Across the US with a dog and an EV

Final Overview

3,756 miles, 1,106 kWh, four national parks and one national monument 

We didn't take the most direct route, but hit several of the US' most iconic sightseeing opportunities: Old Faithful, Mount Rushmore and Niagara Falls. What of the overall performance over the trip?

3,756 miles on 1,106 kWh works out at a trip average of 3.4 miles per kWh, which is not at all bad given a heavy load and a lot of high speed freeway driving. It will be interesting to see what we get in more 'normal' use. 

Using the EPA's standard conversion,  1,106kWh equates to 33 gallons of gas, for an mpg 'equivalent' of 113.7 miles per gallon. By contrast a gasoline powered car at the average US mpg of 25.4, would have consumed 4.5 times more - 148 gallons of gas - to cover the same mileage. At a standard EPA estimated 8.887 kg of carbon dioxide per gallon, this would have emitted over 1.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas causing global heating. 

Producing 1,106 kWh of electricity at average US emissions intensity (data from Our World in Data) would generate over two thirds less carbon dioxide than the gasoline-driven option, just 408 kg. This equates to 67g per km (108 g per mile) - or 33.5g per passenger km (not counting the dog). By comparison, moving two people  on a domestic flight from Portland to Boston would have involved 246g per passenger per km, a total of around 1.25 tonnes of carbon dioxide (assuming the most direct route, and making no allowance for the extra baggage, and ignoring the difficulties of transporting Mitchell by air). 

The financial metrics were much less divergent. We spent $477 on electricity - or 12.7 cents per mile. 148 gallons of gas would have cost $495 dollars at average US prices.  One way direct flights would have cost around $500 before baggage costs. Notably, doing the same mileage charging at consumer rates for electricity would cost less than $200. So in normal use, once we have a charging point at home, we can expect the EV to be much cheaper to run than a conventional petrol /gas or diesel car, especially as maintenance costs are typically much lower too. Carbon emissions will be even lower too: already in 2022 Massachusetts had better than average emissions intensity, and is further growing its share of low-carbon power.

Overall, then, US coast to coast travel in an EV is already entirely feasible - with some minimal advance preparation and a reasonable level of planning ahead for each day's travel.

Excluding our stops with friends and family, the trip involved 10 driving days. About an hour and a half was spent charging each day on average - far less than we spent sightseeing, or taking other essential breaks for food and comfort. With the exception of one day when our trip was interrupted by wildfire, closing the interstate, charging was never a major challenge, and in the Eastern states even planning ahead was not always necessary given the higher density of chargers.

It was certainly easier with a selection of apps for charging support, although many charging providers do have simple credit card payment facilities on their machines, and the app merely adds convenience - alerting you when the charge is complete, providing more data on the charge session etc. It might have helped if we were confident that buying and using a 14-50 socket adapter for our mobile charger would work safely: with such an adapter we might have been able to avoid turning back in the face of wildfire (as there were 14-50 hookups in Buffalo, WY, but not even a J1772 charger). We did run into damaged or dysfunctional chargers, but there were always enough working chargers at the same location. We only once had to wait for a fast charger to become available.

We also clearly managed to travel with a dog, but on balance, finding really dog-friendly accommodation was harder than finding convenient chargers en-route.  In particular this extra limitation made the EVhotels app much less useful than it would have otherwise been. That app isn't bad for finding hotels with chargers, but not necessarily reliable for ensuring appropriate or functioning chargers. Many hotels have Tesla chargers, not CCS or even J1772, and most Tesla chargers remain unusable, even had we obtained an adapter. The software has yet to be upgraded for Hyundai EVs so it's not even clear whether we could use the so called 'magic dock' Superchargers that have a CCS connection, still less regular Tesla chargers. And of course, we'd rather not support Musk in any way given his authoritarian politics. 

Booking.com was more helpful for finding pet-friendly accommodation, but was very poor at identifying whether and what the hotels' policies were in that respect. Our worst experience was at the Hyatt in Albany, where we turned up to find not only an excessive charge, but also a weight limit, neither of which were made clear when they accepted a booking through Booking.com. Unspecified charges were commonplace, requiring additional research which wasn't always easy or convenient.  

And what of our choice of vehicle? We were well satisfied with performance and range, and with the adaptability and luggage capacity of the Ioniq 5. Overall it's proving good value for money. But the 'infotainment' system is clunky, and the navigation system almost unusable. We eventually found the way to change settings, but none of the filters were switched on, even though the system consistently selected sub-optimal routes, several times even suggesting that there was no possible route without additional charging, even when that was definitively incorrect. And connecting a phone to use Google or Apple maps is unnecessarily fiddly, requiring a hard cable, and often a reset, rather than functioning through the Bluetooth link that handles audio from the phone. However, some reviews suggest that the Ioniq's infotainment system is better than average ... so we'll reserve judgement.

Day 16 - Albany to Boston MA

181 miles, six hours, and one alma mater.

Although today’s travel went smoothly there were multiple annoying events. Worst of these was arriving at the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) in Boston to formally register the car, only to find they had no record of receiving the title documents from the dealer (which they had dispatched to the RMV because we didn’t yet have a permanent address for them to send the formal documentation). So unless they can track down the title papers in the next two days we won’t be able to use the car again until it is sorted, as the temporary permit expires then. 

But first up was really poor service at the hotel in Albany. With only on street parking in a downtown location we felt we should empty the car overnight. The hotel had a luggage trolley, but once loaded it proved to have a split flat tire, which made it almost impossible to push over the hallway carpets and elevator entries. The desk staff member was disinterested but agreed to get it sorted out “in the morning.” But in the morning the trolley was back out front, still broken.

Our first charge of the morning - just outside Albany at East Greenbush - was our second experience with EVgo, following the charger without a screen outside Chicago. This was better, but their app proved especially clunky so we ended up paying with credit card again. But even trying to use the app involved going through several steps to identify the location and specific charging cable: comparing very poorly with the one touch experience with ChargePoint or Electrify America. At least this time we could stop the charge ourselves. (Charged from 30 to 82% adding an estimated 42kwh in 25 minutes for $25.)

Our route then took us along the I90 from New York State to Massachusetts, over the proudly signed “highest point on the I90 east of South Dakota” at the grand altitude of 1724 feet. We discovered that Massachusetts turnpikes also have no toll booths, relying mainly on EZpass (and a pay by mail by licence plate option). So once again we travelled the turnpikes for free.

We then stopped at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, where Elizabeth studied for her bachelor's degree. Orientation is next week, so the campus was quiet. We walked around, admired the library, and grabbed lunch, while the car sat on a J1772 ChargePoint ($5 for 9 kWh in one and a half hours). That gave us more than enough charge to finish the trip.

The Ioniq's navigation system failed its tests again.  On both legs the on board satnav recommended longer and slower routes than necessary, and even when we struck off from its recommended route to join the freeway, it kept trying to turn us around.

We reached trip's end, at Boston harbour on the Atlantic at about 2pm (having started 16 days and 3,756 miles earlier on the Columbia river, less than a hundred miles from the Pacific). 

Day 15 - Cleveland (North Olmstead) to Albany NY 

541 miles, 12 hours and some very large waterfalls

We started off loading the car in rain for the first time on the trip. The thunderstorm was fairly local, and while it was raining when we picked up bagels, it was dry (and hadn't rained at all) 35 miles up the road at our morning coffee and charge stop at Mentor, Ohio (63kWh in 38 minutes, charging to 99% for the long run to Buffalo and Niagara). This was fortunate, as once again there was no shelter at the charging station. 

It turns out that the New York turnpike offers two payment options: EZpass, or call them on the phone to give your licence plate number, and get billed by post. We might find a way to pay them retrospectively, but for now we drove through regardless.

Charging to 99% proved merely precautionary in this case, as the 190 mile run to Niagara went smoothly and we still had around 30% charge remaining at the Falls park car-park. The main parking lot was full, and we were directed to a supplementary lot, but found a free space at the park center between the two lots (we failed to notice the time-limit, and fortunately it seems no-one else noticed ...)

We spent more than an hour wandering around the viewpoints on the American side of the falls, enjoying the views (even though the spray generated by 2.98 million litres of water falling over 50 metres down obscures much of the falls) and grabbed lunch at the cafe. Unsurprisingly on a warm Sunday in summer, the park was busy, but not too packed. Then our route to the next chargers at an out-of-town mall (Niagara Fashion Outlets) took us through scenes of industrial dereliction. Indeed the mall itself looked to have been built on a brownfield industrial site. (Charged to 85% in 19 minutes, taking on 46kWh).

After that it was basically just driving ... another 300 miles to Albany, with a charge at Syracuse, where it seems a concrete pouring company must have infiltrated the highway planning office, with some of the most complicated junctions I've ever seen - with multiple bridges and loops for no apparent reason. (Charged back to 85% in 23 minutes, taking on 41kWh).

Tonight's accommodation is again comfortable, but with an excessive pet fee (and an unpublished weight limit on pets). Hotels in this part of the US seem to regard pets as a licence to print money, with non-refundable fees of up to $150 for 'extra cleaning'. This wouldn't be unreasonable for a week's stay, but for a single night, is just excessive!

Day 14 - Janesville to Cleveland (Ohio)

454 miles, 10.5 hours, four states and three highway toll systems. 

We left Janesville at 9.20am  with 71% charge. Our first top-up charges was at Elk Village on the outskirts of Chicago. This was our first attempt using EV-Go - as it happened we pulled into a stall with a damaged screen (and of course, no shade, making it impossible to see anything on it). But the pay-as-you-go credit card tap payment successfully started a charge. However, when it came to disconnect, we could get no reaction from the screen, and there were no hard buttons. With a DC charger the live cable locks in place for safety. We had to call the customer support number to get remotely disconnected.  It probably would have unlocked at full charge, but we didn’t need that much, and didn't want to wait and see in the rising heat … (no charge data, due to the non-functioning screen - but at a guess we took on about 30kWh in around 25 minutes).

We had a slow journey around Chicago, hitting both of the major patches of congestion shown on Google maps - the second as a result of inappropriate lane selection (and poor navigation - by me). Fortunately we were on the other side of the I90 when a section of the other carriageway was closed for a fundraising truck parade involving dozens of heavy goods vehicles, garbage trucks, fire-trucks, and tow-trucks (many carrying police cars). 

Nonetheless we still had time for a brief stop at the Indiana Dunes National Park - very different to the previous parks on our trip, with the narrow beach between the fragile dune ecosystems and Lake Michigan crowded with Saturday sun-seekers. But at least Mitchell could come to the beach, dogs (on leash) being allowed on the main trail. 

I was also happy to spot a Monarch butterfly fluttering through the wildflowers at the edges of the dunes. As described in Barbara Kingsolver's wonderful book 'Flight Behavior,' the Monarch is threatened by climate change, but efforts to protect habitats across its long migration routes have helped it recover slightly in recent years. 

After that it was time for a second top-up charge (26kWh in 24 minutes). Michigan City (in Indiana, not Michigan) could well be Tesla City, as alongside the six Electrify America chargers was a row of around 25 Tesla chargers ... 

Today was our first day using toll highways, and we (largely successfully) navigated three different toll systems in three states: Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Although all three states are part of a much wider network of states allowing use of a shared EZpass transponder system, we don't have one of those yet, and - unlike the annual National Parks pass  we bought on entry to our first Park of the trip, they can't be purchased on entry to the system.

In Indiana the first section of toll highway required taking a ticket on entry, and paying on exit, and the second involved paying a fixed fee on entry. The Ohio turnpike also provided a ticket on entry option. But in Illinois we had no way to pay, as there are no booths, merely a combination of transponder based passes and online payment - enforced by camera surveillance - and either system requires a valid licence plate registration, not just a 'temporary permit' which is all we have until we register the car on arrival in Massachusetts. Apparently though we can make an online payment up to 14 days after 'missing' a toll payment.

Our final charge of the day was at the Tiffin River service plaza on the Ohio turnpike (38kWh in 20 minutes). We arrived at Sonesta Simply Suites, North Olmstead (a comfortable room with a ridiculously high overnight surcharge for a pet - $75) at around 8.45pm local time (10.5 hours driving, having arrived in the Eastern time zone and lost another hour ...) Overall again we managed an average of about 3.3 miles per kWh, even while mainly travelling at 65-70 mph.

Day 13 - Sioux Falls to Janesville (Wisconsin)

494 miles, 11 hours, three states, one birthday.

The day began with some chores, notably picking up more dog food, and getting charged and ready (electricity and coffee!)

The charger, at the Sioux Falls airport Quality Inn (which for some reason didn't show up on our accommodation search, despite being pet-friendly) was the first we'd encountered with any shade or shelter - and even better the shade was provided by solar photovoltaic panels! They could have been larger, but after a series of baking hot charging spots, this was a great improvement. We also discovered that Electrify America has different charging structures not just different rates. Some charge stations, including this one, use a purely time-based rate, which for the Ioniq, on a fast charger, results in a much lower aggregate cost (in this case about 70kWh for just $15). We'll be looking out for those stations in the future. 

Our first stop was at Albert Lea, where we almost had to wait for a charger, despite there being a station with four fast CCS chargers (56kWh in 24 minutes). When we arrived only two were occupied, but within a few minutes all four were busy, with another vehicle waiting. 

There was little sight-seeing to be done today. We did, however cross the mighty Mississippi, at the city of La Crosse which, it transpires, is named after the game ... Lacrosse originated with indigenous Indian tribes, and (according to Wikipedia) "In 1805 during an expedition up the Mississippi River, U.S. army officer Lt. Zebulon Pike observed a group of young Ho-Chunk and Sioux men playing this game ... near the east bank of the river, in what is now west-central Wisconsin. He named the region "Prairie de la Crosse", which in turn inspired the name of both the Wisconsin county and the city."

We charged again at Tomah (60kWh in 27 minutes): here someone had placed a garbage bin and a window-washing wipe and bucket at the charge station (a nice touch, but sadly out of water ... ).  We then headed into Madison for a birthday drink - a cherry brandy old-fashioned - and cheap and cheerful supper at the dog-friendly Alchemy cafe. Then a final swift top-up charge (23kWh in 13 minutes) before the 35 mile run to our hotel in Janesville (the plan being to avoid any need to charge before heading off for Cleveland in the morning).

Most of the almost 500 miles today was covered at 65-70 mph (with a few slower sections through towns and roadworks), but the Ioniq still achieved about 3.2 miles per kWh on average, costing approx $60 or a very competitive 12 cents per mile. 

Day 12 - Keystone to Sioux Falls (South Dakota), via the Badlands 

420 miles, 11 hours, 3,000 feet altitude loss, and two time zones

Despite our late arrival, we found the Powder Lodge's one J1772 charger unoccupied, and put the Ioniq on charge overnight, for a free top up to 85%.  In the morning, we fueled ourselves with coffee and bagels to go in Keystone, and headed out for some sightseeing.

First up was a short stop at the (in)famous Mount Rushmore national monument. It's impressive, but hard to ignore the sense of desecration from the carving of the faces of four male white settler presidents into a Lakota Sioux sacred site. The Lakota called the mountain "Six Grandfathers" (Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe), symbolizing ancestral deities personified as the six directions: north, south, east, west, above (sky), and below (earth). From Mount Rushmore we drove through the Black Hills National Forest: picturesque pine forests pierced by granite pinnacles. The Black Hills have quite the history long sacred to the Lakota, the land stolen by settlers was granted to the Lakota in 1868 “in perpetuity” only to be seized back in 1877 following the discovery of gold. After decades of both violent and legal struggle the Lakota were awarded $108 million in compensation by the Supreme Court in 1980. However they refused to accept money in exchange for the loss of their tribal homelands. Held in escrow the award is now worth over $1.3 billion.

On the other side of the Black Hills we visited the Crazy Horse Memorial. This is a multi generational project to carve out a 560 foot high statue of Crazy Horse on a horse, in part as a riposte to the Rushmore carvings. Even after 75 years work there is only a head and a hand complete… but there is a nice visitor centre, and an Indian museum.

Returning through the Black Hills  we headed out onto the really rather flat plains of South Dakota, to a top-up charge at Wall (40kWh in 30 minutes to a full 100% charge, albeit in two installments, as the charge halted unexpectedly at 90%. This did give me the opportunity to test payment by credit card, as Elizabeth was checking out lunch options at the Wall Drug store, having passed dozens of roadside adverts for the store as we travelled along the I90). 

Then came a detour into the Badlands National Park. Badlands is seriously spectacular. Eroded layers of Palaeolithic soils, some bright yellow and pink, mainly pale brown, grey and white, form a chaotic landscape of spires and pinnacles, mounds and mesas, often shot through with ridges or layers of colour.  And above and below the eroded areas, there is rolling prairie, home to bighorn sheep and meerkat-like prairie dogs, living in ‘towns’ with hundreds of burrows.

We left the park with 90% charge - which proved plenty for the leg to Chamberlain and the next fast charger (38kWh in just 13 minutes at an Electrify America 150kW charger, which worked first time ...) And then on to Sioux Falls with 17% charge remaining, somewhat later than anticipated, as again, neither of us had remembered the time change, as we traversed into the Central Time Zone. 

Unfortunately at the Glo Best Western in Sioux Falls, the advertised EV charger proved to be out of order - until October (!) - awaiting parts, so we'll need to charge up in the morning before hitting the I90 again ...

Day 11 - Billings to Keystone (South Dakota)

494 miles, 15 hours, two road closures and wildfires

This day did not go as planned. Our intended route was 367 miles, about 7 hours including charging, and a chance to walk in the Black Hills, and visit the Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore carvings. But Interstate 90 across Wyoming was closed by wildfire, and after waiting a couple of hours in the hope it might reopen, we had to backtrack to recharge before taking an alternative route, adding a lot of distance and time.

We got started at a reasonable hour, though we needed to charge first thing. Had we arrived earlier the previous evening, we might have organised an overnight slow charge at a car dealership half a mile from the hotel. But neither of us really wanted to head out at 10:30 pm in an unknown neighbourhood. Annoyingly the hotel had a row of four empty Tesla chargers… 

So we headed into Billings (which feels like a city without a downtown) to charge at an Electrify America 'hyper' 350kW charger. Again the first machine failed to recognise Elizabeth’s account, but this time the second machine worked. We were planning to top-up in Sheridan, but fully charged in Billings in case the single Sheridan charger wasn’t available. So, charged from 30% to 100% in 40 mins, 56kwh costing $36. The rate was even higher here than Mountain Home at 64cents per kWh (getting to be more expensive than petrol for a fuel efficient vehicle). At least in the long term, we won’t regularly need to use these super fast chargers.

Again we noted how charging stations never seem to have shade or cover - in contrast to filling stations. And on hot sunny days this makes a real difference as the car heats up in the sun (never mind the challenges reading charger screens in bright sunlight!) And there isn't always a convenient coffee shop (fortunately in Billings there was a Starbucks across the road, where we could sit outside in the shade with the dog. 

 Off we went,  past Little Bighorn, without stopping to see the site of genocidal general Custer's 'last stand'. We arrived in Sheridan in good time - but lower on charge than expected, probably due to the high winds - to find the single CCS charger busy. The was a slow J1772 charger available, so we hooked up, found a bite of lunch and returned to top-up on the CCS charger when it became free: (Back up to 69% gaining 4.5 kWh in 40 mins on the J1772, and 11.5 kWh in 15 minutes on the CCS (at 26cents per kWh on the J1172 and 37cents per kWh on the CCS).

We thought that was more than enough to get us to the final planned charge of the day at Gillette, another 100 miles along the I90. But as things panned out, we should have fully charged instead. We got past Buffalo, 50 miles from Sheridan, and hit a big problem: the freeway was closed because of wildfire (literally a few minutes before we arrived at that point. It took the police around half an hour to get everyone turned around safely, and we headed back to Buffalo with just enough charge to make it to Gillette if the interstate reopened, but not for the longer possibly detour via Clearmont. 

The only chargers in Buffalo were Tesla, but we found a motel willing to let us plug into a regular outlet, to gain a few percent while waiting to see if the I90 would reopen. But with no sign of reopening scheduled on the Wyoming Department of Transport (WYDoT) road real-time road conditions website, we retreated to Sheridan for a full charge and to plan an alternative route.

Of course, we know that wildfires are not just a result of climate change, but they are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of the hotter conditions. Which makes it all the more ironic that on this occasion with a conventional petrol or diesel vehicle we would have made it past the fire before it reached and closed the road. Actually had the CCS charger been free when we arrived at Sheridan, we’d have probably made it… [Note: this wildfire, the House Draw fire, eventually covered over 160,000 acres]. 

Armed with revised route advice from WYDoT and a 90% charge (from 23% to 90% in 1 hour and 8 minutes: 53.3 kWh $20.45), we set off from Sheridan again a bit after 7pm. The next leg to Gillette was a little nerve-wracking. First from a near miss with white-tailed deer crossing the road just ahead of us in the dusk. And then from the sight in the dark of glowing wildfires to both sides of the road (though several miles away in each case, at Flat Rock, and Constitution), and the repeated chime of Emergency Alerts warning citizens in the areas we passed through to be ready for, or in some cases, to begin evacuation! But we arrived in Gillette about 9.30pm, hooked up to an Electrify America charger (taking on another  40kwh - going from 50 to 97% in 25 minutes), and headed off on the final leg - 135 miles to Keystone via Moorcroft and Newcastle. But coming out of Moorcroft we hit another road closure (with no explanation) and rerouted via Sundance and Rapid City (165 miles instead, this time sticking to the I90). We finally arrived at Keystone around 12.40am. 

Tomorrow we hope to make time to see some local sights before heading for the Badlands ... 

Day 10 - Swan Valley to Billings (Montana) via Grand Teton and Yellowstone 

361 miles, three states, two national parks, and a peak altitude of 8,262 feet

We left Swan Valley at about 6.45, after a fairly spectacular sunrise during a thunderstorm, and arrived at the Bighorn Hotel outside Billings long after darkness fell, just after 10pm. Total driving time was probably about 9 hours, with several delays for roadworks. About 90 minutes was spent charging, and the rest sightseeing in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

We'd expected the Parks to be challenging with no fast chargers, and just a handful of J1772 chargers scattered around, but thousands of visiting vehicles. So we planned a route to charge up at Jackson (Wyoming) before driving through Grand Teton, and straight on into Yellowstone, coming out to charge again 150 windy and hilly miles further north at Gardiner (Montana), before turning east for Billings.

After a brief stop in Victor to pick up coffee, we headed to Jackson for breakfast (and picked up bagels for a lunch on the move) while the car charged from around 40 to 100% in about 50 minutes on a 50kW ChargePoint CCS charger; gratis, courtesy of the city!

In the Grand Tetons, we stopped only briefly for photos of the mountains, and passing wildlife. Unfortunately in National Parks, dogs are generally not allowed on the trails, and even on roadsides and in car-parks, need to be kept on a short leash. And Mitchell can't yet be trusted in the car on his own (he chewed up a seatbelt in our old car in the UK), so even in Yellowstone, we had to keep our sightseeing stops fairly short, and take turns checking out the sights. Still, we stopped at West Thumb, Upper Geyser Basin, Excelsior Basin, and Mammoth Hot Springs, and we all got to see Old Faithful erupt. Even trying to keep the stops short, time went fast, and we had to abandon plans to head east over the scenic Beartooth Pass, as it would have been dark by the time we got there - not good for enjoying the scenery and even worse for the elevated risk of encountering elk or other large animals in the road. We did see elk and bison during the day.

As it turned out, getting through the parks on a full charge was easy. The roads generally have a 45 mph limit, and even with lots of ups and downs, at that pace we managed around 4.4 miles per kWh, and still had almost 60% charge left at Gardiner, requiring only a relatively short top-up charge as we ate our take-away supper. The onward drive was smooth, though the car's navigation system got very worried in a long section of contra-flow roadworks when it thought we were driving down the wrong highway. The navigation system is still the weakest feature of the Ioniq. Today, as well as not recognizing the contraflow, it thought the road was closed, so tried to direct us on a 2 hour diversion, and also attempted to send us over 150 miles out of our way (presumably to avoid the 'toll roads' of the national park), even when that route would have run us out of charge ... 

Day 9 - Boise to Swan Valley (Idaho) 

335 miles, plus 2600 feet altitude. Approx 7 hours, including around 1 hour 15 minutes charging

A relatively short day: mainly on freeways, pretty much crossing the whole width of southern Idaho. We had a relaxing morning before leaving Boise around 1pm and arriving at Swan Valley as dusk was gathering.  

We used the journey to experiment a little with driving styles, and - from necessity - to check out a new charger network. On this route, the fast chargers were part of the large Electrify America network. The chargers we used were both at Walmart parking lots, just off the freeway. At the first stop at Mountain Home there were four chargers with multiple CCS plugs, all available. However, getting hooked up proved a bit more fiddly than ChargePoint. It took us 3 attempts at three different stalls before getting juice. The first one connected with the car, but wouldn’t recognise Elizabeth’s membership, or her credit card. The second didn’t even recognise the car. But we were lucky with the third. Fortunately none of the chargers were offline, in use, or 'iced' as EV drivers describe chargers blocked by a parked internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. The cost here was the highest we'd yet encountered at 56 cents per kWh.

We took another brief pause at Twin Falls to see the Snake River gorge and Perrine Memorial bridge (named after the city’s founder, an irrigation pioneer), and to give Mitchell a vital bathroom break! 

This leg was a decent chance to test our range at speed. With our fairly full load and a fair amount of ascent (1,300 feet over 192 miles) and doing 75-80 on the freeway, we got only 2.9 miles per kWh. This translates to a little over 200 miles on a full charge, which was worse than the car predicted during the trip. We'll need to watch that on routes where consumption will be worse than our overall average. Nonetheless we got to our next charging stop without issue, and with almost 10% charge or 22 miles remaining.

That charger at Pocatello/Chubbuck was also an Electrify America station. And this time it worked as smooth as anything. The first stall connected, recognised the membership and charged. It charged at 120kW rate until 80% and then slowed to around 60kW, taking us from 10% to 100% in about 45 minutes. 

From Chubbuck to Swan Valley (93 miles, and an even steeper climb - another 850 feet altitude gain), we took a slower pace (mainly 60-70 mph) and managed to improve the consumption rate to 3.4miles per kWh (which lifts the range back close to 250 miles for a full charge).

Accommodation for the night is at Sleepy J Cabins at Swan Valley. Quiet and comfortable, and well equipped - not only with a copy of the Holy Bible next to the bed, but also a copy of the Book of Mormon, just in case we needed one ...

Days 6-8 Boise Stopover

This break was mainly about seeing friends, Elizabeth having lived in Boise for many years before moving to the UK for her PhD studies. As well as some nice dinners and get-togethers over coffee and wine, we got to hang out by the pool, and spend an afternoon paddle-boarding at the reservoir - thanks to Traci and Teri for the loan of boards. It was my first time on a paddle-board, and I was pleased to discover I could stand up, although not without major wobbles whenever Mitchell stood up too.

Ironically, and in contrast to our experience having no real issues charging on long journeys, Boise seems poorly equipped for EV use. In a city of 250 thousand people, there are only a handful of public fast chargers, and so few Type2 chargers that those are typically busy, and occupied throughout the day or evening. 

And while our friend Shannon has a 14-50 outlet (plug socket for British readers) in her garage - which delivers 240v current allowing fast(er) domestic charging for many EVs (notably Teslas) - the Ioniq comes with a mobile charger hardwired to a standard US 110v plug. So we could hook up for some power, but if relying solely on that, it would take around three days to get to 100% capacity, even at the fastest rate the charger could support. 

Ioniq owner forum posts suggest that we could plug the charger into a standard adapter for a 14-50 outlet, but this seems to be not recommended by Hyundai. And our vehicle has an open recall notice highlighting that ‘certain electrical conditions’ might trigger a fuse to switch incorrectly, which would prevent the 12v battery (supplying lights etc) from recharging, eventually immobilising the vehicle). So doing anything unauthorised with electrical conditions seems unwise until we can get that fault checked and corrected if necessary. Unfortunately we didn’t plan early enough to get this checked in Boise…

We did visit the Hyundai dealership anyway, as they have 2 fast charging stations. That allowed us to quickly top up to over 80% charge. Albeit with an extra delay while the dealer staff found the keys to one of the two vehicles blocking the chargers but not charging. Looking ahead, we've downloaded more charging apps, and checked out charging locations for a couple of legs ahead. We've also discovered more about charger compatibility. Tesla uses the NACS (North American Charging Standard) rather than the CCS (Combined Charging System) and International J1772 standard. And adapters are available to allow the Ioniq J1772 plug to plug into a standard NACS chargepoint (and vice versa). But not as yet for Tesla 'superchargers' (the fast high voltage Tesla chargers, equivalent to CCS chargers) And as of now we don't have one ... For future reference it appears Hyundai plan to updating the firmware next year to allow Ioniqs to use Superchargers, but that won't help us on this journey.

So things are set to get more interesting, as we head off across country. We have pet friendly accommodation booked for the next two nights, in Swan Valley in Eastern Idaho, and Billings Montana and charge locations pencilled in: but between the two stops we need to traverse Yellowstone!

Day 5 Bend (Oregon) to Boise (Idaho) 

343m, approx 9 hours, about 100kWh

This drive was our first serious test of range, with only a few possible charging points en-route across Southern Oregon. At least we had no need to worry about finding dog-friendly accommodation, with our friend Shannon and dogs Yoshi and Harley waiting to host us is Boise.

This route didn't involve as much uphill as the Mount Hood route out of Oregon, but several pass summits of 4500 to 5500 feet (1000 to 2000 feet above our starting point in Bend) took a bite out of the charge, and we discovered that 80mph freeway driving is also quite draining. Even so we had no serious problems with range and charge, boosted a little by a net drop in altitude between Bend and Boise of about 1000 feet. 

The Ioniq navigation systems did better than on the run to Bend, at least finding reasonable routes, although not identical with ABRP or even Google. Luckily it didn't prove too fiddly to hook up a phone to the system so we could use the Google maps route and directions.

However, regarding charging, we were glad to have chosen the slower route option (via John Day)  with 2 possible chargers at the half-way point (rather than the faster route through Burns, which would have left us depending on a single charging option. As it happened the more central Chargepoint charger in John Day proved to be non-functional - not recognizing that it had been connected. Fortunately the alternative fast charger at the Oregon Trail Electric Company was available and functioning, so all that cost us was an extra 15 minutes.

We ended up arriving in Boise rather later than planned - we stopped briefly at the entry to the town of Mitchell (to take a picture of Mitchell arriving in Mitchell), and rather longer at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. In addition, neither of us remembered the time zone change, and then we got caught in a 2 mile tailback from an accident on the I84 (for British readers, I stands for Interstate - a part of the major freeway network that criss-crosses the USA). On the I84 we also discovered another somewhat annoying feature of the Ioniq's assistive driving - on such major routes it automatically shifts cruise control speed to the limit, and switches on the most aggressive form of lane-keeping assistance. It seems we still have a lot to learn about this car!

Driving time was longer than the apps predicted - due to the traffic delay and the charger problem, but otherwise as scheduled, with the charging break, and detour / visit at the Fossil Beds National Monument. Sadly we missed the turn for the Painted Hills, and only realized when we got to the next bit of the park 35 miles further on. But we did get to hike into Blue Basin to look at the blue-green claystone flows, and try to spot fossils. 

Now we get another break, catching up with friends in Boise - where Elizabeth used to live, before embarking on the rest of our journey.

Days 2-4  A break in Bend

We stopped in Bend for a few days, visiting with Elizabeth’s cousin Kris. That gave us time to see some of the local sights, and hike at Newberry Crater lakes and at Smith Rock. 

 And start experimenting with the different modes and controls in the Ioniq, which comes with a host of 'driver assistance' features, such as lane-keeping assistance, which takes a bit of getting used to.

In a remarkable but probably unreliable proof of the ‘small world’ hypothesis, at the Big Obsidian Flow at Newberry, I bumped into a friend and geoengineering research collaborator from back in Blighty, who turned out to be holidaying with his family in the Pacific North-West.



The break also gave Elizabeth the chance to get a US number for her dual e-sim phone, and thus also access the regionally specific charging apps in the App Store. This turned out to include ‘Electrify America’, which looks like it will be especially useful on our route ahead (although as far as we can see in advance their chargers do have a contactless pay as you go option, unlike the Shell ones).

Day 0 - Buying a car 

Having arrived in Portland by air from the UK, and staying for a few days with family before setting out, our first task was to procure a vehicle. 

Finding an affordable EV with decent range, and space for dog and luggage proved trickier than anticipated. Current trends for ‘fastback’ gently raked back windows in hatchbacks, and for no-sill level-loading trunks combine to make the luggage space remarkably shallow in many vehicles. As a result Mitchell could scarcely stand up in the 2023 Hyundai Kona, or the Chevy Equinox. The 2024 Kona had a bit more space, as did the Ioniq, though either looked likely to stretch our budget, even with Hyundai matching the federal tax-break for which their vehicles fail to qualify (after the revisions to require a particular share of US-built content). However, a bit more searching online revealed a good deal on a little used 2023 Ioniq 5 - with less than 10000 miles on the clock and a battery in outstanding condition, offering a predicted average range of 260 miles on a full charge.

The next challenge was buying and insuring the car without a fixed address. And with a plan to drive it across the country to Massachusetts before registering it. Attempting to register it in Oregon would have opened us to suspicions of sales tax avoidance. Fortunately our friend in Cambridge MA was happy to lend us his address for this (as well as for the destination for shipping our household effects from the UK). Nonetheless finding insurance still involved several false leads before ringing a random broker in Boston.

But, on schedule, we were set to depart ...