Advice on 4000 km Trip to UK/France Regarding Charging Etc

blobert

Hello,

I'm going to be heading to the south of France for about 8 weeks at the start of July and am planning to take the trip on in my Kia EV6.

It's basically 2000km each way including ferry to Wales, drive through UK, channel tunnel and then the length of France. A Better Route Planner says it'll take 23 hours including charging. I'll be bringing a friend to share the driving and am hoping to either do it in 2 very long days or a more relaxed 2 stop/3 day strategy if it turns out to be very tiring. While I'd never consider taking on a trip like this in one of our previous electric cars I think with the Kia's range and (more importantly) very fast charging it shouldn't be THAT much slower than taking it on in an ICE car. There's an anticipated 2.5hrs of charging on the way which doesn't seem too bad/we'd probably want to stop for 15-20 mins every few hours anyway and that should cover the bulk of charging.

Anyway my question is mainly on charging infrastructure on the way. ABRP has us using Ionity, Gridserve, Fastned chargers on the way and this may change on the route depending on how we get on. Do I need some special charge card for chargers in the UK/France or are they all likely to give me the option to pay by card at them? I think I may be eligible for some kind of Kia Charging trial as it's a new car which make Ionity charging cheaper, this seems to be it: https://kiacharge.com/web/kia-ie/tariffs

Anyway if anyone had any advice/suggestions that would be great. Heading off in 2 weeks so figure if I need to order any cards etc I better do so soon.

Thanks!

KCross

This video is nearly two years old but I'd imagine still reasonably accurate. Definitely worth watching anyway for the basics.

I'm driving the length of France myself in a few weeks time so I'm interested too. I think I'm just going to go with Ionity.... reliable, little queueing... but expensive. I'll suck it up for peace of mind on holidays with a car load of kids!

Maybe @SabreMan would give us an update on it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDwezRIiUws

ELM327

Just use Ionity and Kiacharge IMO?

AndyBoBandy

Sticking with 1 provider i.e. Ionity would probably be the easiest option, breathes familiarity etc.. but it would probably do no harm to at least have an app or 2 that covered Fastned & Gridserv on your smart device.. should you be stuck and need to use one of them.

1 key thing I'd be looking out for would be hotels on the route with destination charging, and planning/timing to arrive at hotels at a low SoC%, but having a back up of an Ionity within range should the hotel charger not work out.

Doing a 1,250km trip across France/Germany myself next month from Cherbourg to Kiel, to then get another ferry to Lithuania (and the return leg too), and haven't even given charging along the route a second thought thanks to the SuperCharger network. All these manufacturers in with Ionity really need to be offering plug and play charging like Tesla, integrated with trip planning.

crisco10

Planning on driving Cherbourg to beyond Bordeaux in August.

My idea was Ionity and ChargeMap. But for the drive down, with 2 kids under 4 in the back, I'll be using Ionity I think (and probably prioritise bigger Ionity stations). Just hit and run, throw money at the problem. We still haven't decided if we are stopping in hotel en route either. If we do, obviously will try to get one with destination charger.

BUT we are there a month, so I hope to get a little more adventurous using Chargemap in that time on the various daytrips we do.

cannco253

https://www.auto-infos.fr/article/pour-faciliter-la-recharge-electrique-vinci-autoroutes-lance-ulys-electric.251192

valet parking with @IONITY_EU to minimise waiting times, and 2 mobile fast chargers