 520 mile/830 km range (source), this works out to be 7 km/kWh, something I can actually achieve in city driving in my 2018 Nissan Leaf, so lets use that efficiency number for now.
So, can you road-trip in such a vehicle without using fast charging at all? Of course, the quoted range of 830 km, will get you to Ottawa from Toronto and back (2 x 400 km = 800 km), no charging needed at all. Its enough to go from Toronto to Quebec city without charging (800 km), although you would have to fully charge the car for the return. But alas, its all about the assumptions.
Suppose we were to limit the daily driving tally to be less than the 800 km, can we charge overnight? We certainly can, if a 19 kW charger is available (the maximum AC charging speed of the Lucid Air (source)), were fully charged in 6 hours. Granted, 10 kW and 6.7 kW chargers are more numerous, in which case its more like 11 and a half hours and 17 hours.
How long does an overnight stay at a hotel last? I suppose that also depends, but I certainly like my 8 hour shuteye, breakfast is often quite tasty, as is dinner. Plus the kids really like to try the pool if its available. Hence a 10 hour window is certainly available. Should any of these prove unavailable, the Lucid air can charge at 300 kW, in which case you go from 10%-80% charge in about 30 min (source). Certainly plenty.
Editorial note: Covering 100k$ plus EVs is not my usual forte, but I figured this post was worth it, mostly to illustrate how range can be used to overcome poor charging infrastructure, and also in reality, how the much more numerous L2 charging stations really do cover most of our charging needs, in particular how helpful it is to have overnight L2 charging at hotels regardless of what EV you drive.
Electric car adventures 