Range Anxiety Is a Visibility Problem — Here's What Actually Fixes It on Your Next Road Trip

Every so often, an argument about EVs lands from an unexpected direction. On the latest episode of Electrek's Quick Charge podcast, host Jo Borrás picks up a comment US President Donald Trump made at a Las Vegas rally last week — calling range anxiety a "disease" — and argues that, broken-clock rules aside, the underlying observation is right. Not because EVs can't go the distance, but because of something much more mundane: visibility.

The signage argument, in short

Trump's specific point was that you almost never see highway signs advertising EV charging. Borrás agrees, and takes it further. Sure, you'll spot charging callouts in California, or in the nicer parts of Austin and Scottsdale. But across the states people dismissively call "flyover country," those signs are largely absent — and that absence matters.

He hit on something that wasn't just true – but which was at the very root of the range anxiety phenomenon: visibility.

The argument Borrás lays out in the episode is that those blue highway signs listing GAS, FOOD, LODGING at every exit are the quiet bedrock of American drivers' confidence in the gasoline infrastructure. Nobody worries about running out of gas on I-80 because the road itself keeps reassuring you. EV drivers get no such reassurance — the chargers exist, but the highway never tells you so. Change how we treat highway signage, the argument goes, and range anxiety largely evaporates.

It's a genuinely good point, and one that reframes a lot of the "EVs aren't ready" conversation. Range anxiety isn't usually a math problem. It's a confidence problem.

Plug and Charge is the other half of the fix

The episode also flags GM Energy Pass, a new free offering for Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC drivers that removes the app-and-payment shuffle at public chargers. Pull up to a participating station, plug in, and charging starts — no phone, no credit card, no fresh app download. Just plug and charge, as it should be.

That matters for the same reason signage does. Friction at the charger and invisibility on the highway are two versions of the same problem: the EV road trip asks you to do homework that a gas road trip never did. Tesla drivers have had a version of this since day one at Superchargers, which is a big part of why Tesla road trips feel so uneventful compared to the horror stories.

Until the highway catches up: what actually closes the gap

Signage reform is a long game. Plug and Charge rollouts take years. In the meantime, the practical cure for range anxiety is the same thing it's always been — carrying enough capability that no charger you pull up to is a dead end. A few things worth having in the trunk:

• A CCS or NACS adapter for your car. The single biggest source of on-road stress is arriving at a working charger you can't physically plug into. Tesla owners heading into non-Supercharger territory, and non-Tesla owners heading into Supercharger territory, both benefit enormously from the right adapter living permanently in the frunk.
• A quality Level 1/Level 2 mobile connector. Overnight charging at a hotel, an Airbnb, or a relative's garage turns a stressful leg into a non-event. A 240V-capable mobile charger with the right plug adapters is the closest thing to a universal safety net.
• A NEMA adapter set. Dryer outlets, RV park pedestals, and welder outlets are everywhere in the parts of the country that don't have charging signs. Having the adapters to use them is a real answer to a real gap.
• A tire repair kit and portable inflator. Not charging gear, but the most common way an EV road trip actually goes sideways — and most EVs don't carry a spare.
• A 12V jump pack and basic roadside kit. The low-voltage battery is still the thing most likely to strand you, EV or not.

Our take

The signage point is worth sitting with, whatever you think of its source. Infrastructure confidence is built out of small, boring, repeated cues — and EV drivers currently get almost none of them once they leave the coasts. Fixing that is above any of our pay grades.

What's not above our pay grade is the trunk. An adapter you'll use twice a year is still cheaper than one detour to a charger you couldn't plug into. If you're planning a summer road trip that leaves your usual charging map, that's the gap worth closing this month.

You can catch the full argument on Electrek's Quick Charge, available on YouTube and in audio form on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and via RSS.