For years, many drivers have viewed electric vehicles as a compromise for long road trips, convenient for daily driving but less appealing for extended highway travel.
But one EV owner said that after two years of repeated East Coast drives, that assumption no longer held up.
What's happening?
Writing in a post on Reddit's r/electricvehicles forum, the driver said that after repeated 500-mile days in a Kia EV9 and earlier trips in a Nissan Pathfinder, the EV came out ahead as the better vehicle for family travel.
The original poster summarized their claim, writing, "Controversial opinion: EVs are better family road trip vehicles than ICE cars."
OP stated that the regular trip included driving roughly 500 miles per day for two days, and included a hotel stop in between the driving days.
After taking notes on the latest trip, the OP wrote, "I find that the EV is a better experience" and added, "I arrive in better shape, less tired, less stressed than I ever did before."
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The point, the driver said, was less about shaving off time and more about how the trip felt. They wrote that "the combination of adaptive cruise control and lane-centering, combined with the much quieter and smoother ride of the EV… [makes it] less exhausting to drive."
However, the driver did "admit I do have 1-2 extra stops to charge that costs me 40 minutes each day." Additionally, OP acknowledged that "clearly your route has to reach a critical tipping point where the charging infrastructure is sufficient, but it doesn't have to be as ubiquitous as gas stations to work, even if you can't always combine stops to eat and charge at the same time."
While many commenters were supportive of this "controversial opinion," other readers were unconvinced.
One responded, "adaptive cruise control and lane centering aren't EV features. That's just 'newer cars are nicer.'"
Another wrote, "Same experience for me driving British Columbia to Arizona and back for the last four winters. The keys are getting an EV that charges reasonably fast and get out and move for each charge. I arrive way fresher than constant drive in a gas vehicle. The forced stops work well for the body."
Why does it matter?
This disagreement reflects a broader shift in how many people are thinking about EVs. For plenty of shoppers, road-trip convenience remains one of the biggest concerns, especially when it comes to larger family vehicles.
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