Those concerns aren't unfounded. EV fast charging has historically been lackluster. In 2023, after a disastrous road trip, I drafted an EV fast-charging 'bill of rights,' outlining seven improvements charging networks needed to make to turn things around. This summer's road trip to Montreal covered more than 600 miles. We had intended to use our Kia EV9, which will travel nearly 300 miles on a charge, but the Kia is in the shop because of a broken air conditioner. Instead, we drove our Audi e-tron, which has a range of about 220 miles per charge. Despite the disparity, the e-tron handled the trip with aplomb. Rangemaxxing might sound nice, but it isn't necessary. To find chargers, I used A Better Route Planner (ABRP), an app that optimizes charging stops by accounting for everything from prevailing winds and temperature to vehicle specs and battery degradation. You can use a Bluetooth OBD reader to feed live data from the car to ABRP, but I found the app to be pretty accurate...
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