5 Things Ladies Taking a Colorado Road Trip With an EV Need to Know
Recently, I went on a road trip from Denver to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Southern Colorado. I live in the state and have driven this route many times before. Driving an EV for the first time was a completely different experience. EV (all electric vehicle) is a completely different skill set that I had to figure out pretty quickly along the way. Would I do it again? Yes. I would plan the trip differently. What I learned the hard way may be useful to ladies taking a Colorado road trip with an EV in the future.
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Is Colorado EV Friendly
In a recent ranking on states with best EV infrastructure, Colorado landed on the list at #17 out of 50 states. It’s a solid ranking but it’s not #1. Despite this ranking, there is a huge push to get citizens to purchase EV vehicles as well as a hugely popular electric bike rebate program. Colorado is investing in expanding its EV infrastructure as a way to combat the impact of global warming on the local economy. It has become increasingly hotter, we’re getting less precipitation and that has huge impacts on our ski, agriculture and other industries. What all this means in plain English. Colorado will continue expanding its EV infrastructure. Yes, it’s an EV friendly state but what does that mean for your upcoming road trip. Lucky for you l live here and have driven these roads a number of times. But my all EV trip was a different experience and here’s what you should consider.
What Time You Start Your Drive
Typically I start my road trips ridiculously early. Why? Because oftentimes I’m a woman driving on the road alone. I like to get to where I’m going and if there’s an issue, I like to deal with that issue during daylight. I made the mistake of starting my trip around 1:00 pm. Then there was an issue with the car that I booked and we had to switch my booking. When that was finally settled I drove to my house, picked up my stuff and continued on my way. That was around 2:30 pm.
Why am I mentioning the timing?
This late start created a huge problem towards the end of my trip when I was a really remote area near the Sand Dunes. Imade the decision to go meet my group at the camp grounds vs. driving to town to charge my car in the middle of the night. While this was a smart decision it was very likely that I could have lost almost 100% of the charge in my battery over night.
Lesson learned from this experience: Start your trip early.
By early I’m talking no later than 7:00 am. Seriously.
Charging Time Will Change Your Trip
Once I was on the road I knew where I planned on charging my car. I was driving down US-285 which is one of my favorite roads in the state. It’s an absolutely beautiful drive without the terrifying drops on the passenger side of the car. Because the car that I was using was new to me, I didn’t really know how long it would take to charge the car. I tried to charge in the Evergreen area because I saw an EV sign and then couldn’t find the station. Instead, I continued on until I reached Fairplay and charged up there. It took about 1 hour and 15 minutes to fully charge the car with a level 2 charger.
I’ve included a video to show the different charger types. During my trip I used a Level 2 and Level 3 charger.
What Factors Impact Battery Usage
I wasn’t thinking about this until I experienced it. Driving through Colorado is high altitude, high terrain driving. The higher the altitude the cooler it gets depending on the time of year. Things that have the potential to drain your car’s EV battery while on a Colorado road trip:
- Weather-If you’re running the heat or air conditioning in your car, your battery is draining down.
- Altitude-Driving up the mountains definitely took more juice than when I was cruising back home. It was so annoying.
- Speed-It’s the highway so you’ll be driving faster than you would be in town.
- Traffic-Colorado’s highways stay booked and busy. There’s a lot of traffic on those roads and accidents. It’s important to think about what day of the week you’re starting your road trip. Weekends will always have heavy traffic.
- Tire pressure-My car alerted me that the tires needed more air about half way through the trip. I had no idea that this could also impact the life of my car’s battery.
There are a few other things that could impact your battery life during a Colorado road trip, but these were the ones that I experienced and immediately came to mind.
Where the EV Chargers Were Located
During my road trip to the Great Sand Dunes (driving down US-285) the charging station that impressed me the most also was the most surprising. Alamosa’s Welcome Station had 4 Level 3 chargers, internet and a place to sit inside with an informed and friendly volunteer. It was also a block from Main Street and a great coffee shop that I did some work from while I was there. I asked why they had such a great set up and they said it was because all of the traffic coming out of New Mexico. This totally made sense to me because I drive through Alamosa to head to Taos.
The Next Two Stops
From Alamosa, I drove to Salida and stopped for a charge and an opportunity to stretch my legs. The weird thing to me about Salida’s chargers in the downtown area was that they were the Level 1 chargers. I know for a fact that Salida is crazy busy with tourists and was surprised that there weren’t any Level 2 chargers in the downtown area. I even know the parking lot where I would set it up. It’s a block from the Visitor’s Center, the river, a cute coffee shop and the historic downtown.
The most disappointing charging experience was in Fairplay (South Park). It’s an incredibly busy travel corridor and it was so surprising that there were only 2 Level 3 chargers. There was a line of cars waiting to charge and I imagine that it’s even worse during ski season. If you have enough of a charge to drive the 20 miles to Breckenridge, that may the option to take in a pinch.
Just know that you have to drive up a pass in order to go the back way into Breckenridge. It’s my view that Fairplay could have 12 Level 3 chargers set up in groups of 3 or 4 adjacent to its Main Street and that might not be enough to meet the needs of drivers heading through town.
Things Ladies Taking a Colorado Road Trip With an EV
There are a couple of other things to think about when using an EV for a Colorado road trip. I mentioned the location of the chargers, but also is there somewhere to go or something to do while charging. What made Alamosa and Salida such great stops was their proximity to food, shopping and places with internet connectivity so that I could read a book, relax or work online. There were people that I could talk to and be in community with while I was on the road.
Before hitting the road, double-check where charging stations are located using a resources such as Chargepoint, Tesla Super Charging Stations or Plugshare. There are also Reddit threads and other EV communities that you could join to do your research before your trip. I would also say having a Plan B charging location would also be a good idea too. If you’re staying overnight, is there a hotel with a charger on the grounds? This may seem like a lot to think about but there’s nothing worse than running out of juice in the middle of nowhere. I shared 5 things ladies taking a Colorado Road Trip With an EV need to know, what was left off of the list that you would have added?