Epic EV Road Trip (part 1 of 5)

If you are a regular reader of our blog, or if you just look at our website, you would know that we have an electric vehicle (EV) in our fleet. Our EV is a Rivian R1S and we absolutely love this vehicle and are super excited to have it as part of our fleet (as explained in previous posts). It has served us well and clients that book it for service are also pleased with the quality and comfort of this vehicle. It is a great car! That being the case, I thought it would be fun, and somewhat of an adventure (dare I say challenge?), to take our Rivian on an extended road trip to really see what it could do and how it would perform. This was especially true after reading about recent news stories about EV road trips that either didn’t go well or had their challenges. This included the CEO of Ford and the Secretary of Energy who both published challenges they had on a long distance road trip with an EV. Honestly, I was shocked to read about both of these stories but kudos to them for being honest, up front, and as they say, throwing the skunk on the table for everyone. This is the way we improve things in America. We challenge, test things, we push things to their limits and then we fix them. If this is a technology that is going to be successful in the marketplace, we need this type of honest and open feedback. Even if the news or the story isn’t all that great.

Now It’s My Turn…

After reading all of the good, the bad, and the ugly about long-distance road trips with an EV, I figured that I would have a go at it. I had the EV, I just needed to come up with the perfect road trip for it. My problem is that I am a “Go Big or Go Home!” kind of a guy so the road trip needed to be big…REALLY BIG! I wouldn’t be satisfied with an overnight trip to Atlanta or the beach. It needed to be a true challenge, something worthy of a story afterwards, and a trip that was truly epic in nature. I knew exactly what this needed to be…

Alaska or Bust!

You may or may not know this but we actually have employees in Alaska. We employ people in North Carolina (obviously!), South Carolina, and (believe it or not) Alaska. It is a bit of a family connection but some of our office staff live in Alaska and work for Van in Black. Everything is virtual now so why not? We typically like to get up there at least once a year to meet and discuss company business (and they are family so there is that too) but we usually fly. This year, however, it was going to be different. I was going to give my arms a rest and drive up there; and I was going to do it in our Rivian R1S. This was going to be my epic long distance EV road trip! I was going to do it, take lots of pictures, and then write about it when I got back (an obvious spoiler alert…You are reading this so I did make it back okay).

Why would the founder of a transportation company in North Carolina want to drive an EV all the way to Alaska? Why not! It was going to be fun, a challenge, and it would be the ultimate test drive of a technology we are wanting to integrate into our fleet. What better way to “slam the doors” and “kick the tires“.

When I first brought this up everyone around me thought I was joking. They thought I was joking until I actually started to plan things out and find time on the schedule to block out the EV so that nobody would book it (which I did). After that, everyone thought I was crazy. Everything, however, is doable if you just do the work upfront to plan it out. There are some excellent tools available online to help plan something like this and I made use of them to create a plan that not only detailed the exact locations of charging stations I would need to visit along the way (and the time I needed to spend at each one), but it also had backup locations and interim locations (places in between the charging stations in case I was running short on miles). It was a solid plan and I felt fairly confident that it would get me all the way to Alaska without any issues. I had done everything I could to plan and the time had come where I needed to decide if I was going to do this or not. Obviously, I decided to go (otherwise this would be a pretty boring blog post) and on July 16th, 2024 I set off on my adventure to travel from North Carolina to Alaska and back in an electric Rivian R1S. It was a journey that took me 10,000+ miles over 25 days through some of the most remote and beautiful scenery available in North America. This is the story of that journey which I will detail over a total of 5 blog posts that will be released over the next 4 weeks. Like the other stories I referenced when I started this post, I am going to be fully honest and transparent about the journey with the hope that it will inspire others, describe things that could be improved (there is ALWAYS room for improvement) and highlight the things that went well.

A Few Relevant Details/Facts…

In the spirit of full transparency, I figured it would be good to point out a few items before we got started with the story:

This is not the first time I have driven to/from Alaska

I do have some experience on this trip as this was actually going to be my fourth time making the drive. It was, however, my first time in an electric vehicle and the first time going up/back in the same trip. In the past it was to move a vehicle up or back and I took a flight on the return trip.

I Packed and Carried a Generator With Me On The Trip

I am adventurous but I am not stupid. Having done this trip in the past I knew that there are some VERY remote areas that I would be visiting. My plan always had a plan B and plan C option that didn’t involve the generator but the generator was plan D or E if I needed it. There was actually one spot where the generator was plan C but it was never plan B. You are now probably wondering if I needed it or not but you will have to wait and read the full story to find out.

I Also Packed a Satellite Dish For Communications

Thanks to Elon Musk and Starlink, specifically their mobile high-performance dish, I always had communications if I needed it. This kind of falls under the same mindset as the generator….I am adventurous but not stupid. You could probably say that the satellite was plan F (if everything else failed; call for help!). An interesting fact about the trip; there were a few times when I was days without any mobile phone service yet I was still answering the company 800 number. If you called our main number between July 16th and August 9th and spoke to me, I was probably in some remote section of Alaska or the Yukon Territory of Canada enjoying the view while I answered your questions about our services.

This Was Not a Caravan

Unlike many other stories about long distance trips using EVs, there was only one vehicle on this trip and it was the EV. I didn’t have scout teams, service vehicles, etc. It was just me and the Rivian R1S.

I Didn’t Have Access to the Tesla Supercharger Network

This item was kind of a bummer and really limited the charging stations I could use. Rivian has been able to use the Tesla network for some months now but you have to wait your turn for the adapter. Mine, unfortunately, didn’t arrive in time despite my numerous pleas to Rivian. I also tried to purchase a 3rd party adapter but wasn’t able to get it in time. So the majority of Tesla chargers were not going to be accessible unless they had the adapter built in (some do which is nice).

Let The Story Continue…

So, this is the first of five stories we will be posting on this trip and we are going to wrap this post #1 up here. The next post will be published in about a week and will detail the trip up to Alaska, the third post will describe the experience while inside Alaska (before I headed back), the fourth post will describe the return trip which had some interesting twists and turns and the final post will summarize everything including a run-down of what went well as well as opportunities for improvement. Please check back with us soon or if you want to be notified when future posts on this subject go live, sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of this page.

Until next time, remember to stay adventurous forever!