Depending on the type of traveler you are, this is the real beauty of an electric vehicle road trip: Charging stations will be located in scenic and/or convenient locations that allow you to have that kind of experience as you charge, says Gil Tal, the research director of the Plug-in Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Research Center at the University of California Davis.
The amount you’ll pay varies with the vehicle and the charge station (see resources for a comprehensive guide to charging costs), although the Department of Energy says that, on average, it costs half as much to charge an electric vehicle as it does to fill a gas-powered car.
On day two, with two successful experiences behind us, we felt more comfortable with the car (and its limits) and explored freely: coffee and pastries at the Big Sur Bakery, a hike near Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, lunch at Nepenthe, migrating farther south along the highway without fear of running our battery down before heading north again.
We had decided not to camp on our second night—although California is in the process of adding charging stations to state campgrounds, says Tal—in order to test out the EV offerings at a hotel in Marina.
