EV driving in Europe…discussion thread

I did a search and couldn’t find a thread on the subject.

Post your experiences, tips and tricks.

Last year we took an EV to Europe for the first time. I found some limited information so I had to do a lot of searching and researching.

We went with Irish Ferries from Dublin to Cherbourg and then drove to near Amsterdam and back in to France before returning. I had paid for an EV bay on WB Yeats outbound. But I read that while you were one of the first to board you would be parked opposite direction to everyone else and therefore one of the last off. As we were driving to Ghent after disembarking and time was more important than top up 12% so we decided against using the bay. We told them at check in and they said no problem. Indeed we found 3 of 4 bays are stuck in the corners and opposite direction. First on last off.

On the way back we had plenty of battery to get home and again decided to not use the bay. We told them at check in but she said “you have paid, so we park you there” no biggy as we weren’t in a rush home. We were first on the boat after a couple of motorbikes, which was a first for us driving in to an empty boat. They parked us in the only bay that parks with the general flow. After priority customers were allowed off we only had to wait on the row beside us then they manoeuvred me out but held everyone behind me.

My advice, unless you are first to check in you could be last off. Last off in to France could cost you up to an hour wait as you have to wait on everyone else and they are all in the queue for passport control ahead of you. This includes all the trucks etc.

Charging- in general excellent. I mean excellent. My car in theory has a range of 570km off 100%. Realistically it’s around 500. I found driving at 130km/h it was 400-420. So about 3 hours of Autoroute driving. Usually after 2-2.5 hrs arses, bladders and stomachs started kicking in. Numb bums needed stretching, bladders needed draining and stomachs needed feeding. Fair focks to all those ICE drivers that can go 6-7 hrs in one go without dealing with any of the above issues.

I used Ionity solely. I paid for a months subscription which lowered the cost per KWh to 33c. Plenty of stations, perfectly spaced and as it turned out, pretty much where we stopped each time the previous year in our diesel car. This year the cost is 43c but they have lowered the sub price by €6 so for what I will put in it will cost approximately 39c per KWh this year.

The longest I waited was less than 2 minute. The driver was standing by the back of his car and so us pull up and he quickly got in and left. Everywhere else we had a choice of bays and 3/4s empty.

When we charged in Belgium we had an issue with the chargers. They essentially couldn’t communicate with my car. Talking to the CS agent on the phone he could see my car trying to connect but he had to push an update to the site. Maybe mine was the first Tavascan to have used the site. Who knows. I got enough free electricity from him as an apology to get me to Ghent for our stay and then on in to the Netherlands. It delayed us about 30mins.

All charging was rapid. As in 135 kWh, the max the car can handle. This put us under time pressure 😂, to walk in to the services and use the toilets and eat. It really is quick.

Driving an EV is so much better than ICE on holidays. All that power and torque when loaded up unlike ICE and struggling up hills. All that extra technology makes the drive easier, especially with blind spot watching for you. I recommend a Bip&Go (like easy pass), the French haven’t been big on take up. They still prefer cash after all these years, so you can easily make up 5 mins per toll on a busy day in the summer. You pay a months sub, and then when the month is up it falls dormant and won’t be activated again until you pass a toll booth in another month or a year later.

My wife was concerned about the boot size, 540lts, but we had loads of space for all our gear, 5 pax, all the crap we brought back. Loads of grocery shopping (treats and unusual stuff) about 40 bottles of wine and two cases of beer. No roof box.

Total cost was about 50% of the previous years fuel including the subscription fee. There are loads and loads of choices and places to charge you are never more than 10k from a rapid charger.

What have been your experiences ?

Do you have any tips or tricks or any suggestions. Strangely enough there is limited information available in the wild, I imagine in some specific EV forums there is loads but I’ve tried not to join up to too many random forums especially for European driving from Ireland.