Beyond range anxiety: connection lessons from an EV road trip
- Phil McAuliffe
- Oct 26
- 5 min read
On a recent long-distance EV road trip in Australia, slowing down at charging stops revealed unexpected human connections, recharging both the car and ourselves.
Hello my friend
Earlier this year, we welcomed Pango to our family. Pango isn’t a pet; he’s an electric vehicle (EV).
We named him ‘Pango’ (pronounced pa-ngo) because it’s a black car, and pango is the te reo Māori word for ‘black’.
I know we're not alone in naming our cars...
Pango is a joy to drive. When home, we can charge him using our rooftop solar panels, and helps us live in alignment with our values of treading lightly on the planet and sustainable travel.
We’ve driven to Sydney a few times in the months since we got him, but we recently took our first trip to Melbourne. This long-distance road trip with an EV required a little more planning than the drive to Sydney. When travelling through regional New South Wales, there’s sometimes a long distance between towns and, for now, limited charging infrastructure.
The planning isn’t difficult. Pango’s so clever that he suggests the best places to stop and recharge and plans our trips accordingly.
The journey
We set out early on Friday morning, and Pango guided us to our first charging stop.
Driving an EV long distances is a bit like travelling with a toddler. You can only go as far as they’re comfortable before it’s time to stop, stretch and have a snack.
With an EV, there are no quick pit stops like in a petrol car, where you can fill up and be back on the road within 10 minutes. EV charging stops on a road trip in Australia take at least 20 minutes. But these stops recharge the passengers as much as the car.
Our first stop was in Holbrook, a town not far from where I grew up. Curiously, despite being hundreds of kilometres from the nearest port, there’s a full-sized submarine in a park in the middle of town (you can find out why here).
While Pango charged, we wandered to the nearby supermarket for snacks and chatted with the person at the checkout.
We walked back to the submarine park and found a picnic table to eat at. Other drivers waiting to charge were stretching their legs, and a few strolled over for a chat.
The conversations weren’t remarkable — mostly about range, weather, and how the drive was going. No one shared names, but we knew each other by our cars and our journeys.
We continued to Barnawartha, topping up Pango while we ate. Again, there was no rush, and I exchanged some friendly banter with the person serving us. I had time.
A few hours later, we pulled into a service station at Euroa for a break. Others we’d seen earlier were there too. We greeted each other with that kind of familiarity you use with other fellow travellers, like when you see someone you recognise from your long-haul international flight at the gate lounge for your domestic connection. We were all in this together.
That night we stayed in Lancefield and chatted with the owner of our accommodation a little longer than usual. We drove Pango to a nearby charger, then walked to the local pub for dinner. Later, we strolled along the main street, taking photos as we went and while Pango finished a full charge.
The realisation
Over dinner, I mentioned to Jeff that while we’d been travelling all day, I felt my connection batteries were full.
The charging stops meant our trip was slower than it would have been in our previous car, but each pause gave us time to connect. We connected with each other and with the people and places we encountered.
If we’d been driving our old car in the usual way, I probably would have spoken only to the cashiers when paying for petrol, and not to other drivers at all.
Driving Pango means that recharging takes a little more time, but that time also gives me the chance to recharge and connect — an unexpected and welcome benefit.
Travelling slowly feeds connection
Driving an EV changes how you approach long-distance travel. It’s slower, but that’s not a bad thing. There’s more time to rest, recharge and connect in ways I never did when travelling more hurriedly.
As we transition away from internal combustion engines toward EVs (in Australia, at least), I see such precious opportunities for communities to create places where humans can rest, recharge and connect by designing charging stops that reflect the spirit of their towns. They have a captive audience, after all.
I also wonder if car companies will one day celebrate this too, promoting not just the technology, but the time it gives us to connect with the people in the car and beyond it.
What do you think? Do you drive an EV? What have you noticed? If you don’t have an EV, how do you approach stops to rest and recharge?
Closing invitation
If this article resonated with you, share it with someone who might need to hear it. Send it directly, post it on your socials, or pass it along in your networks.
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Until next time, be awesomely you.
~ Phil
Important:
All views expressed above are the author’s and are intended to inform, support, challenge and inspire you to consider the issue of loneliness and increase awareness of the need for authentic connection with your self, with those most important to you and your communities as an antidote to loneliness. Unless otherwise declared, the author is not a licensed mental health professional and these words are not intended to be crisis support. If you’re in crisis, this page has some links for immediate support for where you may be in the world.
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