Five of us were curious about how Texas’ implementation of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) project has been progressing. Phase 1 plans to add EV chargers every 50 miles along Texas’ major interstate highways. Construction of many sites is already underway, but how well is it progressing, especially in rural areas?
One thing about Texas EV staff & members: We LOVE driving EVs and we especially love driving EVs IN TEXAS.
Five of us decided to give it a try, so we began mapping our route from the Louisiana border, east of Waskom, Texas to the New Mexico border, west of El Paso, Texas. Once we added the return trip home, the entire trip was going to be over 1,700 miles, starting and ending in Fort Worth.
Guess what?
We thought it looked too easy, cruising along I-10 & I-20, so we decided to make it tougher (and get to see more of Texas as a side benefit…)
But where to go? What would be tough enough? Could anything defeat the fear of “Range Anxiety?!?” What would be tough enough? We needed more miles and fewer EV chargers.
Brewster County, the largest in Texas, of course!
Measuring 6,192 square miles but with a population of only 2,000 people, it seemed like a daring choice. The only bank of DC fast chargers in the entire county is located in Alpine. We decided to include a drive around the perimeter of Big Bend Ranch State Park. That loop is 235 miles long, very hilly, has a high speed limit and, as mentioned before, there is only the one bank of fast chargers and that’s at Alpine, at the beginning of the loop. Now our trip was about 2,500 miles long and we could not wait to start our vacation…er… uh… research project.
How can EV drivers cope with a 235 mile long, hilly, high-speed-limit route?
Failure could mean public humiliation or eternal glory as Texas legends (at least in our minds).
Dare we risk it???
We did! We learned a great deal along the way that we want to share, so we’re splicing together a LOT of video to show you.
Did we make it all the way across Texas, including Terlingua?
Stay tuned to find out. We promise to tell you the WHOLE story, good or bad. We know there will be challenges but it also looks like things are better than most people realize.
We shall see.