Should you worry about evacuating in an EV?

But is it riskier to evacuate in an electric vehicle than in a gas-powered one?

Experts say the answer is no, but your risk of getting stuck can depend on your living situation.

“If you own an electric vehicle, there’s a lot of measures that you can take yourself as an EV owner to ensure that in an evacuation, when there is a disaster, you are prepared to get to safety,” said Mohammad Babaei, a graduate research assistant in transportation engineering at the University of Alberta.

Although experts agree the United States has ways to go in building out its electric charging infrastructure, electric vehicles have come a long way and are equipped to get you to safety.

Here are the tips experts recommend to make sure you’re prepared in case of an emergency.

Assess your situation

Whether you should be concerned about evacuating in an electric vehicle depends heavily on where you live, said Mohamed Awwad, an assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering at California Polytechnic State University.

California has the most chargers in the country, but they are more popular in urban centers than in rural areas, he said, where wildfires are more common. Coastal communities on the Gulf of Mexico should also be on high alert during hurricane season.

States have access to funding for more chargers through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, said Ingrid Malmgren, senior policy director at the electric vehicle advocacy nonprofit Plug In America. But some states, like Florida, are lagging in building out electric charging corridors, she said.

Emergency planners need to build more fast chargers along evacuation routes, similar to the number of gas stations on these routes that have backup generators, said Eleftheria Kontou, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

In cases of a hurricane, residents often have at least a day of warning before the storm arrives. Other disasters, like wildfires, can be more sudden. Keep this in mind as you prepare.

Your living situation can also affect your preparedness: Homeowners are typically able to charge their cars at home overnight, Awwad said, but renters may need to use public charging stations to power their electric vehicles.

Make sure your car is charged

Try to keep a full charge whenever possible, especially during the time of year when disasters such as hurricanes are most common, Awwad said. Your vehicle should be at least 80 percent charged to evacuate safely.

“If you have a gas car and want to prepare for an evacuation, that might involve getting canisters ready to transport liquid fuel,” said Babaei. “And those measures might now be substituted with charging early.”

Just as you wouldn’t leave a gas-powered car at home with an empty tank, you shouldn’t leave your electric vehicle empty of charge either, especially in high-risk times like wildfire season or in the days before a hurricane, Babaei said. That way you don’t need to worry about charging your car at a public charge point, which may have a line during the evacuation.

“Charging is a time-consuming process,” Kontou said. “You would have to spend, in the best case, 15 to 20 minutes to have a fully charged car compared to maybe three or four minutes in a gas station.”

Most electric vehicles have a driving range of 270 miles or more. As long as your car is charged, you should be able to evacuate to safety or at least get to the next charge point. “We don’t have any 50-, 80-mile electric vehicles anymore. The majority of vehicles exceed 250 miles, which give enough leeway for drivers to seek shelter in areas that might not be so affected,” Kontou added.

Though cities may lose power during a hurricane, it is unlikely that the power will be out before the storm when you’re evacuating. Outages would affect both electric chargers and gas stations.

Electric vehicles fare better in times of stop-and-go traffic, Malmgren said. While gas cars need to run their combustion engine while they idle in traffic, electric vehicles save their battery when not in motion, stretching the charge even longer.

Check your route

Make sure you familiarize yourself with your evacuation strategy and route in advance of an emergency, said Malmgren, and identify fast chargers along the route.

“Download any apps that would help you find and filter chargers,” she said. “A lot of newer cars even have a navigation system right in the car.”

If you stay in hotels, try to opt for ones that have heavy chargers or even a regular outlet you can plug in to.

In any evacuation scenario, make sure you bring some food and water.

Because your electric vehicle doesn’t use much power when the car is idling, it can provide a climate-controlled space for a long time. You may also be able to charge some of your devices in your car.

Some electric vehicle models feature bidirectional charging, meaning they could power your home in an outage or charge another electric vehicle.

No matter how you evacuate in an emergency scenario, don’t linger once you’ve been told to leave.

“I would encourage anybody involved in a situation like this to leave early,” said Malmgren. “When they tell you to go, don’t hang out.”