It hasn’t been that long since the parking lot at the corner of South Winooski and Main Streets in downtown Burlington, Vermont, was littered with first-generation Chevrolet Bolt EVs and second-generation Nissan Leafs that received the same eyebrow-raising glance from passersby as the street-parked Mitsubishi Mirage did.
That vehicle?! In the ferocity of a Vermont winter?! One wondered how they fared going from the salty confines of city life into the pasture lands and mountains of rural Lamoille County. And, navigation and range weren’t connected leaving best guess scenarios as the only way forward.
The brave souls behind the wheel not only personally braved Vermont winters in small cars in the land of far bigger trucks and SUVs, but did so with depressingly low ranges in freezing temperatures and where charging stations were few and far between.
Today, traveling by electric vehicle in the Green Mountain State is far easier thanks to innovations in charging and battery-electric vehicles.
Opening up the well-built-out Tesla Supercharger network has a lot to do with that. Scattered at key points throughout the state at locations that follow the network’s ambition to be available en route rather than at destinations, the network has super-fast charging that is delivered to any vehicle with a NACS (North American Charging Standard) charging port or a CCS port with an adapter.
And, Tesla has made the charging process so easy that it makes those of EVGo, Electrify America and Charge Point seem relatively archaic. Simply plug in, open up the Tesla app, choose the stall number and your vehicle is receiving a charge at a very high speed. No swiping, tapping, selecting, or standing out in the cold for any more than a few seconds. And, no waiting for an interface to display a screen that offers even a glimmer of hope that charging is about to happen.
Driving a Rivian R1S from Boston to Burlington and beyond was a piece of cake thanks to that expanded charging network access. With the intention of arriving at the ski hill with a 50-percent state of charge (out of a 374-mile range) to combat cold weather range loss and the distance to a fast charger, the vehicle’s in-car navigation system made it easy to find charging along the way (one stop for a full charge was all that was needed).
Most of Vermont’s ski hills have high-speed public charging less than an hour away and lower speed charging near on-site accommodations. What many resorts haven’t installed is slower Level 2 (240-volt) charging in the parking lots at the slopes, where visitors and locals can charge up while they’re on the snow during the day.
In the most modern of EVs, even in temperatures well below zero degrees, range anxiety is mostly a myth with very little strategic planning when home charging is available. Remembering to activate battery pre-conditioning ahead of charging allows the vehicle to charge faster, lessening time sitting still.
“In extreme weather, pre-conditioning is the difference between a good experience and a great one,” Wassym Bensaid, Rivian’s Chief Software Officer, told Newsweek. “We’ve focused on removing that friction for the driver. Through the Rivian app, you can schedule your departure from the comfort of your couch, ensuring the cabin is warm and the battery is primed before you even unplug. When you’re on the road, the vehicle’s intelligence takes over—if you navigate to a fast charger, the software automatically begins pre-conditioning the battery so you get the fastest speeds the moment you plug in. Our goal is to handle the thermal complexity in the background so our customers can just focus on the drive.”
The Rivian R1S accurately displayed range throughout a week of extreme cold trialing, when using the in-vehicle navigation system. Relying on driver information screen displayed range and self-calculating range based on perceived and expected temperature-related range loss was a fool’s errand. Having a route running in the system while charging also allowed for easy knowledge of exactly how much energy was needed to make it to the next stop, which minimized time charging and behind the wheel.
“Accurate range isn’t just a technical metric, it’s about trust. In cold weather especially, customers need confidence that the number they see reflects what they’ll actually experience on the road. If the estimate is off, it creates anxiety and forces people to over-plan. We wanted to remove that friction. To do that, we rely on a combination of real-world vehicle telemetry, environmental data, and predictive models that account for temperature, elevation changes, driving behavior, accessory loads like HVAC, and battery thermal state,” Bensaid explained.
He continued: “Cold-weather capability was a core design requirement for us. Features like a robust thermal management system, heat pump, heated seats and steering wheel, and strong traction control all contribute to comfort and confidence in winter conditions. From a software perspective, we optimize energy usage by prioritizing efficient heating strategies and dynamically managing power distribution.
“We also focus on everyday usability, things like fast cabin warm-up, snow mode, predictable regenerative braking behavior in slippery conditions, and accurate range forecasting. All of this adds up to a vehicle that feels dependable and intuitive in winter, not compromised by it,” he said.
Sitting still and charging doesn’t mean what it used to mean. In America’s newest EVs, charging is a comfortable, climate-controlled experience with entertainment options built-in to the infotainment screen. And, not only has fast charging technology been installed but vehicles are now able to accept higher charging speeds than ever before.
And, chargers are more conveniently located than ever, popping up at grocery stores, truck stops and big box stores where it’s easy to kill 30-45 minutes to get to that sacred 80-percent state of charge figure before charging speeds rapidly slow to protect the battery.
Not only is the electric vehicle road trip charging experience improving, so is hands-free driving technology. While it’s not ready to pilot you in a blinding snowstorm, the Rivian’s technology can ease the burden of driving long distances and delivers a more natural approach to lane keeping, adaptive cruise control and lane centering as its artificial-intelligence-based algorithms have matured.
While two- and four-wheel drive vehicle formats are standard for gas-powered vehicles, electric vehicles are able to offer more advanced drivetrain technology in the form of a motor at each axel, and some even have a motor at each wheel.
The R1S Quad has the latter, with each wheel’s motor electronically linked together to deliver just the right traction at the right time, independently but in chorus with each other. This means that the presence of slush as you change lanes is far less of an obstacle than usual and inches of snow and ice packed onto the road are met with sure footedness and confidence, even in steep terrain.
What the Rivian R1S Quad offers, combined with recent infrastructure investments and advanced software capabilities, makes greener travel to and around the Green Mountain State in winter easy, but it’s at a steep price – upward of $120,000.