Changing It Up a Bit

I’ll still post here about my roadtrips but there will be a new twist — I’ve recently bought a 2023 Hyundai IONIQ 6 AWD so these posts will also feature my adventures in charging across the US. That’s my actual car in the photo; it was still sitting in the dealer’s delivery area before they put my plates on it.

I plan to use ABRP (A Better Route Planner) to figure out where to stop for charging on the route. So far, ABRP has proven to be a very pessimistic planning tool and I can’t complain about that as running out of charge in an EV is a very different proposition to running out of gas. It’s going to take some intentional rethinking of the way I do road trips — my former car, a Sonata Hybrid, could easily go 500-600 miles between fill-ups whereas the IONIQ will need a charge before 200 miles have passed. My days will be longer — or I’ll plan shorter mileage days — and I anticipate the need to not be so focused on arrival times in order to allow latitude for charging issues.

I’m also relying on Hilton-branded hotels that have EV Charging as an amenity to top off the car at night. That should be an adventure in itself and will say something about not only the brand but also the management of each hotel.

This all begins on April 2nd when I head out for a very long weekend in Columbus OH. Check back then for the good, the bad, and the ugly (and fingers crossed, there won’t be any “ugly”).