On a 500-mile drive, every one of the 14 EPA-rated electric cars on this site stops to charge exactly twice. What separates them is not how often you stop but how long you stand there: 34 minutes in the Hyundai Ioniq 6 Long Range RWD against 96 in the Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE 87 kWh. Same road, same two stops, 62 minutes apart.
The same two stops, and up to an hour of difference
Range decides how many times you stop. Charging speed decides what each stop costs you. Because the 14 cars here cluster between 260 and 346 miles of EPA range, they all land on the same answer for a 500-mile drive — 2 stops — and then diverge completely on time.
The pattern is not subtle. The 5 cars with 800-volt packs occupy the top of that chart; the 400-volt cars fill the bottom. An 800-volt architecture sustains high power for longer and wastes less of it as heat, which is the whole of the difference — the detail is in what actually decides charging speed, and the ranking is in the fastest-charging electric cars.
Every car, 500 miles, end to end
Driving time is 7 h 42 min for all of them, at an average of 65 mph. Everything else comes from each car’s own page: EPA range, the measured 10 to 80 per cent time, and the EPA energy figure that turns kilowatt-hours into dollars.
| Car | EPA range | At 85% on the highway | 10-80% | Stops | Charging | Total journey | DC cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyundai Ioniq 6 Long Range RWD | 342 | 291 | 17 | 2 | 34 min | 8 h 16 min | $51 |
| Kia EV6 84 kWh RWD | 319 | 271 | 17 | 2 | 34 min | 8 h 16 min | $54 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 84 kWh RWD | 318 | 270 | 18 | 2 | 36 min | 8 h 18 min | $54 |
| Porsche Taycan (rear-wheel drive) | 274 | 233 | 19 | 2 | 38 min | 8 h 20 min | $58 |
| Kia EV9 99.8 kWh AWD | 283 | 241 | 22 | 2 | 44 min | 8 h 26 min | $65 |
| Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD | 327 | 278 | 27 | 2 | 54 min | 8 h 36 min | $51 |
| Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD | 346 | 294 | 28 | 2 | 56 min | 8 h 38 min | $52 |
| BMW i4 eDrive40 | 333 | 283 | 28 | 2 | 56 min | 8 h 38 min | $54 |
| Volkswagen ID.4 Pro | 291 | 247 | 28 | 2 | 56 min | 8 h 38 min | $50 |
| Toyota bZ4X AWD 73.1 kWh | 288 | 245 | 28 | 2 | 56 min | 8 h 38 min | $46 |
| Volvo EX30 Single Motor Extended Range | 261 | 222 | 28 | 2 | 56 min | 8 h 38 min | $44 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Extended Range RWD | 320 | 272 | 32 | 2 | 64 min | 8 h 46 min | $56 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Standard Range RWD | 260 | 221 | 32 | 2 | 64 min | 8 h 46 min | $47 |
| Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE 87 kWh | 272 | 231 | 48 | 2 | 96 min | 9 h 18 min | $57 |
The highway column is the honest one. EPA range is measured on a mixed cycle, and sustained 70 mph cruising costs an electric car more than it costs a petrol one — aerodynamic drag rises with the square of speed and there is no engine-heat to warm the cabin for free. Eighty-five per cent of the EPA figure is a reasonable planning number in mild weather; in winter, expect less again.
Work out your own trip
Change the distance, the car, and the two assumptions that actually move the answer: how much of the EPA figure you really get, and how far you let the battery run down before you plug in.
Your trip
Charging time is scaled from each car’s measured 10-80 per cent figure, so a narrower window is quicker and a wider one is slower than the published number. Cost uses $0.48 per kWh, a typical public DC rate.
The last one matters more than most people expect. Charging from 10 to 80 per cent is the industry’s standard measurement because that is the fast part of the curve. Waiting for 90 or 100 per cent adds minutes out of all proportion to the range it buys, which is why the fastest way through a long drive is usually more stops, not longer ones — the arithmetic is in should you charge an EV to 100 per cent.
Longer drives sort the field properly
At 500 miles the stop count cannot separate these cars. Stretch the distance and it can: over 1200 miles the field splits from 5 stops to 7, and the charging total runs from 85 minutes to 336.
| Car | Stops | Minutes charging | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 300 mi | 500 mi | 800 mi | 1200 mi | 300 mi | 500 mi | 800 mi | 1200 mi | |
| Hyundai Ioniq 6 Long Range RWD | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 17 | 34 | 51 | 85 |
| Kia EV6 84 kWh RWD | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 17 | 34 | 51 | 102 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 84 kWh RWD | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 18 | 36 | 54 | 108 |
| Porsche Taycan (rear-wheel drive) | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 19 | 38 | 76 | 133 |
| Kia EV9 99.8 kWh AWD | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 22 | 44 | 88 | 132 |
| Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 27 | 54 | 81 | 135 |
| Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 28 | 56 | 84 | 140 |
| BMW i4 eDrive40 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 28 | 56 | 84 | 140 |
| Volkswagen ID.4 Pro | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 28 | 56 | 112 | 168 |
| Toyota bZ4X AWD 73.1 kWh | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 28 | 56 | 112 | 168 |
| Volvo EX30 Single Motor Extended Range | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 28 | 56 | 112 | 196 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Extended Range RWD | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 32 | 64 | 96 | 192 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Standard Range RWD | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 32 | 64 | 128 | 224 |
| Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE 87 kWh | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 48 | 96 | 192 | 336 |
Across a 1200-mile drive the gap between the best and worst car here is 4.2 hours of standing still. That is the difference between arriving for dinner and arriving after it.
What this model does not include
No charger queue, no detour to reach one, and no assumption that the station is working or delivering its rated power. It also assumes you arrive at 10 per cent rather than keeping a reserve, and that the car is warm enough to accept full power — a cold pack that has not been preconditioned can take half as much, which is the single largest error in any figure on this page. Treat these as the floor of what a trip costs in time, not the expectation.
Everything here is arithmetic on published figures. Nobody has driven these routes; the numbers come from each car’s measured 10 to 80 per cent time and its EPA rating, both credited on the car’s own page.
Frequently asked questions
How many times do you have to charge on a 500-mile drive?
Twice, in every EPA-rated car on this site, starting from a full battery and charging from 10 to 80 per cent. The number of stops is set by range; at 260 to 346 miles of EPA range these cars are close enough together that they all land on two.
Which electric car is fastest on a long drive?
The Hyundai Ioniq 6 Long Range RWD: 34 minutes of charging across 500 miles, for a total journey of 8 h 16 min. The Kia EV6 84 kWh RWD is level with it, to the minute.
How much does it cost to charge on a road trip?
Between $44 and $65 of electricity for the 500 miles at a typical public rate of $0.48 per kWh — three to four times what the same miles cost at home. The home comparison is in what it costs to charge an electric car per month, and by state in charging cost across all fifty.
Does a 350 kW charger make the trip shorter?
Only for the 5 cars here that can use one. Every 400-volt car in the table is already at its own ceiling on a 150 kW station, so a more powerful post changes nothing for it — measured car by car in do you need a 350 kW charger.
Should I charge to 100 per cent before setting off?
For the first leg, yes — it is free time, done overnight at home, and it is the longest leg of the trip. On the road it is usually the wrong move: the last 20 per cent takes disproportionately long on a DC charger, so two shorter stops normally beat one long one.
Sources
EPA range and the 10 to 80 per cent charging time come from each car’s own page on this site, each credited to its source with the date it was read. Energy use per 100 miles is the EPA combined rating from fueleconomy.gov. The trip model — 65 mph average, 10 to 80 per cent charging window, 85 per cent of EPA range on the highway, $0.48 per kWh public DC — is set out in full above and in the methodology page. No route, traffic or weather data is used.