May 2025: 3000-mile midwestern USA road-trip experiences

[cometguy]

I just completed a road trip from New England to Minnesota and back in my 2021 CT4, to see lots of family. I'm impressed with how well the DCFC infrastructure is being built out so very quickly (many of the sites I visited are less than a year old) and at how well they work, generally. I'm going to post more details on this thread in the near future regarding the actual charging sessions, as time permits, but I thought I'd give my first overall impressions here now.

First, the first-generation Taycan is a great road-tripper (as I noted in my 1900-mile road-trip report last month here). I hate that I only get 220-240 miles of range now in warm spring weather at 70 mph, but I never experienced anything approaching range anxiety -- despite DCFC stations being rather sparse in some areas that I traveled. The lack of range anxiety comes from being prepared ahead of time: I mapped out my westbound charging stops a week before I left on my trip, and I followed them without deviation all the way to Minnesota (with one exception: I added in the West Salem site out of curiosity as it was on my way and I needed to stop to use the restroom, even though I didn't need to charge then). My eastbound charging stops were planned on short notice (after I got to MN) because I had to make an initially unplanned family stop in NYC on the way home.
Kudos to PlugShare for this, without which I would be lost. I always post my charging reports on PlugShare to help others (and for me to refer to for future trips), because the reports of others help me also to choose where to stop and where not to stop.

I was able to charge all the way to Minnesota using my phone twice to initiate charging or to pay (Circle K), and on the way home I used my iPhone only twice to initiate charging (once at a Shell Recharge and once at a Tesla Magic Docks site -- both of which worked without issue).
I stopped at two hotels with onsite 240-volt charging; I couldn't get the Blink charger to work at one, but found out later that my credit card attached to the account had expired. The Tesla destination charger at my last hotel worked fine at no cost (plug-and-charge, no need for an app), and I keep a NACS-to-CCS adapter in my car for such possibilities on the road.

On this trip, I used EA much less than I did on my NC trip last month (percentage-wise), and I was impressed with most of the stops. EA worked fine when I used it, with one exception: plug-and-charge has always worked for me at EA, but at one site homeward bound this past week, plug-and-charge didn't work, and it took a while to get the reader to accept my Visa credit card (had to change chargers, too).

I note that at one station along the Ohio Turnpike on the way home (I-80), there was only one bar of reception on my Verizon Wireless iPhone -- not enough to even access PlugShare to post my report; if I'd had to use a phone app to charge there, I'd have been screwed.
My goal is to always charge without using my iPhone, whenever possible (and I'm able to do that 90%-95% of the time now, thankfully) -- plug-and-charge at EA, and RFID or credit cards everywhere else.
I have four RFID cards so far (Chargepoint, EVgo, Blink, Francis Energy), and they work better and faster and more easily than any phone app including Tesla's. What would be great, short of universal plug-and-charge, would be to have a universal RFID card for all stations. Using a smartphone/app to charge a car is just plain unacceptable as a requirement for the masses (and for me), just as it would be for pumping gas at a gas station.

My favorite sites are the now-plentiful gas-station DCFC sites, which I used mostly on this trip: Flying J, Pilot, Shell, Love's Travel Center, Circle K, Kwik Trip (Kwik Charge, as they call their DCFC stations)... Many of these have canopies, all have 24/7 amenities because they're 24/7 manned gas stations, and they're close to Interstate and US Highways (unlike many EA stations, which are at Walmarts some distance off the main highways). Judging by how new most of these appear to be, the state of road-tripping with a BEV is night-and-day different now in May 2025 than it was one year ago (or even 6 months ago!). Things are moving super-fast in the deployment of DCFC sites at gas stations, in particular.

I also visited my second Ionna station on this trip -- in Willoughby, Ohio. Like the one in Scranton that I visited last month, it had no canopy, and it is more finicky and difficult to initiate charging at than almost all of the above stations that I previously mentioned. Kyle Conner and other YouTubers are going over-the-top on promoting Ionna, and it's great to get all the DCFC stations that we can get everywhere, but I'd plan for almost any of the above DCFC stations to stop and charge at on a road trip before I will stop at an Ionna -- because they tend to be easier to use, tend to be closer to the main highway, and have 24/7 manned stations with much better amenities. Ionna is currently offering much-lower prices per kWh, which is their main current benefit. But Ionna will fail as a company, in my view, if they don't start asking some major gas stations with lots of real estate and 24/7 attendants/amenities along major highways to partner with in building their DCFC stations. The gas-station model is THE model for DCFC stations if the masses are to adopt BEVs in the next decade. Stand-alone Tesla-like charging pumps "in the middle of nowhere" are unacceptable except for emergencies (like maybe in the middle of rural New Mexico or Montana).

My biggest gripe at numerous DCFC sites is the charging cables not being long enough, or the placement of the bays with respect to the cables for our Taycans being very poor. Older EA and EVgo stations tend to be the worst in this regard; most if not all the newer stations seem to be way better (often both in terms of cable length and placement within the parking bay). I wish that PlugShare would put in a date that each station was erected (and a date when new charging boxes are installed, as well).

I had no range anxiety because I never dropped below 20% SoC by design. This meant stopping every 1.5-1.75 hours on average to charge, but I really got to look forward to those stops to get out and stretch my legs and use the restroom, get something to eat or drink, wipe bugs off the windshield, etc., and I'd use that time to check email, post to PlugShare, and put my next stop into my navigation systems (Porsche navigation and Google Maps on my iPhone).

I was flustered with the Porsche navigation being finicky much of the time. As I said before, I have to type in addresses because the voice recognition sucks (unlike the voice recognition in my 2018 and 2019 Porsches, which was MUCH better; don't know what happened). And the ability to do things with the Porsche navigation is not very flexible or useful (or intuitive); I can't set the minimum desired charge at each charge stop for multiple stops, so I have to use a combination of PlugShare and Google Maps to plan out my stops (and override whatever Porsche navigation is trying to suggest). And the zoom-in/zoom-out feature in the Porsche navigation sucks (in my 2018 and 2019 Porsches, there was a wheel/dial that I could turn to zoom in and out quickly on the map, instead of having to peck away at the + and - signs on the touchscreen in incredibly frustratimg fashion). And if I turn on my CarPlay to project the GoogleMaps navigation, the Porsche navigation often resets, and when I switch back to it (for comparison, or to check on estimated SoC upon arrival), I'll often have to re-enter the destination again). Sigh...

Thoughts on the car itself: the seats are great, and no back pain from the long trip. Ventilated seats came in handy on a couple of hot, sunny days. The ACC is really excellent, and I use it most of the time on road trips (but rarely ever when around home); it really reduces fatigue and was excellent in pouring rain when I trusted the car's braking instincts much better than my own. Things that stood out on this particular trip as annoying: (1) that pesky blind spot; I have my mirrors pointed out as far as they'll go, and I still have an SUV-sized blind spot in the adjacent lane between my interior rear-view-mirror sight and my side-mirror sight (the mirror LCA lights don't always light up when somebody is there, it seems). (2) the leg well for driver is cramped for me when sitting for 8 hours a day there (I'm 5'8", and can't imagine how difficult it would be for somebody over 6' tall); I do move the seat backwards and forwards over a day to let the legs stretch more, but then I can't put the back seats down for more useful storage. (3) that glass roof... ugh... it certainly makes the car hotter on sunny days, and the inability to close it is frustrating. I noticed that when the sun is overhead, I have to wear my baseball cap or the solar glare will annoy me from above. How I wish I had an all-metal roof in my Taycan! (4) windshield wipers: there's no intermittent steady mode; i.e., the "intermittent" mode is where the car decides if there's enough rain on the windshield to wipe, and at what interval/speed (but the car's software is constantly changing the intermittent speed in frustrating ways that don't gel with the rain on the windshield, and you can't get the car to set the intermittent speed and stay at that speed). So there are only two set, steady speeds ("normal" and fast). My other cars have had intermittent wiper speeds where you set the speed and it keeps going at that speed regardless of what the car might sense. I kept having to work the wiper stalk manually at times with light rain. (5) I don't like keeping my key fob in my pants pocket, so I throw it into the storage bay under the climate-controls display panel; sometimes the car complains that it can't detect the key there ... so where does Porsche want us to put our key fobs?! I'm using my two cupholders for drinks/phone. (6) that poorly designed glove box is way too tiny and way too oddly shaped; it's hard even keeping the instructions booklets there, let alone anything else. None of my previous Porsches had so poorly designed glove box and center-storage compartment, by a long shot. Not sure what the Taycan designers were thinking. I did get a sun-visor extender that I attached to my driver-side sun visor for when the sun is out the side window, to block its glare out; that came in handy numerous times on this trip.

My trip was I-90 from New England to Cleveland, then south to US 30 from Mansfield, Ohio, to Valparaiso, Indiana, then basically I-90 to MN. I drove home a different way (I-94 and I-80) because I went through NYC to visit family there. I'll post charging details, stats, and some photos in the near future here.

First photos below :
(1) at a Love's Travel Stop in Waterloo, NY (Chargepoint RFID)
(2) at a Flying J gas station in Beaverdam, OH (EVgo RFID)
(3) at a Kwik Charge (Kwik Trip gas station) in West Salem, WI (credit card)
Notice how I'm the only car charging in these photos; this was quite common on this trip.
Out of 28 or 29 DCFC stations that I charged at on this trip, I had only one short wait at one of the stations (EA/Cheektowaga, NY).

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[Flying ace]

great write up! What speeds did you achieve at the three stations Love's, GM, and Kwik?

I noticed that GM's is the partnered EVGo units which I've seen good reviews for re: speed and uptime. The Love's unit appears to be the rare Chargepoint 400KW unit and the Kwik is a 400KW variant.

 

[cometguy]

great write up! What speeds did you achieve at the three stations Love's, GM, and Kwik?

I noticed that GM's is the partnered EVGo units which I've seen good reviews for re: speed and uptime. The Love's unit appears to be the rare Chargepoint 400KW unit and the Kwik is a 400KW variant.

Thanks... I'll post stats on the charging stops in a post in this thread in the near future.
Decent charging speeds, but not > 200 kW ... but that's fine, because I'm making good use of every minute when I'm stopped for my typical 20-30 minutes each charging stop. I set my car to charge in a way more friendly to my battery after my NC trip in April, where I was seeing top charging speeds > 260 kW. I seriously don't need > 200 kW speeds. All the GM/Travel J/EVgo units are in great shape; it's the standalone EVgo sites that are pretty poor. The Love's Chargepoint stations are quite nice, but they're somewhat slower (maybe 50 kW on average) than the EVgo and EA units.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Glad the trip went well, and thanks for the comprehensive report!

re fob detection, I wonder if the battery might be getting low?

 

[cometguy]

Glad the trip went well, and thanks for the comprehensive report!

re fob detection, I wonder if the battery might be getting low?

dunno about the key fob battery... I had a new battery installed only a month or two ago.... Do they fail that often?

 

[2P168S]

I love those Flying J EVGos (GM Energy branded)
Nice covering from rain or sun, chargers always deliver max amps

 

[Jonathan S.]

dunno about the key fob battery... I had a new battery installed only a month or two ago.... Do they fail that often?

They should not fail that often ... although many other aspects of the Taycan should not fail as often as they do!
IIRC, any fob battery's life will be shortened if it is stored in the car, or within range.
Since I keep our fobs almost adjacent to our garage, I place all of them in an improvised Faraday box.
(I found a long-used metal food storage container, then wrapped the plastic lid in aluminum foil. Kind of neat to approach the car with all the fobs in the container, no reaction, then I open the lid and the Taycan's door handles extend, like I've released a hidden genie from a bottle!)

 

[cometguy]

Here are some preliminary stats for my charging on this trip:

On this trip, I stopped at eleven different "branded" DCFC stations.
In order of the number of stops at each "brand", they were:
Electrify America, 10; Flying J/Pilot, 7; EVgo, 2; Kwik Charge, 2;
Circle K, 2; Ford dealership (Chargepoint), 1; Ionna, 1; Love's, 1;
Shell Recharge, 1; Tesla Supercharger (Magic Docks), 1.
That represents 28 DCFC charging stops over 3035 miles
(an average of once every 101 miles). I did stop at a couple
out of curiosity, even though I didn't need to charge then.
Note that Flying J and Pilot use EVgo for their charging stations,
but I didn't include them under the EVgo tally; in general,
the stand-alone EVgo stations/chargers are older and are not nearly
as nice as the Flying J/Pilot equipment.
Update (5/17/25): looking over my PlugShare comments, I see that at ten of
my charging stops on this trip, there was at least one other car charging; the
remaining stops (i.e., at 2/3 of my stops), I was the only car charging.
Also, I had one short wait (just a couple minutes, as I recall) to charge -- at the
Cheektowaga (NY) Electrify America -- on the entire trip.

I also charged twice at level 2 (240-volts) at no cost to me:
once at my sister's house and once at a Tesla hotel "destination" charger.

Among the DCFC charging stops, EA was generally the easiest
(with one exception), because I was able to plug-and-charge easily
at nine of the ten EA stations (the tenth didn't work except,
after multiple tries, with a credit card only).
All of the gas stations would be ranked next, pretty much,
in terms of location and ease of use to initiate charging.
The Ford dealership was fine, with a Chargepoint RFID card
initiating charging without problem -- but it was the furthest off the highway
of any charger I visited (Plymouth, IN), and accessed only because it's in a
barren-DCFC stretch of US 30.
Ionna required multiple efforts to initiate charging via a
credit card. When at the Ionna station in Willoughby, there was a tech with
an Alpitronic Hypercharger van there looking over the equipment.
Shell Recharge, Circle K (twice), and Tesla supercharger (Magic Docks)
each started fine with a phone app (but that's my
least-desirable way to start charging).

My peak charging that I can recall was 199 kW at EA at Lee, MA,
with one other car charging at another charging box, at 20% SoC.
I changed my setting on my car to be "battery friendly" when charging,
so charging rates over 200 kW were not seen (that I recall, without checking)
on this trip -- unlike on my NC trip in April, where I had several charging
sessions over 200 kW.

The most heavily used stations when I was present were those
in heavy urban areas (Buffalo and Chicago suburbs), where a couple
of times there were people waiting while I was charging (but I didn't have to wait).
It'll take some time to tally up the cost of charging at each session;
the same is true for other figures like arrival/departure SoC, weather conditions, etc.

Some more photos:
(1) at Pilot (Flying J), Burbank, OH (EVgo RFID)
(2) at Ionna, Willoughby, OH (credit card)
(3) at Circle K, Rockford, IL (Circle K iPhone app; stats in OP updated)
As you can see, I'm the only car charging again at each of these stops.

 

[cometguy]

Three more charging photos from this trip:
(1) at Flying J, Edon, OH (EVgo RFID)
(2) at EA, Wyandot Service Plaza along Ohio Turnpike, Genoa, OH (plug-and-charge)
(3) at EA, Mishawaka, IN (plug-and-charge via Porsche)
Again, I'm the only car charging in all of these cases!
The photos are not presented here in chronological order.

 

[MoniqueDenver]

Thank you for this amazing report!!

I'm glad to hear that there are more charging stops with canopies! Since January, I've driven my Taycan 4S over 6,000 mi, including one cross-country trip during the polar vortex. I was thankful for the lift to get the car over the snow to get close enough to the chargers so the cords would work. Only once did I find a canopy and it was heaven!

However, I generally avoid the gas stations because, as a female, I never liked them. Out (US) West, they are a little nicer and feel a little safer, with cleaner bathrooms, but they still don't serve healthy food.

In KS, CO and UT the Walmarts are actually off the highway. Right now they're my go-to, but I seek out charging stations with a shopping center (other than Walmart) so there are decent restaurants, and often higher quality stores.

Next month, I'm driving from Denver to Phoenix to Tucson to Durango and back. I've done a little extra research finding decent restaurants with charging stations nearby. I'm also going to experiment with range mode to see how far I can get. My goal is to only stop whenever I have to go to the bathroom, eat, or sleep, just like I would in an ICE. In reality, I'll be shocked if I can pull it off, but it's a fun exercise!

Oh and the answer about where to put your key, is you put it in your purse and you placed your purse on the front or back passenger floor.

 

[SSTaycan]

I've road-tripped exactly twice in my 4 years of Taycan ownership, and it was a complete PITA, and this trip seems to be even worse. I can't help but think what an ICE owner would think of this review, particularly as to saying this was a successful road trip regarding refueling aka, recharging.

ICE owner review of the same trip: "I drove for 3-6 hours at a time, depending on my bladder, and stopped at whatever the next exit was for 10-15 minutes to refuel and grab a bite, using the same credit card. I didn't plan a thing."

 

[Flying ace]

I love those Flying J EVGos (GM Energy branded)
Nice covering from rain or sun, chargers always deliver max amps

it's very clear the EVGo has prioritized the development of the Flying J/GM co-branded chargers at the detriment of their existing sites. For EVgo stations in my area, 90-95% of the stations are down for "maintenance", and its been this status for months.

 

[MoniqueDenver]

ICE owner review of the same trip:

Absolutely true, but behavior change is always incredibly hard, especially for the early adapters. I'm a planner and I hate gas stations so much, I've run out of gas five times, so I welcome this change whole heartedly. Not everyone will feel the same.

I imagine 10 years from now, when there is significant EV adaption, people will not want to give up the convenience of never having to go out of your way to get fuel because you do it at home overnight (except when road tripping, which usually isn't that frequent.)

 

[cometguy]

I've road-tripped exactly twice in my 4 years of Taycan ownership, and it was a complete PITA, and this trip seems to be even worse. I can't help but think what an ICE owner would think of this review, particularly as to saying this was a successful road trip regarding refueling aka, recharging.

ICE owner review of the same trip: "I drove for 3-6 hours at a time, depending on my bladder, and stopped at whatever the next exit was for 10-15 minutes to refuel and grab a bite, using the same credit card. I didn't plan a thing."

Yep, road-tripping a BEV isn't for everybody. I thought I'd get really frustrated and have lots of range anxiety. It definitely adds time, both for planning stops and for actual time stopped for charging. But I'm so sick of contributing to the most corrupt industry in the world (the oil industry), which also happens to be the most polluting industry in the world (air, water, soil), and I'm so sick of going to gas stations and stepping in spilt gasoline, etc. Road-tripping a BEV is something I'm only doing 1-2 months of the year; the rest of the time it's driving within 100 miles of home, and I'm fueling almost entirely at home for that (so convenient).

I actually enjoy the extra stopping time now in my Taycan. I look forward to stopping more frequently than once every 3-4 hours now. I'm getting more work done on the road, and I'm staying more hydrated (I used to go easy on drinking liquids in my ICEV so that I wouldn't have to stop so often, but now I'm stopping anyway, so I drink more, which is good for health, not to mention walking around more). I'm fine with the extra planning time ... PlugShare together with Google Maps makes it pretty easy. And having so many more DCFC stations along highways now than a year ago, with so many more being built out each month, makes it easier. I actually had one drive day this past week that was > 600 miles (Janesville, WI, to Clarion, PA), which is getting up towards where my limit is for ICEV daily mileage anyway.

It's easier to solo road-trip in a BEV than with a family. But some families will take it all in stride.
And road-tripping my Taycan long distances in cold winter weather is probably not going to happen much, even solo, because of the reduced range.

You say you've done two roadtrips in your Taycan, but perhaps that was years ago? Things really are different in 2025 generally, depending of course on where you are located. Yeah, I'm stopping frequently, but I'm being conservative, too, so there's no range anxiety. I've not yet hit a charging station on 5000 miles of roadtrips in the last month where I couldn't charge, and only about 3 waits for an average of 10 minutes each (out of 40-45 DCFC stops). The 100% success rate encourages me to go further between charge stops on future trips; many of my stops had SoC of 40%-50% upon arrival, and I can clearly cut out an average of one charging stop per day, if not more. One reason why I'm looking at trading my 2021 CT4 in for a 2025 Macan 4 is because the latter has about a hundred miles more of range on a full charge; that's significant, and would mean a huge change in how I do road trips (i.e., charging once every 200-250 miles on average instead of every 100-140 miles on average in my Taycan).

 

[cometguy]

Thank you for this amazing report!!

I'm glad to hear that there are more charging stops with canopies! Since January, I've driven my Taycan 4S over 6,000 mi, including one cross-country trip during the polar vortex. I was thankful for the lift to get the car over the snow to get close enough to the chargers so the cords would work. Only once did I find a canopy and it was heaven!

However, I generally avoid the gas stations because, as a female, I never liked them. Out (US) West, they are a little nicer and feel a little safer, with cleaner bathrooms, but they still don't serve healthy food.

In KS, CO and UT the Walmarts are actually off the highway. Right now they're my go-to, but I seek out charging stations with a shopping center (other than Walmart) so there are decent restaurants, and often higher quality stores.

Next month, I'm driving from Denver to Phoenix to Tucson to Durango and back. I've done a little extra research finding decent restaurants with charging stations nearby. I'm also going to experiment with range mode to see how far I can get. My goal is to only stop whenever I have to go to the bathroom, eat, or sleep, just like I would in an ICE. In reality, I'll be shocked if I can pull it off, but it's a fun exercise!

Oh and the answer about where to put your key, is you put it in your purse and you placed your purse on the front or back passenger floor.

Yep, I do a little more research also regarding hotels that may have 240-volt charging for overnight. That saves a DCFC stop along the way, and hotel charging is often free.

i can understand about the gas stations, but most of these gas stations that have the DCFC sites are pretty clean and nice inside (i.e., different from your standard truck stop, for whatever reason).
If it's late at night, I'd much rather be charging at one of these 24/7 gas stations along busy highways with lots of foot traffic than at a Walmart parking lot a hundred yards from the Walmart building (which may or may not be open at night).

Actually, the key works 90-95% of the time in e storage bin underneath; but 2-3 times on my long trip, the car instrument panel showed a message saying that it couldn't detect the key (fixed by throwing the key in the cupholder temporarily, and then back underneath).

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