I get emails from readers, viewers and drivers every day. A lot have to do with vacation and family travel, particularly from people who own or are considering an electric vehicle.
They’re curious about charging on long vacation drives:
Does it take forever? (No.)
Is it easy to find fast chargers, so I can get back on my way? (Yes, with the right route-planning app or nav system.)
I took an EV — a 2026 Cadillac Optiq (highly recommended) — on my 2,350-mile vacation drive this year.
My biggest lessons were:
Here’s my report on the four best — and two of the worst — fast-chargers I encountered:
Safe travels, y’all.
My 4 best DC fast chargers are reliable, secure and welcoming
ChargePoint, Love’s Travel Stop, Sparta, Kentucky: 320-kW chargers that started flawlessly and charged fast on two stops. This was the only place with a roof to shelter chargers from rain and sun. Also squeegees and buckets of washer fluid. A small dog run. 24-hour amenities. Very pleasant service.
Tesla, The Tennessean Travel Shop, Cornersville, Tennessee – A whopping 24 chargers. Like every Tesla charger I used, they were easy to use and reliable. A big, grassy dog run with a picnic table for people. Many choices for food and drink in a clean and welcoming building. Coffee-shop quality latte. Terrific service. Spotlessly clean, from parking lot to coffee shop.
Tesla, Buc-ee’s, Smith’s Grove, Kentucky – Big, clean, well-lit. Helpful staff. Typical flawless Tesla charging experience. My first Buc-ee’s. I’ll go back.
Ionna, Wawa, Lima, Ohio – 400-kW chargers with credit card readers and connectors for both NACS and CCS. Ionna’s a new provider created by BMW, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes, Stellantis and Toyota. Directions for charging were vague, and customer service wasn’t much help.
The clean, secure Wawa station had pleasant staff and 24-hour food and amenities.
Excluding unreliable suppliers I learned to avoid, most of my stops lasted 20-35 minutes — not much longer than typical gas station stops, when you consider time for restroom visits, grabbing a snack and stretching your legs.
2 EV chargers I never want to see again
At more than a dozen stops during my two-week vacation, the only chargers that didn’t work on the first try were at EVgo and Electrify America stations.
I swore off using them again, and regretted it when I made an exception.
EVgo, Meijer, Troy, Ohio: The charger quit when I walked away to get coffee in the store. Restarting it to complete my charge wasted at least 20 minutes.
A week later I rolled the dice on a GM Energy-branded, EVgo-operated station in Birmingham, Alabama. I tried three chargers before one worked.
Electrify America, Wal-Mart, Athens, Alabama: A disaster. Arriving in the forbidding parking lot of a closed Alabama Walmart after midnight with less than 10% charge remaining, the first six connectors I tried didn’t work. The last one did, or I might still be there.
I walked 300 yards across the parking lot to a gas station for a restroom and Coke, only to discover the brightly lit station is under construction and hasn’t opened yet.
Walking back, I saw enough occupied vehicles and patrolling police and security to suspect the parking lot sees as much commerce at 1 a.m. as the Wal-Mart does when it’s open.
All told, it was an hour before I had enough charge to continue — thankfully, to a Tesla charger that shares a busy, well-lit parking lot with a Shell station and Dunkin’ Donuts in Bessemer, Alabama.
Full disclosure: My first Electrify stop, at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, went fine. The museum has food and amenities 9 a.m.-5 p.m., seven days a week. After that, you’re on your own.
Contact Mark Phelan: mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Here are the best and worst EV chargers I found on my vacation drive
Reporting by Mark Phelan, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mark Phelan, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
