New to EVs – Planning My First Road Trip from NJ to FL (1,100 Miles)

[MachSteve]

Hi everyone,

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I’m new to the EV world—just got my first electric vehicle and absolutely loving it so far! I’m planning to take my first long-distance road trip from New Jersey to Florida, roughly 1,100 miles, and I wanted to tap into the experience of this awesome community.

I’m curious—what’s the longest road trip you’ve taken in your EV? How did it go?

Also, what are the best apps you use for planning your route, finding charging stations, and managing charging times?

Any tips, must-know info, or general advice for a first-timer would be really appreciated. Just trying to be as prepared as possible before hitting the road.


Thanks in advance and happy driving!

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[dan_meh]

Nice! Welcome.

You can see heated debate here about the best route planning app. I tend to use Ford’s native app because I have the free trial subscription and it is very accurate. A major complaint in 2024 and earlier is that we don’t get routed to Tesla superchargers. You don’t have that problem. 2025 Ford connected navigators routes you to superchargers, among others.

I did buy the Ford because I can use Apple Maps for route planning. If you’re an Android person, that’s also true of Google maps. Google maps will precondition but apple won’t. If you’re more comfortable in your phone’s native app, just use it. It’s fine. There’s some set up work on the phone side but you do it one time and it’s done.

I think it’s fair to say that anyone here would recommend that you use PlugShare to look up your next charging stop before you continue. It’s less of a problem now than even three or four years ago, but it can happen. I’m newish too, it people here have stories about the early days.

 

[MachSteve]

Nice! Welcome.

You can see heated debate here about the best route planning app. I tend to use Ford’s native app because I have the free trial subscription and it is very accurate. A major complaint in 2024 and earlier is that we don’t get routed to Tesla superchargers. You don’t have that problem. 2025 Ford connected navigators routes you to superchargers, among others.

I did buy the Ford because I can use Apple Maps for route planning. If you’re an Android person, that’s also true of Google maps. Google maps will precondition but apple won’t. If you’re more comfortable in your phone’s native app, just use it. It’s fine. There’s some set up work on the phone side but you do it one time and it’s done.

I think it’s fair to say that anyone here would recommend that you use PlugShare to look up your next charging stop before you continue. It’s less of a problem now than even three or four years ago, but it can happen. I’m newish too, it people here have stories about the early days.

I am an Apple user as well, can google maps do preconditioning on Apple as well?

 

[ocdxfv]

I’ve done several uneventful 2000+mile road trips. I use PlugShare exclusively with Apple Maps on CarPlay. I try to use Tesla whenever possible but always have a “plan B” just in case. Try to stay at hotels with L2 charging so I can start my day at 100%.

 

[tbrumleve]

I am an Apple user as well, can google maps do preconditioning on Apple as well?

No, unfortunately. It’s exclusive to Android Auto.

 

[RickMachE]

ABRP, and verify each charging stop via PlugShare.

 

[mdwinther35]

If you've never charged at an L3 charger you might want to try that locally first, just to get some experience and verify payment works as expected. Many of the Tesla locations require aligning the drivers side of the car with the charging post to get the cable to reach the port, this requires taking up 2 spots due to short cables. You'll also need an NACS adapter if you don't already have that.

 

[MachSteve]

If you've never charged at an L3 charger you might want to try that locally first, just to get some experience and verify payment works as expected. Many of the Tesla locations require aligning the drivers side of the car with the charging post to get the cable to reach the port, this requires taking up 2 spots due to short cables. You'll also need an NACS adapter if you don't already have that.

Yes I'm familiar with L3, I've used it about 5-10 times already.
Thanks!

 

[HuntingPudel]

I am an Apple user as well, can google maps do preconditioning on Apple as well?

No. Ford requires precise location to passed on by the phone and iOS views that as a privacy issue. So, while GMaps might try to pass along the information the OS won’t allow it through. If Ford were only looking for generic information (such as the next stop is a charger and ETA is 35 minutes), that would be passed along. ??

 

[MachSteve]

No. Ford requires precise location to passed on by the phone and iOS views that as a privacy issue. So, while GMaps might try to pass along the information the OS won’t allow it through. If Ford were only looking for generic information (such as the next stop is a charger and ETA is 35 minutes), that would be passed along. ??

Thanks!

 

[Eagertrader]

Regardless of the app you use to program your charging, just make sure that you will have at least 50 miles left of range by the time you get to the next charger, just in case that charger is down, you want to have enough range to find another charger nearby.
Fast charging only works for the first 80%, then the speed will considerably degrade for the remainder. Thus, you’ll mostly be charging to 80% and moving on.
I took a trip three years ago from DC to Palm Coast and back on my MME GT. I found the Electricity America chargers the most reliable. These are typically available at Walmarts along the way close by I-95.
Make the charging sessions coincide with your meals, and the charging time is a non-issue. When checking for chargers make sure there are eateries next to these.
If you give yourself enough range cushion between charges, range anxiety won’t affect you.
Have a nice and safe trip.

 

[PaulA]

Hi everyone,

- 2025 Premium AWD Extended Range -

I’m new to the EV world—just got my first electric vehicle and absolutely loving it so far! I’m planning to take my first long-distance road trip from New Jersey to Florida, roughly 1,100 miles, and I wanted to tap into the experience of this awesome community.

I’m curious—what’s the longest road trip you’ve taken in your EV? How did it go?

Also, what are the best apps you use for planning your route, finding charging stations, and managing charging times?

Any tips, must-know info, or general advice for a first-timer would be really appreciated. Just trying to be as prepared as possible before hitting the road.


Thanks in advance and happy driving!

We’ve taken 7 or 8 1,000 mi plus road trips in our Mach E since July, 2021. I use A Better Route Planner to locate chargers on the route. The native Ford navigation doesn’t ID Tesla stations and recently it’s been on the blink despite a 3-4 day trip to the dealer. I bought an A2Z Typhoon charger after becoming frustrated with Ford over repeated delays in delivering my promised adapter. I use the Tesla app and pay through that. It’s become pretty routine. I haven’t worried about preconditioning, as I haven’t traveled in very cold weather. Once I’ve ID’d charging stops, I often add the route to Waze and use Waze to monitor traffic, hazards, etc. en route. Hope this helps.

 

[david_quick]

I did a 3000 mile road trip last summer. About 50% of the charging was done on the Tesla network the rest of it was on EA or ChargePoint when not using level 2 at hotels.

I used A Better Route Planner pro connected to an ODBII BLE dongle for over the road routing and Apple Maps for local trips. This was because it is hard to add impromptu stops in ABRP. I also didn’t worry about preconditioning since none of these could do that. Even now I don’t really think about preconditioning at all I just drive the car. The trip was mostly in Montana where 80 mph was the norm. I just stopped where I needed to. It didn’t really matter because every stop was barely long enough. This is contrary to what the ICE people say. After 3.5 hours of driving I need a break. Plugging in and finding the restroom, grabbing a drink and snack ant the car is ready to go.

I am going on another similar long road trip soon but this time I’m taking my ICE truck because have to pick up some stuff and haul it back. I plan on keeping track of my stops. It can in theory go almost 700 miles on a tank. I know I can’t but we will log it.

 

[CameraCarl]

Do you have the adapters you need? The Ford-supplied adapter to work with Tesla superchargers? And, if you plan to charge overnight at hotels where the Tesla "Destination" charger is needed? These are two different adapters. Some new users do not realize this and are caught off guard when they check in and can't plug in.

 

[roamtheworld]

Yes I'm familiar with L3, I've used it about 5-10 times already.
Thanks!

Several thousand-mile trips over the past few months we have only used three DCFC stations, Tesla SC (90% of the time), Flying J/EVgo, and Mercedes. EA is a last resort because even newer stations are often not working or are faulty. Tesla and EA support plug n charge and Tesla has been very consistently starting within 30 seconds. Rates are also reasonable on Tesla and Shell stations appear to be the most costly.
With the 2025, you can easily use the built in navigation, but we prefer AppleCarPlay/Maps. I've never had an issue during summer needing preconditioning. Only once did we "find" a Tesla station that didn't support Ford, and it didn't show up in Apple because of bad cell service. We had an EVgo the next exit, so it wasn't a big deal.
We always plot out the trip in Plugshare beforehand just to check on availability reports and to look at the site pictures. Other apps are just as good, but this combo has worked for us for 3 years.

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