Road trip with kids?

[Brons2]

We are an all-Ford electric family, with a Mach-e and a Lightning. We mostly do driving within an hour of our home and have home chargers. We were planning our first roadtrip from Northern Virginia to near Atlanta in a few weeks and I just discovered that the latest app version no longer has the trip planning feature (wtf) and I have tried both the PlugShare and ABRP apps and they both predict a pretty grim trip (what should take about 9 hours is forecast to take over 12 with charging stops). We also have kids—a 6yo and a 22mo—and I’m wondering whether anyone else is doing road trips in these cars with kids, because this sounds awful enough that I’m thinking renting a gas-powered car is our only option for this trip. Has anyone else had decent experiences roadtripping in the SE or should I be lowering my expectations of how this works with electric cars (and kids)?

Took our 8 year old on a 3 hour road trip that was made 4 hours by charging stops, just throw them a tablet and turn on the hotspot on your phone, they are content.

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[Brons2]

are there plenty of Walmarts on your route? When my son was that age, he loved creeping around the toy aisle. Granted, their toys are all Chinese plastic, but he could gaze at the Legos, Nerf guns, skateboards and bicycles for hours. In the meantime, your Mach-e is charging to full capacity and you can grab a couple of coffees.

That's my nightmare, no way am I ever taking the kids inside of Walmart. I don't want to hear the whining about the toys that I am not getting them. They can wait for the car to charge.

 

[Brons2]

We are an all-Ford electric family, with a Mach-e and a Lightning. We mostly do driving within an hour of our home and have home chargers. We were planning our first roadtrip from Northern Virginia to near Atlanta in a few weeks and I just discovered that the latest app version no longer has the trip planning feature (wtf) and I have tried both the PlugShare and ABRP apps and they both predict a pretty grim trip (what should take about 9 hours is forecast to take over 12 with charging stops). We also have kids—a 6yo and a 22mo—and I’m wondering whether anyone else is doing road trips in these cars with kids, because this sounds awful enough that I’m thinking renting a gas-powered car is our only option for this trip. Has anyone else had decent experiences roadtripping in the SE or should I be lowering my expectations of how this works with electric cars (and kids)?

It's hard to tell what your options are here.

Are you taking the Mach-E or the Lightning? (assume Mach-E?)
Do you have the standard batter or ER?
Do you have RWD or AWD?

If I choose a 2022 AWD ER in ABRP from Fairfax, VA to Atlanta, GA, it shows only 1 hour and 13 minutes charging assuming a 90% SOC at departure and 10% arrival SOC minimum. Distances in Km, pardon that, forgot to change.

Don't know about you but my arse needs at least 1 hour and 13 minutes outside the car on a daylong trip...

 

[Gmoney@PNW]

That's my nightmare, no way am I ever taking the kids inside of Walmart. I don't want to hear the whining about the toys that I am not getting them. They can wait for the car to charge.

This is obviously a personal choice, but I feel like they spend enough time on screens while driving. While stopped, I’d rather get them interested in biking and skating, plus they move around, which is essential for kids. Ideally they would have charging stations next to scooter and skate parks. ?

 

[Brons2]

This is obviously a personal choice, but I feel like they spend enough time on screens while driving. While stopped, I’d rather get them interested in biking and skating, plus they move around, which is essential for kids. Ideally they would have charging stations next to scooter and skate parks. ?

I hear you. We don't let ours have the tablet at home. Only if we're going somewhere and we need them to be entertained.

Regarding Walmart: I will spend more time in the biking aisle than they will. I have a garage full of bikes and I'm always looking for things I could buy at Walmart that I could use to get by if I was in a desperate situation on a long road ride. Like 700c tubes, for example, or some slime tube patch stuff.

I also enjoy the auto parts aisles, although now that we have an EV, I have more oil than I know what to do with.

 

[AtomicInternet]

I'm fortunate to have a 13 and 10 year old who love to road trip. My youngest actually has a favorite charger we stop at every time so she can run up and down the hill and bridge.

If you check the Tesla forums they usually have a lot of extra info about each charger. A lot of them in the southeast are at a Bucc-ee's (Mercedes also installs at Bucc-ee's) which makes for a fun stop with kids.

Tesla Southeast Superchargers: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/forums/southeast-supercharger-locations.376/

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