A Better Route Planner includes charging stations that have been down long-term in its routes, leading to wasted time and frustration for EV drivers. The planner should filter out or clearly mark such unreliable stations.
My husband has had an EV for 3 years now, and I just recently converted, myself, with a Ford F-150 Lightning. We just took our first long road trip in the truck, and on our way back, forgot the lessons we first learned on our first trip with his VW ID.4 (which was replaced with the BMW iX after an unfortunate run-in with a deer.) TL;DR: For long road trips, Avoid stretches with just a single fast charging network to choose from, and plan your route around areas with multiple options. Electrify America seems to be drastically throttling, maybe due to the heat, so avoid them if you can, and never ever put yourself in a position to rely on them. Always check your ABRP route against the actual network app, to make sure your route has functional charges. The long: I-95, Virginia to Florida and Back, a trip we have made a number of times in an EV, has taught us many lessons. One wrong decision can create a cascade of events that adds hours to your trip. Ask me how I know, lol. So our first rule of the road trip: NEVER EVER include the Walterboro, SC Electrify America charger in your trip. Just trust me on this. It isn't worth it. We have never gotten a decent charge there. We feel lucky if we can get the 75kw, but that is usually after waiting and jockeying for the one charger that might give it. I forgot this important rule, and yikes, it was an epic mistake. "A Better Route Planner" is cool, but could be better. The chief issue: It includes chargers that have been down long term. FPL Evolution has 2 charging stations near Palm Coast, and both are down along a fairly long stretch. Unfortunately, unwisely, we tried the first one before checking the evolution app itself, and realizing they were down. We tried, for the first time, shorter charges because we were trying to make it to a certain city before a certain time, and it did NOT work out in our favor. It just doesn't work out when every EA charger along your route is throttled. In total, our trip home, which included 3 Electrify America stops, ended up taking 3 additional hours longer than our trip down, when we didn't use EA. In the same truck. :/ If you happen to make this same trip, on our way down, we stopped at Buccee's in Florence, SC which has very fast chargers. (And clean bathrooms. Their commitment to styrofoam is annoying, though, so BYOCup.) We then made it to Richmond Hill, GA, where we got a great fast charge at the TA Travel Center. Down to FPL Evolution in Yulee, which is super nice because there is a Wawa next door and it is only 30c. Besides Palm Coast, the FPL fast chargers have been nice and consistent. Just check the app for faults, and pick the fast speeds. On the trip down, started with 90%. Arrived at destination with 80%. (No home charger at destination) Charged for 3.5 hours over that 800 miles, plugged in 6 times. On the trip back, we plugged in 13 times. Charged for 5 hours. (Not including waiting and moving spots, which ate a ton of time.) Started at 90%. Arrived home with just 15%, three hours later than planned. The trip down seemed like a breeze. The 30-40 minutes charges don't bother me at all when we only have to stop every couple of hours. I am a macro photographer, so I just get out and look for bugs to shoot. The trip home was absolutely brutal and stressful. We should have repeated our route down, but my husband didn't want to charge over 80% due to "throttling." Ha. Jokes on him. Turns out the entire second half of our trip was throttled, despite rolling up with 15% each time. :/