Road trips are part of North American culture and especially of people who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, before air travel became commonplace.
Posted at 10:00 a.m.
Many of us who live in the United States and Canada have memories of camping trips, ski vacations or trips to Kerouac under the sign of discovery. Car culture was born in North America, and long road trips are still a part of life for many of us, who often take advantage of summer vacations to hit the road.
The end of the pandemic that we have known is accompanied by a furious desire to travel. Yet our desire to enjoy newfound freedom of movement comes up against a growing climate emergency, to which our driving habits are no stranger.
Added to this is the explosion in the price of gasoline, even if for the time being it hardly seems to have led people to curb their desire to leave or to give it up. Electric vehicles do, however, provide an answer to the two aforementioned problems.
Having driven the entire continent for over 40 years, long road trips are part of my DNA. Fortunately, as the owner of an electric 2021 Hyundai Kona, carbon footprint issues and the astronomical cost of gasoline don’t concern me as much as they used to. During a recent journey that took me from my home in Quebec to Newfoundland – 3544 km round trip – I found myself transforming into a sort of champion of the virtues of electric vehicles. .
Since electric vehicle charging stations are often located near gas stations or in public areas, I was asked questions almost every time I stopped there. What is the range of an electric vehicle? (About 400 km.) Does it fall in winter? (Yes, by about 25% where I live, where -20°C is common.) How much does a refill cost? (From 10 to 15 $ CAN, or 8 to 12 $ US, from a fast public station, but barely $ 1 when recharging at home.) How long does it take to recharge? How do you locate charging stations? (Through three apps, which I also use to pay for charging.) Should we restrict our movements if there is no charging station nearby? What do you think of hybrid vehicles? (Going from two packs of cigarettes a day to one is a good thing, isn’t it?) Some people have tried to challenge me by saying, for example: “Without the government rebates, electric vehicles would not be economically viable. (The oil sector is also massively subsidized by governments. Let’s remove those subsidies, and see if it will remain economically viable!)
Information about electric vehicles circulates, but often remains vague and inaccurate. A road trip in an electric vehicle can still pose some problems today.
Twenty years ago, when I lived in Florida, I often drove 48 hours straight to get to Quebec. I couldn’t do it with my electric vehicle, nor would I want to. I am fortunate to live in Quebec, which, like in many other areas, is far ahead of the rest of North America in financing the transition to electric: $13,000 government rebate on the purchase of a new vehicle, plus $600 for the installation of a home charging station. There are charging stations everywhere in Quebec, even in small towns. The province had about 7,000 according to the latest data, with new ones popping up every week.
The situation is totally different in Newfoundland, the location of our recent family getaway. We had wanted to go there last summer, but the province did not have a single fast charging station at the time. It now has 14, spread along the Trans-Canada Highway. And thanks to the app PlugShare, we even discovered places offering free top-ups, such as national park visitor centers and a number of car dealerships. On the nights we slept in a place rented through Airbnb, we charged the car from a regular outdoor electrical outlet.
It is true that a road trip in an electric vehicle still requires some calculations. You have to stop every few hours to recharge, but is that a bad thing? This is a very small sacrifice compared to the extent of the environmental damage caused by gasoline-powered vehicles. In a few years, everyone will be driving an electric vehicle and will consider our society’s long period of dependence on oil as an era of needlessly destructive barbarism. It’s up to everyone now to ask themselves whether they prefer to make the jump to the inevitable switch to electric today… or stay behind.