Hi everyone,
I am planning a road trip from Chicago to Cincinnati and was wondering if anyone here has made that drive before. Any tips on the best route to take, interesting stops along the way, or general advice for the trip?
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I have driven to Nashville from the western suburbs of Chicago. You should plan to stop at two of the chargers I have used, according to ABRP.
While we were heading down, the Lafayette EA was fairly busy. I recall needing to hold out for a charger.
As I remember, the Emerson Ave. one was fine.
It is not that big of an issue. I stopped worrying about ABRP, Plugshare, and other issues after taking a few road trips with my Mach E and started using Apple Maps instead. I am confident everything will work out if it’s an EA station, and it has. If it is not EA, I will then check PlugShare for information.
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A few months ago, I drove my Rivian from Milwaukee to Cincinnati. After spending the night in Indianapolis, spending that overnight at a hotel, I returned immediately to Wisconsin from Cincinnati.
It was uneventful overall. Charged without incident in the Meijer’s/Indianapolis, IN, Harpers Station/Cincinnati, OH, and Lafayette, IN EA stations. No prior experience with pricing near Cincinnati’s downtown.
It was not until I tried charging at Whole Foods on Cicero, which is near 94 on the north side of Chicago, that I had an issue. I decided to go to EA in Highland Park, IL instead of using the EVGO, which was only producing about 30 kW.
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A dependable EA site in the Cincinnati region is located in the Meijer parking lot at the Rybolt Rd exit off of I-74. It has six 350 kW chargers. As far as I remember, I have probably charged there eight times, but this was the first time I noticed another person there at the same time as me. There, I consistently receive more than 200 kW for my peak rate (Hyundai Ioniq 6).
If you are heading towards Oakley, a Cincinnati suburb on the east side, the Oakley Meijer has six dependable 150 kW units. The Harper’s Point EA site is in the northeast; it is so inconsistent that I have to drive further to charge at Oakley Meijer. Since EA provides free charging, I have not looked at the other local charging networks.
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I have only had experience using the Tesla supercharger network with my Model 3. Like my fellows, I have also driven from Chicago to Columbus.
I traveled to Indianapolis before heading over to I-70. It may be completed in a day with ease, but traveling in an EV takes an entire day. One of the worst storms of the previous winter (12/31) hit us on my way back, but as an experienced driver I am, I handled it with no problems at all.