A cross-country EV road trip in six days
New Hampshire to Los Angeles. The long way.
Mike Murphy drove an EV diagonally across the country — stopping at charging stations, battery plants, and the auto factories that will decide whether America builds the next generation of cars.
Melvin Village, NH → Albany, NY → Buffalo, NY → Marysville, OH → Indianapolis, IN → Joplin, MO → Amarillo, TX → Los Angeles, CA
I-90 / I-70 / I-44 / I-40 · Approximately 3,000 miles · Six days
3,000
Miles driven
0
Gallons of gas
399 kW
Fastest charge
28
Videos
The full account
“Charging is a solved problem now. The factories are the story.”
Mike Murphy’s written account of the drive — every charging stop, all four factories, and the argument that ties them together.
The trip is done
Here’s what comes next.
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“Easier than gas. And cheaper than gas.”
— Mike Murphy, Co-Founder, EVs for All America
Why this drive
The EV story is bigger than the car.
In South Buffalo, the Bethlehem Lackawanna steel mill has sat closed since the 1980s, still throwing a shadow over the neighborhood. A mile down the highway, a new Ford stamping plant rises up out of nowhere.
That contrast is the whole trip. Charging hardware built in Buffalo. A $4 billion battery plant going up in southwestern Ohio, twenty-four football fields wide. A Honda plant in Marysville that promised a billion dollars for electric production and then canceled it. A startup in Warsaw, Indiana, trying to build a $25,000 electric pickup by taking the paint shop out of the factory.
China has built twenty-five auto assembly plants this size or larger in the last five years. We’re in a race. The open question is whether we want to win it.
Mike Murphy wrote up the whole trip: Driving Across America in an EV Doesn’t Suck!
The daily diary
Watch the whole trip.
All videos, in order. Use the playlist menu in the top corner of the player to jump around.
Day 1 · New Hampshire → Albany, NY
- Driving an EV Across America — where this is going, and why. 0:48
- New Hampshire to Albany — leaving the Lakes Region. 1:13
- Why a motorhead bought an electric Porsche — 800-volt charging, and a lifetime average of 5 mpg. 0:58
- Crossing into Vermont — first state line of the trip. 2:21
- 399 kW at an IONNA station — the charging network eight automakers built together. 1:26
Day 2 · Buffalo, NY → Marysville, OH → Indianapolis, IN
- The Tesla gigafactory that builds America’s chargers — where Supercharger hardware comes from. 1:13
- A shuttered steel mill and a new Ford plant, one mile apart — South Buffalo, and what happened to the industrial base. 3:00
- A fast charger behind an Arby’s — Autel units, four nozzles, quick charge. 0:34
- Charging at Mercedes-Benz — the fanciest station on the trip. 1:56
- Honda promised $1B for EVs in Ohio. Then they pulled the plug. — Marysville, 1982 to now. 1:40
Day 3 · Indianapolis, IN → Joplin, MO
- Inside a $4 billion battery plant, 24 football fields wide — Honda–LG, southwestern Ohio, 2,000 jobs. 3:01
- A tour of the Cayenne’s screen — how the car picks its charging stops. 2:59
- The White Castle problem — a brief detour from EVs. 2:21
- Charging at a Tesla Supercharger in a Porsche — adapters, amps, and what to avoid on Amazon. 2:54
- What charging an EV actually looks like — twelve minutes, 250 miles. 0:54
- The $25,000 electric pickup being built in Indiana — Slate Auto, and a factory with no paint shop. 2:51
- Can you charge an EV in the rain? — 500 amps, bare hands, nobody gets electrocuted. 2:06
Day 4 · Joplin, MO → Amarillo, TX
- I first drove across America in an EV in 2023 — how much the hardware has changed, and why not to charge to 80%. 2:51
- The charger quiz — not Germany, not China. Guess who makes America’s best fast chargers. 2:56
- Ray Stevens vs. a presidential candidate — a piano duel in Nashville, 1995. 2:59
- Francis Energy — an Oklahoma early mover swapping its own chargers for Teslas. 2:35
- Walmart’s own charging network — 400 kW units in Tulsa, thousands more coming. 1:11
Day 5 · Amarillo, TX → Tucumcari, NM
- The world’s largest gas station is going electric — Buc-ee’s in Amarillo: a hundred gas pumps and a Tesla station out front. 1:26
- One thing you never do at Buc-ee’s in an EV — wait in the gas lane. 2:40
- The idiot, the EV, and the drone — Amarillo is windy. Small drones are not. 3:00
- An IONNA station in a Route 66 ghost town — Alpitronic fast chargers in Tucumcari, NM, fifteen minutes from empty. 2:36
Day 6 · Tucumcari, NM → Los Angeles, CA
- Talking Lucid and Rivian charging in Arizona — Holbrook, and how to tell the car which stations you like. 2:54
- The finale: why I drove across the country in an EV — California, the last charge, and what’s actually at stake. 2:55
Presented by EVs for All America · evsforallamerica.org