trip planner with ev

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Electric Vehicle Trip Planner

Plan your next electric vehicle road trip and choose from more than 30,000 charging stations in Roadtrippers.

Select the Auto & RV Services category.

Click Filters and then select EV Charging.

Start planning your trip.

Choose a destination and then add charging stations along with your favorite road trip stops.

Start planning your trip

Classic American Road Trips

Explore the country in your electric vehicle. Here’s some of our favorite trips. Save them to your profile and start adding charging stations along your route.

A Highway 1 road trip along California’s Central Coast

The top things to do on a Route 66 road trip

The top things to do on an East Coast road trip

The top things to do on a Blue Ridge Parkway road trip

Get ready to hit the road.

Can you take a road trip in an electric vehicle?

Road trip tips: How to prepare for the road with snacks, apps, and entertainment

How to plan a road trip: 5 steps to get you ready to hit the road

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Electric Vehicle Trip Planner

Easily find all the EV charging stations available along your route in North America.

To learn more about the different types of charging stations and how to charge before planning your trip, check out our guide on   ”How To Charge Your Electric Car With Charging Stations ” .

How To Use The EV Trip Planner?

To access the trip planner from the ChargeHub website, click on “Map”, in the top left corner of the navigation bar.

Once you are on the map page, you can open the trip planner panel by clicking the “Trip Planner” tab on the left side of the charging stations map page.

To enable the planner, click on the “OFF/ON” button so that it is "ON" . Note that at this point, you will have the option to select the unit of measurement by clicking on "KM" .

Once enabled the Trip Planner right sidebar will be displayed.

Enter Your Trip Details

Enter a “ Starting Point” and “ Destination” in the trip planner. It will suggest options based on what you input. Select the option you want, as shown in the following screenshot.

Now you have the option to choose how far away from your route you want the charging stations to be. Then click on "Find Routes". 

After clicking on “Find Routes” you will be asked to choose which route you prefer from the proposed routes as seen below, on the right panel of the Trip Planner :

Once you select a route, click on "Start Planning My Trip" and start adding charging stations to your itinerary, as explained in the following section "Add Charging Stops to your Itinerary".

Add Charging Stops to your Itinerary

At this point, you can add charging stations to your trip by zooming in on the map and clicking on map markers.

If you are planning to use the ChargeHub App to activate the station and pay , please make sure to select charging stations that have a golden thunderbolt in the center, as seen in the image below.

Only the charging stations that have a golden thunderbolt in the center are compatible with ChargeHub’s wallet app. You can pay for your charging sessions , across all available networks, at these charging stations, from within the app.

Once you have selected a charging station, all the information regarding the station will be displayed, on the right side of the screen.

Based on your EV and charging preferences, you can decide if the charging station meets your needs. If it does, add it to your trip by clicking "Add to trip".

NOTE: If you click on “See Complete Details” you will exit the trip planner and it will reset. In this case, you will need to start the whole Trip Planner process again from step one.

Once the charging station has been selected, it will be added to your trip as shown below.

If you need to add more charging stations, select and add as many as you need, by following the same process.

Save And Share Your EV Trip

Once you have finalized your itinerary you can: 

• Save your trip in your account for future reference
• Access your saved trips.

NOTE: To save and load a trip, you must be logged in to your  ChargeHub account.

Check out our other guides and resources on home charging

• A Beginner’s Guide to Electric Cars
• How to choose your charging station
• Top 9 most popular charging stations in 2024
• Incentives available in Canada for EV chargers
• Find the best EVSE solution according to your EV or PHEV

Browse the chargers on the ChargeHub Store

Find Public Charging Stations Near You

Best EV Route Planner in 2024 (According To EV Owners)

Last Updated on March 7, 2024 by Rose Morah

Searching for a good EV route planner can be confusing.

So, we recently took a deep dive into EV route planners.

First, we researched the most recommended EV route planner apps by EV owners who:

• Own an EV and have used different route planner apps.
• Have planned long road trips with EV route planners.

We then planned road trips to different locations in North America (both in cities, rural areas, and on cross-country trips) using the most recommended route planners in order to come up with best app for EV route planning.

But before we dive into the findings, let’s first find out what really makes a good EV road trip planner.

What makes a good EV road trip planner ?

• It should be close to perfect

This means it gives you a close to accurate charge for your next destination. This is great, especially for new EV owners because it minimizes the range anxiety when going on long road trips. 

Additionally, it should provide users with accurate information about the types of chargers and how fast they really are.

• It should allow you to filter the charging stops based on the connector, charging speed, and the number of available chargers.

It should be able to plan a route that has multiple chargers and not just gives you what it thinks are the routes with the most convenient chargers.

Some of these routes may turn out to be ‘chargeless’ or you may end up skipping several high-power chargers.

• The app should be fast, user-friendly, and with very few bugs .

Smart Tips for Planning A Road Trip With An EV .

How to use Tesla J1772 Adapter at non-Tesla public charging stations .

The most recommended EV trip planners by EV owners

The pie chart below shows the most recommended EV route planners by EV owners:

• A Better Route Planner (ABRP)

Summary of the best EV apps in public charging stations:

• 45% of the EV owners recommended PlugShare, while 47% recommended ABRP.
• Some EV owners enjoy using PlugShare in conjunction with ABRP when planning long road trips.
• Only 6% of EV owners recommended Chargeway.
• 2% recommended other EV route planner apps.

NOTE: 70% of Tesla owners recommended the Tesla in-built trip planner. I have not included it in the above data as it is only applicable to Tesla cars.

Best Tesla Trip Planner App In 2022 (According To Tesla Owners) .

How‌ ‌to‌ ‌Use‌ ‌A ‌Better‌ ‌Route‌ ‌Planner‌ (With Illustrations) .

Our experiences with the most recommended EV trip planner apps

As mentioned earlier, we then took the top 3 most recommended EV trip planner apps (PlugShare, ABRP, and Chargeway) on a 2-week cross-country road trip across different cities/towns. 

The data below shows our most recommended EV route planner based on our experience with different EVs.

Summary of the findings:

Based on our experiences with the 3 apps, ABRP emerged as the top app followed closely by PlugShare, and the least recommended was ChargeWay.

Let’s begin from the bottom: our ChargeWay experiences:

• ChargeWay is not that great for cross-country road trips. However, it is a great app if you are touring big cities.
• It lacked some important features that can be found on ABRP and PlugShare apps.

ABRP and PlugShare were the best EV route planner apps, based on our experiences. These two apps have been in the game for quite a while and seem like they are here to stay!

Additionally, you can use them together for a better road trip experience.

For instance, we used A Better Route Planner (ABRP) to plan our trips, and PlugShare to find better-charging options by browsing the charging stations, places to sleep while you charge overnight, restrooms, shopping, WIFI e.t.c along the route.

You might also like:

How‌ ‌to‌ ‌Use‌ ‌A ‌Better‌ ‌Route‌ ‌Planner‌ ABRP (With Illustrations) .

6 Must-Have EV Accessories (Best EV Accessories) .

ABRP VS PlugShare

The table below shows a comparison between ABRP and PlugShare

Related : ABRP Vs Plugshare: Which is The Best EV Trip Planner App?

In conclusion, apps are constantly being updated and new features are always coming out all the time. Therefore, be sure to always keep an eye on PlugShare and ABRP websites for future updates so you don’t miss out on any of them.

Hello there! My name is Rose. I’m passionate about electric cars and clean energy. My adventurous spirit and journalistic pursuits make each day fascinating and far greater. I consider traveling not just about the grandeur moments, but the little elements that transform the whole experience.

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The Best 6 Apps for EV Route Planning

Planning a trip in your EV? Don't go without downloading one of these EV route planning apps.

If you're on a road trip in the US, you have access to over 100,000 gas stations across the country. That's more than double the number of public charging stations where you can charge an EV.

Because charging an EV takes longer than filling up a combustion car, you should know exactly where to find EV chargers along your route. For that, you need to use apps on your smartphone, so here are the best apps for EV route planning.

1. Tesla App

According to Statista , Tesla is the most popular EV brand in the world. If you drive a Tesla, you would be better suited to use its app for route planning because it grants you access to over 35,000 Superchargers across the country—this is the biggest EV charging network in North America.

Owners of non-Tesla EVs with the CCS charging connector can also use the Tesla app to access Tesla Magic Dock Superchargers, which you can find in a handful of locations in North America. Brands like Ford, Rivian, Polestar, Volvo, and GM announced their EVs will access the Tesla Supercharger network by early 2024, and they will be equipped with NACS ports and adapters. This means that if you’re driving a non-Tesla EV, you will have the privilege of having native access to Tesla Supercharger stations in North America.

But if you're driving a Tesla, you have the privilege to request roadside assistance and schedule service maintenance through the app. Another cool feature is being able to track your vehicle's location on your phone. If you're not a Tesla driver, you could use other apps to track your car .

Download: Tesla for Android | iOS (Free)

2. EV Hotels

If you want to sleep in a hotel and charge your vehicle overnight, the EV Hotels app can make it easier for you. Its map displays hotels that offer EV charging stations along your route. It also lets you know which levels of chargers are available in the hotels: standard, fast, or Superchargers.

If you can't find a hotel with EV chargers along your route, the app will recommend amenities with ample parking and chargers nearby. Subscribed members can reserve a hotel room and charging spot in advance and garner reward points in their favorite hotel brands across the country.

Download: EVHotels for iOS ($2.99)

3. A Better Route Planner

A Better Route Planner (ABRP) is available on the Google Play Store and App Store; you can also install it on your car's dashboard screen web browser. Unlike Tesla's app, which is limited to its Supercharger network, A Better Route Planner covers all the public EV chargers on your route. Better yet, you can connect it to your Tesla account to share your driving data to help improve accuracy.

If you're not driving a Tesla, you can include your car model details on the app to calculate your range, charging time, and energy consumption. Beyond that, the ABRP app also tells you the road conditions, wind, temperature, weather, and routes to avoid—basically, everything you need to know to plan your trip without any hiccups.

Download: A Better Route Planner for Android | iOS (Free)

4. PlugShare

PlugShare is one of the most popular EV route-planning apps. What makes it unique is that it doesn't require you to register an account to find nearby public EV chargers. However, if you set up an account, you can include your EV car model to predict your range and charging time accurately. The app will also tell you the compatible plugs for your EV at each charging station.

What's more, you can use the app to find locations with amenities lodging, dining, Wi-Fi, restrooms, valet parking, and shopping. The best part is that the PlugShare app is free and covers almost all countries worldwide.

One downside is that the Plugshare app doesn't automatically let you know which chargers are occupied. You have to manually check which charging stalls are free every time you’re approaching a charging stop.

Download: PlugShare app for Android | iOS (Free)

5. Charge Point

If you hate driving to a station and finding a charger you thought was available is occupied, the ChargePoint app can solve that problem. If a charging station is busy, the app will notify you using a blue pin, and if a charger is available, you will see a location with a green pin on the app.

Before using a charging station, you can use the app to calculate how much you will spend to top up your EV. It also lets you know the charging status of your EV and the estimated charging time.

Besides that, you can use the ChargePoint app to access over 31,000 charging points in North America, including chargers located around major US university campuses . This makes it the second-largest EV charging network provider in the U.S. after Tesla. You can charge any EV brand at ChargePoint stations, and the service provider is also adopting Tesla’s NACS connectors.

We also like that ChargePoint has partnered with hotels and convenience stores to offer exclusive discounts to its app customers. Better yet, you can integrate this app into your home charger so that you can monitor your EV anytime you want—but you first need to make your home EV ready .

Download: ChargePoint app for Android | iOS (Free)

6. Google Maps

Even though you can't use Google Maps to estimate the range of your electric vehicle, it can tell you the speed and type of port supported by nearby charging stations. If you're living in the US or UK, Google Maps will provide real-time data on available charging stations, so you don't have to line up.

But what gives Google Maps an advantage over other apps for EV routing is that it can show all the amenities along your route—from garages, restaurants, and hotels to convenience stores. In addition to that, you can activate Google Assistant Driving Mode by using Google Maps.

Download: Google Maps for Android | iOS (Free)

Find the Best EV Route Planning Apps for You

If you're planning a trip in your EV, it's best to use several of these planning apps simultaneously. Yes, you read that right. For instance, if you want to find the most convenient hotels for charging EVs, your best options would be Google Maps and EV Hotels.

But if you want a route planner that can accurately tell you everything about your EV battery's status, you should consider A Better Route Planner and the Tesla app.

Similarly, the PlugShare app has one of the largest databases of public EV chargers in the world, and the Charge Point app will tell you if a charging station is busy. It's up to you to find the most suitable app for your EV route planning.

On test: The eight best EV route planner apps

• Jun 20, 2023

If you’re heading across the country in your EV this summer, an EV route planner app will help you plan charging stops along your route . With so many different journey planning tools available for electric car drivers, which is the best? Back in 2022 we did some of the work for you, testing the top apps and tools – and now we’ve done it all again a year later to keep you up-to-date this summer holiday season.

How do I plan a trip with my electric car?

A journey in your EV should be effortless, and the farm shops and other places you may stop add a bit more colour to your journey than a motorway service station. To go back to basics, when we talk about ‘planning’ we mean the following actions:

• Before starting a long trip, charge your EV to 100% at home.
• Download and sign in to at least one EV navigation app.
• Look for charging stations along the route in advance.
• Be realistic about how much time you need to add for charging.
• Pack your cable so that you can charge slowly while you are enjoying time away

What should I look for in an EV route planner?

A good EV planner should plan your route around charging stops with your EV in mind . That means knowing how long your EV can go before needing another charge. Some apps also factor in the terrain (hills) and the weight of passengers and luggage in your car.

EV planners should also help when plans change – with a good map that shows all the charge points around and checks that they are available.

Some EV planning apps also take the headache out of paying for your charging. Zap Map have a Zap Pay, and Octoverse lets you charge your charging to your home energy bill.

Our three golden rules for charging on EV road trips:

1. Stop rapid charging when you get to 80% (any more takes much longer); 2. Plan to stop driving at 20% (better for both battery and peace of mind); 3. Stick to the best networks. Our top picks are: Instavolt, Osprey, MFG and Gridserve.

The top EV route planners put to the test

The good news is that road trips in an electric car are getting easier and easier, with faster chargers – and more of them – dotted everywhere. But, although there are more chargers and they are more reliable, there are also more EVs on the road, so you are still better off doing a little planning before you set off on a long trip. Here are the top eight ev route planning apps we tested:

Zap-Map ABRP (A Better Route Planner) Watts Up Google Maps Plugshare EV Navigation Octopus Electroverse Bonnet

For each app we asked it to plan a 250-mile route from Aberystwyth, Wales to Essex in a VW ID.3. Scroll down to find out which of these we’ll be reaching for on our own road-trips, and which name left us wanting…

Zap-Map is the most well-known of route planners for EV drivers. It launched way back in 2014, and today the majority of UK EV drivers have it installed on their phones. Zap-Map has almost all public charge points mapped and around 70% showing live status data, so you can tell if a charger is in use.

Key features include search, filters, list of nearby chargers, detailed info on each charging point, Zap-Chat community feature and a smart route-planner.

There’s a free version, that allows you to do basically everything you may need. Zap Map ‘map’ has a bewildering number of pins because it shows all the available chargers, even the slowest 3kW chargers. You can filter these out to show only rapids. It shows you the cost and the availability (according to the charger itself) plus the hours or days since the last charge. Users often report chargers that are out of action. This gives you an idea of how reliable and/or busy the charger is.

The plus and premium version cost £29.99 and £47.99 per year, and give you a few extra features, like What3words navigation, enhanced filters and charger ratings to help you avoid the less reliable chargers. You have to pay for premium to get Android Auto and Apple CarPlay display in your car screen.

In-car display is a great feature, allowing you to see the details of each charge point including live charge point status data (where available) and the latest EV driver chats.The only downside is that if you are used to getting live traffic updates using Google Maps, you won’t get these when you’ve got Zap-Map plugged into your car.

Networks with live data on Zap-Map are indicated with an icon on their respective logos. Updated every five minutes, live data shows a blue marker around charge point icons when it is in use. Networks include: Instavolt, Osprey, Gridserve, MFG, BP Pulse, ESB, GeniePoint, Fastned, Ionity, Tesla, Shell, ChargePlace Scotland,

✔ Community chat is well used so you can see if a charger has had issues recently ✘  Charger colours aren’t particularly user-friendly (note: we found out how to get a handy symbols key in the app)

Sign up for the Zap-Map newsletter to get the latest on Zap-Map and charging news.

2. ABRP (A Better Route Planner)

A Better Route Planner (ABRP) is an app that guides you through the quickest way to arrive at your destination. It’s a website and an app for both Android and iOS devices.

A Better Route Planner is a smart, fun, and easy-to-use itinerary maker that lets you plot out routes in the most efficient way possible.

A Better Route Planner focuses on route planning and navigation specifically for electric vehicles. You have to simply select your vehicle model, enter your destination, and hit the big blue plan button to get a full planned route, including charging stations and trip duration.

It has a very simple interface. But change mode and you can see the hills on the route where you could use the most energy. Users say the results are very accurate, taking into account temperature and road conditions. Tesla drivers even prefer it to the Tesla Planner as it favours more charges within the efficient ‘fast’ charging zone of your battery than the Tesla app.

The free version allows you to share to Google Maps to get live traffic updates. The premium version has traffic built-in.

✔ Accurate predictions on range

✔ Shows you all the food options near your charger ✘  Live data on top charger networks only

Got the right energy tariff for your home charging?

EV tariff checker

3. Watts Up

Wattup shows live status for top networks – Instavolt, Osprey, and Gridserve and now live, as are smaller networks ChargePlaceScotland, ForEv.

Nearby public chargepoints are shown within the free CarPlay interface, this shows location, distance, power rating and live availability. And you can ‘favourite’ the chargers you like for quick reference.

We tried to upgrade to a trial version of ‘Discovery mode’ (cost £1 through Google Playstore), but it never worked and was impossible to cancel from the app itself, so we can’t even report on the benefits of that.

✔ Seeing the logo of the charge operator on the map makes it easy to weigh up best operator against best location (see our top network tips above)

✘ Not on your laptop or tablet, it’s only an app on your phone

4. Google Maps

You can actually get some helpful information from Google Maps as an electric car driver, but it is buried deep within the mapping interface. What we trust Google to do is show us the best route and to reroute us based on what’s happening with traffic, so it’s worth including Google in this list of EV route planners. We expect that Google are working on making it better for predictions.

On a desktop computer, All you have to do is plug in your journey details, tap the option for ‘search along route’, and then search for ‘EV charging stations’. Then Google Maps will present you with all the stations along your route, with details about the type of chargers available. On your phone, tap the three dots on the top right and then ‘Search along route’. You still have to type ‘EV charging’, but then you’ll see all the chargers on your route and can add a stop.

The problem comes if you get rerouted because Google finds a quicker route. Google will think you still need to stop at that charger.

✔ Live traffic on your route

✘ No help choosing chargers

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5. PlugShare

This app is most like Zap-Map, but it seems like it’s aimed at a US driver. With brown and green pins that look like petrol pumps, it’s looks are not inspiring. The PlugShare app can be used to plan a trips in a specific vehicle and shows you a map. It doesn’t show how elevation affects your range, just shows you the likely max range with a big green circle on the map – and that is either very conservative or hasn’t noticed what car we selected. You can filter by reviews, so you can see only the best chargers in other drivers’ opinions.

We were expecting great things from PlugShare, but in fact were really disappointed. For example, it showed us Tesla chargers for our ID.3 (not the one’s just opened up to other users) and it didn’t seem easy to filter away slower chargers.

✔ Easy to filter chargers by user ratings (this is Premium feature in Zap-Map) ✘  No option to share route to Google for real-time navigation from the app. And it let us choose chargers ‘along the route’, so we accidentally picked a Northbound charger on a Southbound journey!

6. EV Navigation

Back to the geeky end of route planning, EV Navigation , is a comprehensive solution for predicting the discharge rate of the battery with precision but it also manages to look simple. It calculates routes and takes the charging times into consideration. You can tell it how many people you have in the car and how you are likely to drive (sport, normal or eco), even the pressure in your tyres.

This gives EV drivers the ability to optimise their drive time and spend the least amount of time necessary waiting at charging stations. If you don’t like the look for the charging stop they suggest, it’s very hard to find alternatives.

✔ Great to see the impact of passengers and driving style, etc.

✘ Not very interactive if you don’t want to use the charger selected

7. Octopus Electroverse

Even if you aren’t an Octopus customer, you can join the Electroverse charging network. Sign up and they send you a card so you can pay for charging through your home energy bill or on a registered card. On some networks there is a discount for using chargers off-peak – Osprey will give you 20% off for charging after 7pm.

We like the fact that the map shows you rapid chargers (namely Instavolt and Gridserve) that aren’t on the network. Better still, the Electroverse card works across Europe, where an RFID card or app are still vital, as contactless payments are less common.

Share £10 when you join Electroverse

Get £5 credit

On our latest review, the route planner now works from the app. The planner was made more difficult as autocomplete seemed to suggest lots of places in the USA with similar names. The route suggested was sensible, and you can send the route to Google Maps on your phone to get live traffic updates.

The map shows you all the networks in any spot, including those who haven’t partnered – of which the big names missing from their payments system are Instavolt and Gridserve. You’ll get a 20% discount on Osprey charging after 7pm.

✔ No more upfront ‘holds’ on your credit card, just pay it off on your home bill

✔ Great for European road trips

✘ Route planner doesn’t show you alternatives along the route, but you can use the app to see all the options

✘ Network doesn’t include Gridserve or Instavolt chargers (although you still see where these are on the app)

Bonnet is a payment app that lets you plan routes across the UK and Europe and access charging through a single app (or RFID card if you prefer). It is similar to the Electroverse app, except you can buy a number of Boosts which are subscriptions that get you a discount on all charging sessions. For £2 a month you can get 10% off charging, £8 gets you 15% off. The rapid networks to watch out for are Osprey, Ionity, MFG, and up and coming Evyve. It has also partnered to show untethered 7kW Connected Kerb chargers.

We were disappointed to learn that, just as if you had turned up to use contactless on a new network, Bonnet still has to hold £30 in prepayment authorisation for each charge you do.

Bonnet Premium does offer a route planning app for newer EVs. It is currently being offered for free as a beta product, but you need to add a payment method and will get a reminder if it ever starts to be a charged-for service.

We gave it a test, and found it very difficult to even find the route planning tool. (There’s a tiny bent arrow on the main map). The results, including one charger that was offline, were meaningless as they gave no information about the estimated battery SoC%, or charging time. On the bright side, it was easy to cancel Premium right there in the app.

Main features of the best EV route planners

The features offered by these apps are changing all the time. We’ve done our best to compare apps in May 2022 (updated June 2023), but if you have found any changes and would like to give us an update, we’d love to put things right. Email us at: [email protected]

Our verdict: Which route planning app is best?

We gave each EV route planning app a score for various aspects of planning a long journey. The best app scored 5, with the worst getting a 1:

By way of background, we’ve been driving an EV since 2019. We don’t often use public charging, as most of our journeys can be completed with home charging. We have always used Zap-Map to plan trips and Google Maps to navigate to avoid traffic jams and hold-ups. We stick to the better charger networks (see the golden rules above), and try and avoid charging when the roads are busy. Probably as a result of this, our experience of rapid charging in the last year is generally quite positive.

Following our desk-based research, we’ll be immediately retiring the PlugShare app. We’ll recommend Watts Up to our more anxious EV-newbie friends and relatives. And we’ll watch the newer EV Navigation for further developments.

Which is the best EV route planner app?

For our longest trips, we’d go to ABRP to provide the most accurate route planning. For the genuine ease of use (with one RFID card to almost end them all), we’d use Octopus Electroverse (and better still, you can get £5 credit when you join using our link ). Although we’d love to see payment links with the reliable Instavolt or motorway-based Gridserve networks in the future.

If you have a passenger who can check updates, Zap-Map is useful for the live charger status data for Gridserve chargers, but an update every five minutes could still leave you waiting for a charger, so it’s probably best to head to a larger site anyway.

Plan longer electric journeys

Use our EV route planner to see where to stop on longer routes, what's available in those areas, and how long you’ll need to charge.

Find the best route for your car

With our ev route planner.

Zapmap’s route planner provides peace of mind and the confidence to drive any length of journey in your EV. With access to the widest choice of charging options and real-time availability status, our route planner helps you plot a journey that’s tailored to your needs, whether it’s a family adventure or a solo mission.

EV route planning

Different routing modes

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Peace of mind

on longer journeys

Zapmap Premium

With a number of ways to quickly locate charge points tailored to your needs, Zapmap Premium helps you drive smarter. On top of filters for new charge points and multi-charger locations, Premium gets Zapmap into your in-car dashboard via Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. This means you can locate suitable charge points, view live charge point status and access route plans - all while on the move. What's more, with Premium you can save unlimited filters, route plans and EV models.

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Your EV. Your Way.

Using a simple system of colors and numbers the Chargeway App shows you where you can charge your EV and how long it will take. No guesswork. You’re in control.

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With the Chargeway App, you charge simpler and drive smoother.

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Chargeway includes over 80,000 charging stations from over 40 networks throughout the US and Canada. Add your EV and automatically see stations that match your EV’s plug type, easily see different power levels, and discover where electric fuel awaits.

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With the Chargeway App you have all of your vehicle info at your fingertips. Simply add your vehicle of choice, select your color, add a custom name and then adjust your battery levels to estimate charging time at any station.

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EV Trip Planner

Every great road trip starts with a game plan. Dial yours in with the Chargeway App’s EV Trip Planner–automatically calculating charging stops along your route with factors like charge time, outdoor temperature, and desired speed.

EV Trip Planner & Features

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Leave range anxiety in the dust.

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Do you want to contribute to make your favourite EV-application even better and join a passionate community?  There are lots of way which you can help us become even better.  Write a blog post, translate our app, become a tester, report bugs and many more.

Or maybe you have another idea of how you can improve the driving experience for millions of EV drivers? 

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Or do you want to work in a tech company trying to improve the experience of EV drivers? Are you passionate about new technology and want to join an organization that is world-leading within its field?

We are on a journey to develop new technological solutions in order to make a meaningful, positive impact on the world. We are currently looking to expand our team! 

ABRP has been helping - and creating - EV drivers for more than 5 years. 

Through the world's leading EV route planner we have helped millions of users plan their next EV trip. ABRP is a highly flexible application that can be customized according to your needs.  We continuously work with CPO:s and MSP:s to provide you with the most up-to-date realtime status. In addition to our application, we also provide an API so you can integrate our planning in your service. 

How it started

ABRP was started and run as a hobby project by Bo just after he got his first Tesla in 2016. He realized that there was no good way to plan his upcoming trips outside of the car and that it would help a lot to be able to follow up on a plan in the Tesla in-car browser while driving. Since then ABRP has become an essential tool for any road trip by experienced EV owners, and a great way for EV beginners to learn and feel confident.

Our company Iternio was formed in 2018 with the mission to continue driving the free service ABRP (with Premium functions) while providing the planning API and other services to partners. 

For Businesses: Our APIs

The core of Iternio is our EV route planning algorithms, made accessible for digital products through our EV Planning API and cloud service.  The EV route planning algorithms are continuously improved and updated to give the best possible EV plans in any situation. The EV world changes and improves all the time, and so do we. The largest customer of the API is ABRP, which is how we keep it on the frontier of innovation and ahead of everyone else.

For Consumers: ABRP

ABetterRouteplanner is the world's most popular consumer EV routeplanner - both for beginner and experienced EV drivers. And of course for anyone curious about EVs.

With the user community around ABRP, we are getting tons of help to innovate and improve on the product and EV planning in general.

ABRP is free to use and has a Premium membership to get access to all the most advanced stuff such as CarPlay, live traffic, and real-time charger data. 

Iternio stands on two legs

We create the world's leading EV planner

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Over 130,000,000 plans calculated

Support for all major EV manufacturers, chargers and platforms

Real-time charger, weather, and traffic status

New ways to power up your electric vehicle adventures with Google Maps

Apr 17, 2024

[[read-time]] min read

In time for Earth Day, we’re making it easier to find information about EV charging stations, whether you’re planning a drive or already on the road.

• Bullet points
• Google Maps introduces new features to enhance electric vehicle (EV) charging experiences.
• AI-powered summaries provide detailed descriptions of charger locations based on user reviews.
• In-car maps display nearby chargers with real-time port availability and charging speed.
• Suggested charging stops and forecasted energy consumption for multi-stop trips.
• EV filter on Google Travel helps find hotels with onsite EV charging.
• Basic explainer

Google Maps has new features to help electric car drivers find charging stations.

You can now see detailed descriptions of where chargers are located, like "Enter the underground parking lot and follow the signs toward the exit. Just before exiting, turn right."

You can also see nearby chargers on the in-car map, with information like real-time port availability and charging speed.

If you're planning a trip, Google Maps will suggest the best charging stops along the way, based on your battery's charge level.

Explore other styles:

Electric vehicle ownership is on the rise, which means more people are looking for ways to charge their car — whether they’re on the go or planning their drive. To help EV owners access more helpful information about charging stations, we’re rolling out new features for Google Maps and Search. With these updates you can easily find specific information about the location of EV chargers, plan charging stops for road trips and more.

Easily find exactly where charging stations are located

Navigating to charging stations and finding exactly where the chargers are located — like the right area of a multilevel parking lot — can be tricky. In the coming months, we’ll start showing AI-powered summaries in Google Maps that describe a charger’s specific location based on helpful information from user reviews, so you can find exactly where to go. For example, when you’re headed to a charging station you may see a detailed description, like “Enter the underground parking lot and follow the signs toward the exit. Just before exiting, turn right.”

This information is possible thanks to the millions of reviews posted every day in Maps, which help provide accurate and up-to-date information about places like charging stations. To help make these even more useful, reviews about chargers now prompt you for additional details about your experience, like what type of plug you used and how long you waited.

Find the best charger for you while you're on the go

We’re also thinking about other ways we can give people helpful EV charging information at a glance. For example, if you’re low on charge while on the road or you need to top off while running errands, soon you’ll be able to see nearby chargers on the in-car map, with information like real-time port availability and charging speed. This update will roll out globally, starting with vehicles with Google built-in the coming months.

See suggested charging stops, forecasted energy consumption and more when you plan a trip

In addition to showing you where chargers are at a glance, we want to help you take more complex trips easily. Last year we announced that Maps suggests the best charging locations for vehicles with Google built-in. This capability is expanding to multi-stop trips. So if you're planning a multi-stop summer road trip to several national parks, Maps will suggest the best charging stops along the way, based on your battery’s charge level. This feature will be available globally in the coming months for vehicles with Google built-in.

And if you’re planning overnight stays, we’ve got you covered, because the last thing you want to do after a long day of driving is hunt around for a charging station. With our new EV filter on google.com/travel you can find hotels on Search that offer onsite EV charging.

Whether you’re planning a summer road trip or looking for a last-minute charge, Maps and Search can help you find the charging information you need.

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How to Use the Tesla Trip Planner

Tesla’s Trip Planner can be used on a computer to plan a road trip ahead of time, with the advantage of finding food, lodging, and other stops near chargers. It can also be used on the go to adjust plans. Here’s what you should know.

Telsa Motors, Inc.

What Is Tesla’s Trip Planner?

Tesla’s trip planning tools can be used both before you embark on your trip, as well as when you’re already on the road. Though specific features vary by manufacturer, all electric vehicles have ways to help the owner locate chargers on the go, see chargers’ status, and plan routes to destinations to balance optimizing the car’s range while finding the most convenient available chargers. In that way, Tesla’s trip planning tools are not unique to Tesla vehicles .

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Key Takeaways

• With computer-based and in-car features, Tesla’s Trip Planner can be used well in advance or on the go
• The trip planner helps find the most efficient route to your destination
• Tesla’s tools also help you find chargers along your route.

However, Tesla does have the advantage of being an early innovator in the segment, as well as having access to the formerly proprietary Tesla Supercharger network, widely regarded as the best of its kind in terms of reliability and efficiency.

An EV Road Trip

Warren Clarke Sept. 28, 2023

Tesla’s Trip Planner can be used on a computer to plan a road trip ahead of time, with the advantage of finding food, lodging, and other desired stops near chargers. It can also be used on the go, to adjust plans if needed or desired. Here’s what you need to know.

Get Ready to Go

Use Tesla’s Trip Planner Go Anywhere tool from the comfort of your home, at any or all stages of planning your trip . Whether it’s an overnight or a cross-country jaunt, the Trip Planner can optimize your route, find and recommend Tesla Superchargers, and even suggest Destination Charging . The latter are charging locations specifically located near points of interest, such as restaurants, hotels, and shopping, so you can charge overnight, while eating, or while restocking your road trip supplies and provisions.

How To Charge an EV at a Public Charger

Steven Loveday and Warren Clarke Jan. 8, 2024

Using the Trip Planner ahead of time means you can ensure you’ll hit your desired points of interest and know where you’ll be spending the night, so you can head out confidently. Yet, if your plans change along the way, Tesla’s got you covered there, too.

On the Road

Whether you’ve planned in advance or it’s more of a last-minute or short trip, Tesla’s Trip Planner is also available behind the wheel. If you’re already in your car, your Tesla’s navigation system will show you the fastest route to your destination, and will highlight Tesla Superchargers along the way. This strategy can help you plan your charging to take advantage of nearby sites so you can explore, rest, or grab something to eat.

How Much Does it Cost to Charge an Electric Car?

Warren Clarke Jan. 16, 2024

The lightning bolt icon on your Tesla’s navigation screen will instantly find the nearest Supercharger to your location, along with its current availability and charging rates . Tesla advises using the trip planner during a trip to stay informed of nearby Tesla Superchargers and your car’s recommendations for charging.

Other Tips and Advice

Tesla offers advice to optimize your charging and range while on a trip. When driving, make sure braking is set to the regenerative setting, which means that the car will recapture energy from braking and send it back to the battery pack, which helps maximize range. Also check your tires and ensure they’re set to the proper pressure, which also helps conserve battery power and reduce how often you’ll need to charge.

Whenever possible, park in the shade to keep the vehicle as cool as possible, and leave the air conditioning running while parked. This way, you can come back to a cool and comfortable vehicle. You can monitor and adjust the car’s cabin temperature remotely through Tesla’s smartphone app.

Note that Tesla advises leaving your vehicle plugged in whenever possible when you’re on a trip. Tesla says this will not degrade the battery or battery life over time.

Planning ahead of time will help ensure peace of mind for an extended road trip, but a combined approach of using Tesla’s trip planner tools both beforehand and on the go can help ensure you’re well prepared for your journey with room for some spontaneity and last-minute surprises. After all, what’s a road trip without the opportunity for a little adventure?

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EV Trip Planner -‌  Charging Stations, Routes and Tolls

Looking for EV routing on Google Maps? Use the EV Trip Planner! See all the EV charging stations and superchargers on map with details – brand, connector type, level, cost, power feed, access time and contact. Also see toll plazas, tags – E-ZPass, SunPass, FasTrak, TxTag -l discounts. Travel on the cheapest or fastest routes to your destination. For Tesla, Chevy Bolt, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Nissan Leaf etc. across the US and Canada toll roads, turnpikes, expressways, express lanes, highways, bridges, and tunnels.

Business? Integrate Toll API for pre-trip, on-trip and post-trip toll and route information.

Still not convinced? Just enter your origin, destination, Submit and see tolls in seconds. Fill the optional fields - mileage, toll tags etc. - to get more accurate results.

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• Number of connectors
• Charging point’s brand
• Connector type
• Cost of charging
• Power feed type
• Access time & contact
• Cheapest and Fastest routes
• Reorder stops (Traveling salesman problem)
• Toll plaza on map
• Toll rate for each plaza

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US Toll Calculator — See Toll Plaza Locations, Toll Rates, Toll Tags, and more

Visit the TollGuru Toll Calculator app

Out of the 50, 37 US states have toll booths for turnpikes, bridges or other toll facilities. The major ones include New York, New Jersey, Florida, California, Texas, and Puerto Rico territory. 13 of the US states and the District of Columbia do not have any toll roads.

The US Toll Calculator is Free to use for car, SUV, Pickup truck, EV, taxi, rideshare, carpool, bus, motorcycle, and RV with or without trailers to travel across the US. For trucks, you’ll have to take a Web Calculator subscription.

Alternatively, use our apps (iOS or Android) for free trip calculations for all the vehicles.

If you find any discrepancy in the toll rates or plaza details, please report to us.

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How to Find an Electric Car Charger

Looking to plan a big trip with your EV? You're going to want to map out chargers first. Here's what you need to know.

If you drive a gas-powered car, chances are you don’t plan your trips around finding a gas station. It’s not just that gas stations are everywhere. You also don’t have to worry whether the pumps will work or how fast you’ll be able to fill your car.

Making efficient use of EV chargers on the road requires more thought. They aren’t as ubiquitous as gas stations and they are also less reliable. That means navigating to what turns out to be a broken charger isn’t just frustrating—if you’re low on range, it’s potentially disastrous. And chargers aren’t one-size-fits-all; some aren’t compatible with all vehicles, or you may need an adapter to hook up your car, a mobile app to start the charging, or both. Plus, of course, chargers come in different speeds. On a last note, chargers can be hard to find, in addition to being painful to miss. They don’t tend to come with 30-foot signs displaying their location and price, and are often located in the back of shopping centers and hotel parking lots.

Complicating all of this, a huge amount of public and private money is being invested in EV charging solutions, resulting in a lot of experimentation as local and state governments, car makers, charging companies, and even payment platforms try to figure out what works and what doesn’t. For consumers, that translates into a potentially confusing array of options when it comes to something as basic as locating chargers.

Should you use an app or your in-car navigation system? Why bother with CarPlay? The answer depends on the nature of your trip, what kind of car you drive, and whether getting charged is your only goal or just one.

Finding a Working Charger: PlugShare and Other Mobile Apps

Plugshare is as developed as it is because it supported drivers in the earliest days of EVs, when finding a charger on the road was much more harrowing than it is today. Most EVs didn’t have navigation systems, let alone systems that could direct you to a specific charger. Fast chargers were exceedingly rare and most cars couldn’t use them, and slow chargers, too, were few and far between. So the early adopters were resourceful and created tools to help other drivers find places to plug in. In the early days, Plugshare users even listed their own home chargers so that other EV owners could use them. PlugShare can also be worth a look if you’re curious about upcoming chargers. Intrepid investigators in the Tesla Motors Club forum have gone so far as to search public records for construction permits for upcoming Supercharger locations, reporting them on Plugshare when found.

PlugShare is far from the only charger database out there. Its closest competitor is ChargeHub , an app that provides virtually identical functionality. Though ChargeHub has far fewer users writing reviews of chargers, the user interface is a bit more modern and it features fewer ads, so choosing between the two apps is a matter of preference more than anything else.

Both PlugShare and ChargeHub aggregate chargers from all networks, which is an advantage if you want the most comprehensive view of what’s available in a given area. But if you are highly dependent on public chargers–either because you don’t have at-home charging or spend a lot of time on the road–then chances are you are subscribed to a charging network for discounted use. In that case, it can make sense to use the app provided by your EV-preferred charging provider, such as Electrify America , EVgo , or Chargepoint . As might be expected, these apps often are the best source of real-time status information for chargers in their network and can be very helpful for purposes of assessing availability and avoiding congestion at a station, and will generally need to be used to initiate the charge anyway.

Planning a Trip: A Better Route Planner

The app you use to find a working charger near you is not necessarily the app you want to use to plan a trip. PlugShare has a trip planning functionality, but it’s not as smart as some of the other options, requiring you to input your starting range and manually select from the available options at each charging stop along the way. It also doesn’t factor in live traffic along the way or guide you there in real time. That makes navigating a multi-stop road trip with PlugShare tedious, akin to printing directions in the MapQuest days.

For long trips, A Better Route Planner (ABRP) is the best mobile app solution. You simply add your vehicle and starting range, set your destination, and it will take you to all of your charging stops along the way optimizing for the shortest total time or number of charging stops if you prefer. You are able to filter to use only particular charging networks or avoid any, as well as factor in charger availability(with a premium subscription). Once on your way, the app shows a predicted state of charge of your battery. If you find this to be inaccurate, potentially due to weather, you can change it in the app and it will adjust your route as necessary. Unlike in-car systems however, the responsibility of keeping that state of charge up to date in the app lies with you, and failure to do so can result in not being able to reach the next charger at all. Despite that caveat, ABRP is a very complete EV road trip tool.

Whether you’re in an older car without an in-car navigation system, one whose systems you are less familiar with, or simply want to be sure you know the location and status of all the charging options around you, these apps can serve an important purpose in your charging experience.

Planning a Trip with Integrated Data: In-Car Navigation in a Tesla

Every Tesla owner knows the advantages of integrated data. An app may give you optionality but you are still left to calculate, for yourself, whether you can make it to a particular charger. Tesla takes care of that problem by providing you with a car that monitors its own battery depletion and directs you to an optimally located Supercharger.

Most EVs sold today have some form of in-car navigation system, and many of these, too, are able to direct you to nearby EV chargers, or help you plan charge stops along a route. But with these systems, the devil is in the details. Tesla’s Trip Planner remains the strongest and most seamless of these systems because it has spent years investing in a vertically integrated charging network that optimizes trip planning and automates the payment process. By default, the Trip Planner map shows nearby Supercharger stations, allowing you to simply set them as your destination. As with ABRP, if you set a destination that is beyond the range of your vehicle, Trip Planner will optimize the route, directing you to Supercharger stations along the way, telling you how long you need to charge to reach the next stop in the most time efficient (if slightly range-conservative) way. Thanks to its vertically integrated network, Tesla also avoids routing you to broken or busy stations that may result in an unnecessary wait to charge.

The downside of this system is that Trip Planner will incorporate only Tesla’s Superchargers into your route. Tesla’s navigation map also shows its own level 2 chargers, and third-party chargers if you’ve charged at those particular locations before (making Plugshare your best option for locating all of the available options). For now, the limitation isn’t unduly problematic for most Tesla owners, for two reasons. First, third-party fast charging networks in the U.S. currently require a CCS-to-NACS adapter, which most Tesla owners simply do not have. Second, Tesla has the largest and most reliable fast charger network by far. But as other networks close the gap (and adopt NACS), Tesla will likely open up Trip Planner, as more optionality is always better for drivers planning a route. In fact, Tesla has already started doing this in other countries.

Planning a Trip with Integrated Data: In-Car Navigation in a Non-Tesla

At first blush, other OE systems, like Ford’s Fordpass navigation and charging system, appear to offer functionality similar enough to Tesla’s, but in practice, their lack of real-time data from third-party networks has resulted in a poor charging experience for their users. In Marques Brownlee’s road trip test a couple years ago, Ford’s navigation system directed a Mustang Mach-E to broken chargers twice in one day. That forced the car to backtrack to whatever charger it could find within the remaining range of the vehicle–including to a slow level 2 charger–adding up to hours-long delays.

In the face of these challenges, car makers have started looking to the tech world for route planning solutions. For instance, last year, Rivian purchased the parent company of A Better Route Planner and has since integrated the best of ABRP’s functionality into its navigation system. Much like Tesla's system, it plans your charging stops along the way, and allows you to filter locations based on charging speed and charging provider. Unlike the general ABRP mobile app, Rivian’s system pulls information about the state of your battery charge directly from your vehicle. It also allows you to set the amount of charge you would like to have by the time you arrive at your destination and tracks real-time availability data from many third-party charging providers (though not all providers share this information).

Some manufacturers, like Polestar , rely on Google Maps, which has added EV routing integration into the automotive version of its Maps app. This partnership enables the car’s infotainment system to provide functionality similar to Rivian’s ABRP software, combined with Google’s live traffic routing. Polestar also boasts that ABRP is available on its vehicles, giving owners multiple options for seamless routing.

Mobile Apps as In-Car Navigation

Looking to the near future, what is likely to become popular are phone-based solutions like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto which use your phone to create an in-car navigation experience. In other words, they allow your phone to pull information from the vehicle and display mobile apps on the infotainment screen. This enables applications running on your phone to understand the range and state of charge of your vehicle, and offer similar functionality to ones running on the car’s infotainment system. If your EV allows CarPlay/Android Auto apps to read this data, you can use EV routing software available on the app store, notably Apple Maps, Google Maps, or ABRP. All of these apps have proven to be very robust and full-featured, and will likely continue to improve as more charging providers share their data with the tech giants. The caveat is that compatibility is up to the car makers, at least for the foreseeable future (though ABRP does have an OBD-based workaround) .

Ford and Porsche have leaned into this functionality, but Hyundai and Kia currently do not support this integration, instead releasing their own route planner last summer. GM also announced last year that they would be phasing out CarPlay and Android Auto in favor of developing their own system with Google. Tesla does not support CarPlay or Android Auto at all.

Charging While Shopping: Retail and Hospitality Chains

It’s fun to dream about a future where driving an EV requires as little planning as an ICE vehicle. It will take some time before chargers are on every street corner, but retailers are taking steps toward that reality.

The big shift we should expect is a movement toward charging-while-[fill in the blank]. Increasingly, retailers are understanding that offering EV charging is an easy way to bring people to their businesses. Having a captive audience for 20 minutes to an hour is an enticing proposition, and as shown by a recent Consumer Reports study , many companies are offering charging to stimulate brick-and-mortar sales.

The earliest and most complete mover in this arena is Ikea. It should come as no surprise that the flat-pack furniture retailer hailing from the country with one of the highest rates of EV adoption in the world has long offered charging at its locations. Currently nearly all of its U.S. facilities have at least a handful of chargers in their vast parking lots.

Big box retailers are also starting to invest in charging, though that doesn’t mean you can reliably expect to see chargers at a given location just yet. Costco, Target, and Walmart all have EV charging at fewer than 10 percent of their locations , and many of Electrify America’s fast charge stations are located in Walmart lots.

The major national grocery chains have gone further. Amazon/Whole Foods, Big Y, Meijer, Giant, Food Lion, Stop & Shop, Hy-Vee, and Raley’s all boast chargers at between 11 and 30 percent of their locations. Meijer, in particular, hosts many Tesla Superchargers in the midwest, while Raley’s maintains a number of EVgo fast charge locations.

Sheetz and Wawa lead the convenience store pack, largely through their work with Tesla hosting superchargers up and down the East Coast. The competing chains also both work with EVgo to provide CCS and CHAdeMo charging as well.

Hotel chains are perhaps the businesses with the most to gain, or lose, from the decision on whether to offer charging. Having access to a level 2 charger overnight can mean saving over an hour of charging on your journey, and many EV owners will choose hotels that make that possible. So it’s unsurprising that hotels have been moving quickly to add this amenity, often as a free perk for guests. Hilton announced last year that it plans to work with Tesla to install 20,000 chargers across 2,000 hotels in North America, adding to the nearly 1,500 hotels that already have them. Marriott has more than 6,000 chargers worldwide through a partnership with EVconnect. Radisson and Best Western have also announced that they are working with Tesla to increase their EV footprint.

The bottom line: As with gas stations, with a little trial and error, you will quickly find the handful of chargers where you’ll do the vast majority of your charging. For the rest, your car and your circumstances will largely dictate which app, navigation system, or in-between option provides you the best real-time data on working chargers at minimally congested sites.

An aerospace engineer with a life-long passion for anything with wheels or wings, Will has spent his career building everything from bicycles to bathrooms. 

He once ran an after-hours communal car workshop in an abandoned South Bronx laundromat, restoring his first and last car, a Datsun 240z, and had a Suzuki SV650 blown up by ConEd. 

Watts later followed his name and joined Tesla’s charging team, and now writes about EVs and infrastructure.

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Business Insider

Tesla owners share their best tips for taking an EV on a road trip

Posted: August 19, 2023 | Last updated: August 19, 2023

• Tesla owners and a renter described their experience taking the EV on cross-country road trips.
• Some Tesla owners highlighted the benefits of taking the EV on long trips
• Take a look at some of their tips for taking a Tesla on a road trip.

While some EV owners have shared horror stories about taking an electric car on a road trip, some Tesla owners say those drivers probably just haven't mastered the learning curve yet.

Eight Tesla veterans and a first-time Tesla renter shared some tips on how to execute a successful EV road trip in a series of conversations with Insider — from avoiding certain routes to planning ahead and getting creative on the road.

Range anxiety and a lack of charging infrastructure are key hurdles when it comes to EV adoption, but Tesla owners say it's possible to ditch concerns about charging on the road and even lean into some of the benefits of taking an electric car across the country, including saving on gas and enjoying Tesla amenities like Autopilot . Still, some drivers say road trips in a Tesla can be a major headache.

Here's what Tesla owners say about their experiences taking the car on a long road trip.

Most people's first road trip can be anxiety-ridden, but learn to trust the car, owners said.

Many Tesla owners said it's common to feel anxious on your first EV road trip.

"After the first outbound trip when I was being very careful and charging to a higher percentage than necessary at each stop, I learned to trust what my Tesla was telling me about the state of charge, my expected range, and that there were chargers along the way," Dennis Duncan, a Model Y owner who has taken his EV on cross-country trips, including on an annual trip from Washington state to Montana, told Insider.

It's best to start out with smaller trips and stay near interstates, drivers said.

"Start somewhere within 200 miles of your origin and become accustomed to the range and how your driving impacts it," said Ken Vizena, a Model Y owner who has taken his vehicle on numerous cross-country trips. "Don't start off driving cross country. Start off with medium trips in hugely populated areas."

Vizena said it's important to pay attention to not only how many charging stations are along your route, but also where they are located along the path. He said new Tesla owners should ask themselves several questions before they set off on a road trip with their EV, namely: How far off course will the chargers take you? Are they located in areas where you would feel safe waiting?

Most Tesla owners agree the Supercharger network is a major advantage.

Tesla has spent over a decade building out more than 20,000 Superchargers in North America, earning it the region's largest network of roadside fast chargers. Moreover, Superchargers are widely regarded as more reliable and easy to use than other networks' chargers. Non-Tesla EV owners rely on a shakier patchwork of public chargers , which can be difficult to find and are plagued by reliability issues .

"I couldn't even imagine being with another car company and relying on third-party chargers," Jonathan Baalke, a Model 3 owner in Kentucky who says he drives over 150 miles a day for work, previously told Insider. "It's hard to have range anxiety when you have access to Tesla's network, but if I was with any other brand's cars, I would definitely have some concerns."

More recently, the EV company has said it plans to open some of its exclusive Supercharger network to non-Tesla EV companies like Ford and General Motors .

Some Tesla owners said charging on your road trip isn't too bad if you use it as a natural break to eat lunch or stretch your legs — so long as you're at a Supercharger.

"I stop to charge about every four hours," David Craig, a Model S owner who recently took his Tesla on a 8,500-mile road trip, said. "It's just a natural stopping point. Even if you were driving a traditional car you'd want to take breaks and fuel up. I plug it in at a Supercharger and usually there's a restaurant nearby where I grab lunch."

A Supercharger can recharge a Tesla with up to 200 miles of range in 15 minutes, according to the company's website . A Model 3 standard vehicle delivers an estimated range of about 333 miles, according to Tesla. And the carmaker's longest-range vehicle, the Model S, can deliver an estimated range of up to 405 miles, the company says.

Some Tesla owners said it's best to plan where you will charge on the trip well in advance.

"It requires a lot of planning to take a road trip with an EV," Leonard Zuga, a Model Y owner who plans to take his vehicle on a trip from Ohio to Florida, told Insider. "I use multiple systems, including Tesla's onboard system. I know what hotels and Superchargers I will use before we've even started packing. Every hotel I select is within a few minutes of a Supercharger. If you do not like planning ahead you won't do well as an EV owner."

Zuga said he's using ChatGPT, and several charge-planning applications, including EV Trip Optimizer and PlugShare , to plan his trip to Florida in addition to the car's internal navigation system. It will be the longest road trip he's taken yet with the vehicle.

Vizena said he liked to plan ahead using a site called A Better Route Planner .

Other Tesla owners said they feel comfortable relying solely on the car's internal navigation system.

Brian Loughman, a Model 3 owner, said he typically relies solely on the internal navigation system, which incorporates charging sites into the journey and alerts drivers to which charging sites it predicts will be most efficient and which ones are busier. It's a favorite feature among Tesla owners.

"Hop in the car while connected to your home charger and program the full route into the car," Loughman told Insider over email. "It will tell you where to stop, how low your battery will be when you get there, and how many minutes you'll need to charge before continuing on your route."

Though, sometimes the internal navigation system can lead you astray, some Tesla owners said.

"It took me into an Indian reservation, and the path ended at a gate that said, 'Your GPS is wrong, turn around,'" Vizena told Insider of one of his road trips from Houston, Texas, to Los Angeles. "I had to backtrack to the Supercharger 40 miles away and ignore the built-in map."

Some rural routes you might want to avoid altogether, some Tesla owners said.

Vizena told Insider he's avoided taking his Tesla on trips to more rural states like Idaho or Montana. Zuga and Ken Becker, a Model 3 owner, said when they drove through Ohio Superchargers were few and far between. And Duncan said there's some road trips he's had to put off until Tesla's charging network grows more.

William Scholtz, who rented a Model 3 from Hertz for a cross-country, monthlong trip, said he and his wife weren't able to go to all the places they'd anticipated because they were constrained by a lack of charging options.

"We planned to visit a friend who farms near Sylvia, Kansas, but it was impossible," Scholtz said. "There are simply no charging stations of any kind that would bring us to his farm and back."

Scholtz said the couple attempted to trickle-charge at another point in their journey, but it took too long.

Even so, It's not the end of the world if you can't find a Supercharger.

If you have the patience, you can get by with trickle-charging, some Tesla owners said.

Zuga said he likes to charge his Tesla at RV outlets when he camps. Becker said it makes sense to trickle-charge or use a slower, Level 1 charger, if you're staying in one place for a while.

 A trickle charge can take up to 50 hours or more to bring an EV from empty to 80% of capacity, while a Level 2 charger can do so in four to 10 hours, according to the Department of Transportation.

Insider previously reported that a Model Y owner used a trickle-charge to visit a remote monument in California. "It was only a standard 120V outlet, so we would be trickle charging , not supercharging, but that was sufficient to more than replace, overnight, whatever energy we used on our daily excursions around the Monument," the Model Y owner, Kathleen Goforth said in a blog post about her road trip.

Don't be in too much of a hurry; just enjoy the journey, some Tesla owners said.

"If you're in a major hurry to get to your destination an EV might not be the best idea," Scholtz said. "It will take longer to charge than filling up your tank. It will take time to find chargers on your route, and sometimes those chargers take you off a direct route. Also, if you're driving too fast that will only decrease your range. "

There are also some perks to taking a Tesla on a road trip. Owners said they have fewer worries about maintenance issues on long trips.

"A lot more can fail on an internal combustion engine," Craig said. "Your biggest worry with a Tesla is that you'll get a flat tire.

Driving a Tesla means no more oil changes, and an EV requires less upkeep overall, according to data from Consumer Reports . 

"With an ICE vehicle there is anxiety about a variety of mechanical things like overheating, engine problems of many kinds, or brake burnout going down major grades or in mountain driving," Duncan said. "A Tesla won't overheat and actually recharges your battery going downhill instead of overheating and wearing out your brakes."

Though, Teslas aren't fully immune to breaks. Vizena said he had to spend an entire road trip with a broken air conditioner in his Tesla and showed a picture where the internal temperature in his car reached 99 degrees.

Tesla owners also enjoy not having to spend money on gas during long road trips.

As of July, the average electric car owner could save between $1,000 to $1,200 per year in fuel costs as compared to using an EV charger, according to Consumer Reports. The publication found that EV owners will continue to save money in overall operating and maintenance costs as long as the price for gasoline remains above 50 cents per gallon.

"It's hard to explain the glee of driving by a gas station knowing you don't have to worry about the prices anymore," Nelson Jackson, a Model S owner, previously told Insider.

The car can also be ideal for camping, one owner said.

Craig said he used Tesla's Camp Mode  to sleep in his Model S during his 19-day road trip.

The feature lets the car keep a steady temperature in the cabin, as well as proper airflow. You can also listen to music, stream television, turn on lights, or charge devices while the vehicle is in the mode. The  feature , which was introduced in 2021, uses significantly less energy and even has a video of a crackling fire.

It is one of many specialized Tesla features , including Dog Mode and Sentry Mode.

"With a traditional car you'd have to turn it off, it would get cold and you have to turn it back on," Craig said. "In my Tesla, the temperature stays perfect and I'm comfortable all night long."

Autopilot and Tesla's Full Self-Driving beta feature are also a major plus for relaxing on the road, some drivers said.

All Tesla models are equipped with the Autopilot feature, which enables a car to steer, accelerate, and brake automatically within its lane. The function does not replace the role of a driver, but is intended to make driving easier and cut down on accidents. Some drivers can also opt into Tesla's Full Self-Driving software, a beta feature that costs $15,000 — or $199 per month — and allows the vehicle to change lanes, as well as recognize stop lights and stop signs.

Earlier this year, Model S owner Tim Heckman told Insider the driver assist features were a "lifesaver" on his 6,392-mile road trip.

"It can be a huge cognitive relief. Long trips can take a mental toll," Heckman said at the time, noting that he'sd used Autopilot on previous road trips and discovered he could drive further without getting tired.

Zuga told Insider Autopilot is one of several features that he feels make road trips less stressful and safer in a Tesla.

"Driving that car is a lot less tiring than driving a gas vehicle because of all of the extra driver features like the cameras all around the car and Autopilot," Zuga said. "I can put the blinker on and get a good look of the whole left side and behind and when I'm slowing down and regenerative braking kicks in and you know your tailights are on. It just gives you better situational awareness."

But, not everyone is sold on the features. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating Autopilot  and its potential connection to several accidents and the California Department of Motor Vehicles has  accused the company  of falsely advertising its Autopilot and FSD features.

Despite the perks, some road trippers say they'd still rather stick to a traditional vehicle.

Scholtz said he wasn't fully sold on buying a Tesla after he rented one through Hertz for his road trip. He said his experience renting the EV went downhill fast when he had to take it to more rural areas and he faced a lot of stress with the vehicle's range, as well as finding chargers along his route.

"It was nail biting," Scholtz said, adding that while he thinks the Model 3 is a great car it doesn't fit his lifestyle.

"I still prefer my F-150 with its 40 gallon tank that gives me a 700 miles range."

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.

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