Journalist attempts road trip in electric car, ends up spending more time charging than sleeping. ‘Fumes never smelled so sweet,’ she says upon returning to gas fuel.

Wall Street Journal reporter Rachel Wolfe recently ventured from New Orleans, Louisiana to Chicago, Illinois in a brand-new Kia EV6 to test America’s current electric vehicle capabilities and public-charging infrastructure. By the end of her exhausting trip, she said the fumes of gasoline — though particularly expensive at the moment — “never smelled so sweet.”

Never again. Well, at least not for awhile, Wolfe would likely say if someone asked her to make a lengthy EV road trip another time.

In a column for the newspaper published this month, the reporter chronicled the difficult journey with all of its pitfalls. It included a shorter range than expected, finicky charging cords, loads of slower-than-advertised charging stations, and large swaths of the country without any “fast” charging stations at all, among other hardships.

In the end, Wolfe said she and her road trip companion, Mack, spent more hours waiting to charge than they did sleeping — which is not exactly a recipe for a successful and enjoyable trip.- READ MORE