Posted on 10/22/2026 7:21:31 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Readers challenged our columnist to take an affordable electric car on a route with less-than-ideal charging options. Here’s what happened.
I’ve spent a few years torture-testing fancy new electric vehicles on 1,000+ mile journeys to unlikely locations, from mountains to Montréal, to see if they’re suitable for the Great American Road Trip. And they were.
So readers challenged me to do something trickier: take a more modest electric car on the least EV-friendly route I could find.
I took a 2027 Chevy Bolt—America’s most affordable EV—on a trip from Nashville to New Orleans, through several U.S. states with the fewest public EV chargers per person.
EV devotees know that even a few years ago, taking a car with 200-ish miles of range and a fast-charging time of a half-hour or more into unknown territory was a great way to get stuck at a charger for hours, or be stranded on the side of the road.
Yet even this trip turned out to be only a little less convenient than it would have been in a gas vehicle.
Even as Americans have pulled back from buying new EVs, the country’s fast-charging infrastructure is growing at a blistering pace. Sales of new EVs may be down about 40% compared with last year, due in part to the expiration of federal tax credits, but the U.S. now has more than 80,000 public fast-charging plugs—and is adding nearly 20,000 a year.
And the EV retreat might prove temporary. High fuel prices are driving Americans to buy EVs—but used, not new. Sales of used EVs are up 21% from a year ago, according to wholesale auto marketplace Manheim, and their prices are up too.
The base model 2027 Chevrolet...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
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I hope he had a well thought out Back Up Plan before starting on this discovery mission.
I call bull💩.
CC
That pic LOOKS like a NYC homo
Chris fails to mention the, ahem, co$t of his little excursion. I say it was intentional.
Oversized electric golf cart fanbois feel a trickle up their leg.
Oversized electric golf cart fanbois feel a trickle up their leg.
Look you two, this guy had to come up with an article to write. That means don’t look too closely under the hood or you might find prevarications and untruths. And it’s the WSJ and you know how journalisms standards have plunged. OR AI might have wrote it and he never left the office.
"It" looks like a Low-T NYC homo. It might be a tranny. In any case, whatever it is, those pale, thin wisps
of "whiskers" should be shaved. It shouldn't advertise hormonal deficit on its face. Gross.
I want to see Chris take his Yugo and travel from St. Louis to Vegas. Impress me.
I hope they made him squeal like a pig.
If you’re going to post an article we can’t read in full, please include the synopsis and conclusion. Thank you.
You might want to re-read CCs post #3.
Go to the top of my homepage and follow the instructions: https://freerepublic.com/~epluribusunum/index
Two EV Factoids
-Sister has a Chevy Dolt. When the battery died, took months to replace.
-EV Charging deserts. We like to drive from Sacramento to Denver to visit family and friends. On Interstate Hwy 80 there are huuuuuge, looooong stretches with beautiful country, and no people. In our wonderful internal combustion powered SUV, I MAKE DARN SURE we have a very full tank of hydrocarbons before any looooong stretch.
I started watching for any EVs during these looooong stretches.
None. Zip. Zero. Nada.
Our son-in-law just got a Tesla & I must say it’s pretty impressive. We’re now planning on getting one next yr, but we’ll always keep a gas powered car for long trips, etc. Now that we’re older, I can see the benefits of an EV, but I’d never fully depend on it because some situations just wouldn’t accommodate an EV.
“Two EV Factoids”
You hit the nail on the head.
Let me add something.
He called driving from Nashville to NOLA a charging wasteland. It isn’t; it is populated, and he probably routed through Birmingham. He probably only needed two charging stations for that trip. If he really wanted to try out a problematic trip in an EV, he should take the route you suggested. Or, drive I-10 from San Antonio to El Paso.
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