Bridge is taking a Michigan road trip in an EV. Come along for the ride

• Bridge Michigan is hitting the road, traveling around Lake Michigan to Wisconsin to gauge the reliability of the EV charging network
• Follow along in newsletters, Instagram and at Bridgemi.com  
• The trip will document the ups, downs of traveling by EV at a pivotal moment for the auto industry and Michigan

Bridge Michigan has written extensively about the auto industry and state’s transition to electric vehicles. 

Now, we’re hitting the road for five days to experience it first-hand.

On Monday, Bridge Michigan’s Paula Gardner, Kelly House and Asha Lewis will set out on a classic summer excursion, a 1000-mile trek around Lake Michigan in a rented EV. 

Related:

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• EV transition a slow go in Michigan. It needs 100,000 chargers, has 3,300
• 4 issues to watch as U.S. auto industry changes affect Michigan
• Steep tariffs may block Chinese threats to Michigan's growing EV industry

We’ve reserved a car, downloaded charging apps and developed a rough plan that blends the best of Michigan summer with charging access. 

Or so we hope!

We know range anxiety is a big deterrent for consumers. Only 2% of Michigan’s automobiles are EVs, and the lack of public chargers remains a problem. We want to test the progress of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s 2021 goal of building a network of publicly-accessible chargers that she says will allow drivers to circle Lake Michigan “without having to pay a single cent for gas.”

The trip comes at a pivotal time. Automakers want billions of dollars in taxpayer incentives to switch from internal combustion engines, and EVs have become a huge hot-button issue in the presidential race.

President Joe Biden has set aside billions for the transition, while the Republican Party this week adopted a national platform that calls for the end to federal emissions mandates encouraging the transition to EVs. 

Love letter to Michigan

But don’t get us wrong.

Bridge’s road trip isn’t all work. It’s also a love letter to Michigan. We’ll dip our toes into Lake Michigan, visit roadside attractions, and celebrate all that makes Michigan unique.

We’ll chronicle our journey on Bridgemi.com  Instagram and Facebook pages, and send daily postcards from the road. To receive them, sign up for our free Environment Watch and Business Watch newsletters. 

We have a pretty good idea of where we’re going, planning to drive from Ann Arbor to Holland, up the coastline, across the Mackinac Bridge, through the Upper Peninsula and into Wisconsin before crossing Lake Michigan on the SS Badger ferry.

But like all great road trips, we want to go where curiosity leads us.

That’s where you come in: Where should we stop? What should we see? Do you want to meet up along the way and show us a secret spot away from the beaten path? Let us know by dropping an email to pgardner@bridgemi.com, khouse@bridgemi.com or alewis@bridgemi.com. 

Why a road trip?

Electric vehicles are projected to make up 1 in 10 new car sales next year, but experts say trepidation among buyers will remain until the industry solves what’s known as the “road trip problem.”

Americans rarely travel more than a few dozen miles per day. But road trips are a cherished tradition, and are more likely to forge indelible impressions.

Today, road tripping in an EV has a bad rap.  

Compared to gas stations, chargers are sparser and slower, requiring drivers to plan their pit stops ahead-of-time and spend more time waiting to get back on the road.

Experts say until long-distance EV travel gets easier, many drivers will hesitate to give up their gas car. 

State officials estimate Michigan needs 100,000 public chargers to support 2 million EVs by 2030. But today, it has just 3,400.

What we’ve learned so far

Renting an EV to drive around the Lake Michigan shoreline sounds simple, but we’re learning more about travel planning than we expected. We’ll be detailing much of that as we go. 

One example: Three adults and a week’s worth of gear (including sleeping bags for a planned overnight camping trip) won’t fit well in every vehicle. 

But the number of EVs available in southeast Michigan is surprisingly low as rental agencies are drastically cutting EVs from their fleets. 

We’re learning that charging options are extremely varied as to plugs, speed and location. And that some of the most reliable chargers require an app for payment.

We’re making lots and lots of estimates over hours of mapping about how long we may need to charge and how much time that leaves us for travel and stops to enjoy places along the way. 

And we’ve talked to experienced EV drivers, learning about regenerative braking, secrets to finding a charger and other tips to make this trip fun instead of worrisome over range anxiety.

We’ve also learned that when relying on unfamiliar technology and a still-nascent charging network, we should expect that things won’t always go smoothly.

As one experienced EV driver told us, “Always have a Plan B…and sometimes a Plan C.”

It should be fun! Or at least interesting. We hope you follow along.

Here goes nothing!