Image Source: Volkswagen
Cross-country road trips can be a daunting task, especially when your car relies on a limited, up-and-coming energy source in the form of battery power.
With gas pumps spread throughout almost every corner of the country, fueling up is an easy task. Running out of gas? Look up the closest pump. Odds are you’ll be within 50 miles of a gas station unless you are in the middle of the desert. Driving an electric vehicle? Great. But it’ll definitely be harder to find a plug-in station than a gas station.
Luckily, some EV automakers are moving the needle forward in respect to the mileage on a single charge. One of those makers is Volkswagen.
Consumers looking to break into the EV market would be remiss if they didn’t consider the Volkswagen ID.4.
Recently, Dustin Krause, Director of E-mobility at VW, and Tod Xelowski, Customer Experience Manager of E-mobility at VW, banded together to embark on the ultimate cross-country road trip to prove the Volkswagen ID.4 is more than capable of handling the task of long-distance travel.
The trip spanned a whopping 6,700 miles from New York to Sacramento over the course of 18 days.
Fast Facts
- The 2021 VW ID.4 Crossover completed a cross-country road trip from New York to Sacramento, fueling up at Electrify America charging stations.
- There are multiple routes for cross-country travel that allow EV drivers to access EA stations near highways.
- Electrify America currently has over 2,400 DC fast chargers at its charging stations across the country.
The Trip
Dustin and Tod planned the 6,700-mile route in a way that would allow for easy access to EV charging stations without the hassle of hitting dead zones with little to no stations. Because of Volkswagen’s ties with Electrify America, 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 drivers have complimentary access to Electrify America charging stations for the first three years of the vehicle’s lifespan. With that in mind, the pair planned a trip that hugged the southern portion of the United States in an effort to show off the car’s impressive battery capabilities, ease of use, and enjoyability.
The trip was completed in 18 days and consisted of 32 stops at Electrify America charging stations.
Electrify America Charging Stations
Electrify America LLC is the largest public DC fast-charging network in the United States.
Each EA charging station has between three and ten individual DC fast chargers, much like a gas station would have pumps, to maximize efficiency. The EV chargers are specially designed to generate speeds of 150kW and 350kW to reduce the charging time of an idle vehicle. As an added bonus, drivers can download the EA mobile application to find the nearest Electrify America charging locations on a road trip.
Electrify America has plans of expanding its current network by adding an additional 800 charging stations by the end of 2021, bringing its total station count to 3,500 DC fast chargers. They also plan to expand into 29 metropolitan areas where they don’t currently offer charging and a goal of 45 total states.
2021 Volkswagen ID.4
The EPA recently certified the official driving range of the 2021 VW ID.4 EV at 260 miles of range per charge. This makes it a perfect candidate for road trips of all sizes. The days of worrying about where to charge your car next will soon be over, thanks to innovation by automakers like Volkswagen.
The ID.4 range immediately catapults it into the top-tier of miles per charge when compared to other makes and models such as the Tesla Model Y (base range of 244 miles.) Volkswagen also claims that the ID.4’s battery can be fast-charged in roughly 38 minutes, quickly providing enough juice to power the car from 5 percent to an almost full battery at 80 percent charge.
For more information on the Volkswagen ID.4 EV Crossover, you can visit the VW Official Website to reserve your vehicle and select a local Florida dealer such as Sunrise Volkswagen of Fort Pierce as your home dealership for delivery. You can also fill out a contact form with any questions regarding the ordering process specific to the ID.4 and all other inventory, such as the SUV inventory.
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Terry is an avid Nascar fan who grew up attending races at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, just down the road from his hometown of China Grove, NC. Terry currently resides in Wellington and has been writing for 15 years. He also enjoys watching the Road Runner Looney Tunes cartoon with his two sons in his spare time.