My numbers may not be perfectly accurate, but the sentiment is.
Tesla cars at supercharger stations charge to roughly 80% charge in 30 minutes, then take another 30 minutes to finish topping off to 100%. For that reason, they are typically placed at intervals of about half a battery range, so that you don't need a full charge to reach the next station with plenty of charge to spare. Typically, a well planned long road trip will involve rapidly charging the car from 20% to 70%, then driving 100-200 miles until another supercharger, where you repeat the process. In this way, you need to charge for much less time than if you tried to charge from 50% to 100%
The point is, that owners of traditional cars don't have to "plan" road trips unless they just like doing that sort of thing. I know when I have to make a 300+ mile drive I don't plan it at all, I just set off knowing that I can stop anywhere when I need gasoline. I normally don't stop for food and try to hold bathroom breaks to coincide with gas stops, which generally take no more than 10 minutes. The last thing I want to do when I'm trying to get somewhere is stop for an hour for a leisurely meal.
Having t break up trips into 100-200 mile segments based on limited recharging sites might be acceptable for some, but for many I think it will be viewed as a step backwards.
That's not really true but, admittedly, it depends on where you're going. There are plenty of places in the US where you can go 50+ miles on the freeway without hitting a gas station. There are even signs on the freeways that will tell you "Last fuel stop for x miles" in some parts of the country. Also, considering that Teslas have a starting range of 250 miles, you're stopping just as much as you would be in a gas car, just for a longer period of time (30 minutes max).
And Canada too, the moment I go driving in northern Ontario to somewhere I have not been before I need to note where gas stations are and often refill my tank when I am still have over half a tank of gas left just because I don't know when the next gas station will come along.
It's only thanks to GPS that we don't have to plan long trips anymore. Before GPS, it wasn't all that uncommon to plan your trip. (It's possible my dad went a bit overboard, though.)
I expect that in the future, every parking spot will have its own charger. At that point, EV drivers won't have to plan anymore either.
When driving through Germany on the highway, it's not unusual for gas stations to be 50km apart. Tesla has a supercharger roughly every ~100km in all of western Europe (much closer in dense areas), meaning you'll be on average 50km away from one at any point. Not much of a difference in how far ahead you need to plan.
Are there enough superchargers in Europe (inc. UK) fo this to be feasible?
What do you do if (as seemed to happen to the author) a supercharger station is out of action and you are on 20% battery with the next station half a charge away?
The UK is bad because Tesla didn't space out the chargers as evenly as they are in France and Germany. Instead there are more around London, Midlands, and Manchester but very few in the south west and north east, almost none in Wales, etc. Visiting friends in Bridlington about this time last year was only practical because I could charge at their house.
Generally I aim to get to the next charger with about 30% so that I have a good margin for unexpected detours (road works, an unexpected bit of sight seeing, etc.) Was very handy last summer when the road from Oslo to Trondheim (Rv 3) was closed and I hadn't noticed, had to drive an extra 50 km over the mountains to get to the other road (E6).
abetterrouteplanner.com finds a round-trip route for her journey that requires 2.5 total hours of charging, while never dipping below 10% charge or above 61% (subject to assumptions about what exact model vehicle she had). The screen in the Tesla will show you in real-time which stations are open, and even how many spots are free, although I don't know how well they indicate future closures.
Tesla's navigation interface will also do automatic routing through superchargers, but I personally like the web interface better.
Everyone seems to link these route planners while ignoring that the article author actually used the one in Tesla and had issues with nonfunctional or closed superchargers. Why didn't you read the text? :(
Either you plan your route, as you normally would (look at what roads you're taking and what's around, etc) or you would just follow your nav and do no planning at all.
The only difference with EV is that the nav will also tell you where to charge.
If you take this attitude for a road trip anywhere outside of major suburbia in the U.S.; Good luck. From the Florida turnpike, Alabama/Mississippi, Texas, Route 56, the Rockies, the Smokies, or almost any coastal highway, if you wait until empty you're going to have a bad day.
If you wait until empty, but I wait until I'm at 100 miles left and fill up - this has always been within 20 miles leaving me plenty of comfort space just in case.
True, but those are areas that few people go anyway. I would expect signs alerting me to the fact that gas is not available ahead - and I also expect I would never actually travel those roads.
To clarify: The planning, I mean. Takes about 5 seconds because you start typing in your destination, choose it from the displayed options, and the car makes the plan. In the meantime you are starting your drive already.
miles per minute (range per wait-time) goes drastically down after about 80% of charging because of the so-called 'Stadium effect'.
In simple terms 0-80 takes 30 minutes but the rest of the 20 percent will take 30 minutes too. So it is better to make two stops if you have to and get 80 + 80.
A quick Google didn't give me anything clear here - why is that a mistake?