Choosing between two or more electric cars? Here’s a great tip

The A Better Router Planner (ABRP) phone app and website gives you accurate information about how much time you’ll spend charging using different cars on the same route. Let’s look at an example:

Route: Gold Coast to Melbourne (approx 1700 km).

Google Maps calculates a drive time of 17 hours and 28 minutes, but that’s not including stops to refuel both the car and yourself. If the recommended break of 15 minutes every 2 hours is taken, the total time for the journey in a petrol or diesel car is 19 hours and 28 minutes.

Let’s look at three different electric cars in the ABRP app, all starting with a battery at 100%. The app calculated where to stop for charging and for how long.

Feature	Tesla Model Y 2025 standard range RWD	Geely Galaxy EX5 2025 standard range	BYD Sealion 7 2025 Comfort
Battery size (kWh)	60	50	82.5
Total time HH:MM	18:54	20:35	18:51
Charging time HH:MM	2:20	3:53	2:15
Number of stops	8	10	7

The charging stops needed will depend on the efficiency of the car, the size of the battery, your driving style and how fast the car can recharge.

If you are researching the purchase of an electric car, the ABRP app is a good tool to compare what travelling a route you take often will be like with different models.