With gas prices on the rise, electric vehicle owners must feel like the lucky ones. Yet while there are no worries about being at the mercy of oil companies, one of the primary concerns of potential EV consumers is that it can be difficult to find charging stations on long-haul trips. But more and more charging stations popping up — including along some classic road trip routes around the world.
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The Most Electric-Vehicle-Friendly Road Trip Is Along One of the World’s Most Beautiful Coastlines
Compare the Market, a company that compares quotes on insurance and products, conducted a study to find the most popular electric-vehicle-friendly road trips.
Photo: Compare The Market
The third most popular route is the Transfagarasan road trip in Romania, with 145,222 Instagram posts. With less than one full charge, road-trippers can stop at popular spots like the Balea Waterfall and Poenari Citadel and take Instagrammable shots of the majestic mountains along the way.
In second place is California’s Big Sur. This California adventure is a coastal trip filled with dramatic waterfalls, beaches, cliffs, and dunes perfect for everyone to enjoy. The most notable spots include San Simeon and Carmel Highlands — it’s no wonder why there are over 1.4 million documented Instagram posts. Best of all, no need to make a million stops to enjoy the ride. The whole trip only takes about a quarter of a full charge.
But the best electric-vehicle-friendly road trip is Amalfi Coast. Needing only about a tenth of a full charge for the 40-mile journey, drivers pass through Positano to enjoy cliffs topped with pastel houses and Ravello, with its fantastic cliffside gardens. Enjoy the coastal Italian cuisine and join the people who’ve posted more than three million Instagram posts along the way.
The most popular electric-vehicle-friendly road trips
- Italy’s Almafi Coast: 40 miles, 99 EV chargers available, .11 charges needed
- California’s Big Sur: 87 miles, 78 EV chargers available, .23 charges needed
- Romania’s Transfargarasan: 106 miles, 38 EV chargers available, .28 charges needed
- Australia’s Great Ocean Road: 147 miles, 69 EV chargers available, .39 charges needed
- England’s Atlantic Highway: 179 miles, 298 EV chargers available, .48 charges needed
- Norway’s Atlantic Road: 191 miles, 84 EV chargers available, .51 charges needed
- Germany’s Romantic Road: 210 miles, 160 EV chargers available, .56 charges needed
- Scotland’s NC500: 440 miles, 97 EV chargers available, 1.18 charges needed
- South Africa’s Route 62: 1271 miles, 27 EV chargers available, 3.4 charges needed
- United States’ Route 66: 2122 miles, 89 EV chargers available, 5.67 charges needed
- Argentina’s Ruta 40: 3,052 miles, 51 EV chargers available, 8.16 charges needed
To find these routes, Compare the Market gauged the most well-known road trips worldwide based on stories published about them, and then ranked each by using the number of Instagram posts for each route’s hashtag on Instagram. To find the EV chargers, it put each route on Google Maps to find the total distance of each road trip and the number of available EV chargers. It then used the Tesla Model 3 with 374 miles (the most sold electric vehicle of 2020) to determine how many charges would be needed to complete the trip.
So take a chance and splurge on finding an EV ride. Those long-haul trips just might be smoother than you think. But if you’d rather stick with your own car, some companies are willing to help front the cost to get to your vacation. 