The question was simple: could you drive a mainstream electric vehicle from Seattle to Miami, relying entirely on public charging infrastructure, with no more planning than a gasoline car trip requires? We spent 17 days finding out.
Seattle to Miami via the southern route: I-90 to I-84 to I-80 through Nevada, south through Las Vegas, across Arizona, through Texas along I-10, across the Gulf Coast states to Florida, then south to Miami. Approximately 4,100 miles.
The vehicle: a 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 6 Long Range, rated at 361 miles of EPA range. Not a Tesla — which would have access to the proprietary Supercharger network alongside the public networks — but a vehicle that relies entirely on the open CCS charging infrastructure.
The first 800 miles through Oregon and the Nevada desert exceeded expectations. The CCS network has expanded dramatically since the federal infrastructure law mandated DC fast charger installations every 50 miles on designated alternative fuel corridors.
Charging stops averaged 22 minutes at speeds between 150 and 230 kW. The Ioniq 6's battery management system proved conservative but effective: arriving at chargers with 15–20% state of charge, topping to 80% rather than 100% to maintain optimal charging speed on the next segment.
The experience at Electrify America stations — which received significant federal investment — was notably better than two years ago. Eight of nine stations visited in the west were fully operational, with canopies and reasonable amenities nearby.
"The charging stop problem isn't time. It's time wasted. Twenty minutes at a Buc-ee's with a good meal is fine. Twenty minutes sitting in a dark parking lot in Tonopah, Nevada, is not." — Field notes, Day 4
The stretch from El Paso to San Antonio across 580 miles of sparse Texas revealed the remaining infrastructure gaps most clearly. Three planned charging stops; one required a 40-mile detour to a working station after discovering the Interstate 10 corridor station at Fort Stockton had two of four chargers displaying faults.
The reliable information problem is real. Multiple apps — PlugShare, ChargePoint, the vehicle's built-in navigation — showed the Fort Stockton station as operational. In person: two chargers showing "Faulted," one occupied, one working. Arriving with 18% state of charge and needing 45 miles of range to reach the detour option was uncomfortable in a way that a gasoline car driver rarely experiences.
The 77% uptime rate reported by the Department of Energy for public DC fast chargers has improved from historical lows. But 77% means roughly one in four stops has a problem, and the distribution is uneven: chargers in urban areas with regular maintenance visit schedules perform far better than rural corridor installations that may go weeks between service calls.
From New Orleans eastward, the charging network is in the midst of obvious, visible improvement. Florida in particular has invested heavily in its EV infrastructure in anticipation of what the state projects will be 2.4 million EVs registered by 2030.
Tampa to Miami featured Level 3 chargers at every major highway service plaza, most operating at 150–175 kW, all fully operational. The contrast with the Fort Stockton experience was stark enough to feel like a different era of infrastructure.
The headline answer is yes: you can drive coast-to-coast in a non-Tesla EV with reasonable reliability. The experience is not yet equivalent to a gasoline road trip — the fault rates, information reliability gaps, and occasional amenity deserts prevent that. But it is no longer the anxiety-inducing ordeal early adopters described three years ago.
The network is improving faster than the criticism suggests. By the time the federal corridor mandate is fully built out — the projected date is 2028 — the remaining genuine infrastructure gaps will be small. The charging problem will be solved before most people believe it is. And when that happens, the last credible objection to mainstream EV adoption will have quietly disappeared.