Things to do when traveling long distance by electric car

Therefore, in addition to the necessary repair factors, before the trip, drivers should carefully research information about charging locations at rest stops and hotels to help make the trip by electric vehicle convenient.

Before the trip

It is not recommended to charge the electric vehicle to 100% regularly to prolong the battery life. However, before each long trip, the driver should fully charge the battery to prepare for uncontrollable situations to extend the distance and to prevent there from being an empty charging station on the road.

Vehicle owners should also carefully research the planned route of the trip, genuine or third-party charging stops along the way. Drivers should also prioritize charging at places with fast charging stations to save travel time and stopovers along the way.

One positive factor is that Google Maps has added a feature to find charging stations for electric vehicles. Therefore, car owners can type "charging station" or "electric vehicle charging station" in the search bar to look up detailed information about the charging station such as opening hours, number of charging posts, charging port types and charging capacity.

In addition, information about charging locations can also be looked up on the websites of service providers. Vehicle owners should consult many charging locations to have the best choice, in case the charging location they need does not have an empty charging post, or is not working.

Some hotels and restaurants may also provide charging services for guests staying at the hotel, but the charging stations at hotels are currently only slow charging, or use household power outlets, so vehicle owners need to be more proactive.

Another important thing is that vehicle owners need to inflate their tires to the manufacturer's recommended level. If you are carrying a lot of people or goods, the tire pressure will be higher than when you are carrying a few people or not carrying heavy goods.

On the trip

With electric vehicles, drivers should not carry too much on the vehicle, because the heavier the load, the more power is consumed, and the driver must stop charging earlier. In addition, other objective factors that can reduce the distance are rain, bad roads, high speed, or going uphill.

However, if going uphill consumes more battery, when going downhill the driver can adjust the regenerative braking level to the highest level, to help the battery be charged more during this process.

When stopping to charge, drivers should prioritize fast charging stations to optimize stopping time on the road. Only charge slowly when stopping for a long time or overnight at the destination. When charging quickly, drivers should only charge to 80% and then continue driving, because normally when the battery reaches this level, the system will automatically switch to slow charging mode to protect the battery.

If a full charge is needed, drivers should switch to slow charging stations when the battery is above 80%. About 10-15 minutes before stopping charging, car owners can turn on the air conditioner to cool the car before departure, which will save more battery when the car is moving on the road.