Last summer I drove my Renault Zoe 41kWh about 4200km around France and Spain. Wrong car for so many reasons but it worked. Did you do any long trips? Which cad did you use and do you have any advice?
Nope longest trip I’ve taken is 1-2 charging stops.
Yep. We went all the way to Columbus from Louisville to grab our 100mi range Kia Soul EV. We’ve done many road trips since then.
Cool! Any charger gaps? I almost got stuck in the middle of France (nobody lives there).
There was a few but they’ve been plugged. There’s a couple that are a stretch but nothing slowing down 5-10mph hasn’t solved.
We did a 2400km trip 2 years ago. Tesla Model3 LR.
Totally adequate car overall, but that was in Canada: we started from south shore of Montréal, up to Prince Edward’s Island, but avoiding Maine (we couldn’t cross the US border because spouse is a Chinese citizen and was not yet Permanent Resident as the time). On the way back, we stopped at the Fundy National Park. That’s a ~2400km overall.
The car was loaded, we were going camping: 2 adults + 1kid: tent, inflatable canoe, some canned food in case of, and various equipment to cook. All fit in the car with no need for a roof box. But we didn’t have our bikes either. At the camping sites, when we could, we took a spot with a power plug (110V). It charges very slowly, but that’s much better than nothing. When camping or simply spending several days in the same place, you need to mind the battery drain.
2 days to go, 2 days to come back Tesla has deployed quite some charging stations in east Canada (we crossed Québec and the New Brunswick) so we never had to use anything else, and we never worried about not reaching the next charger. Only in the Prince Edward’s Island itself we didn’t have a fast charging station, but there was a L2 public one not very far, walkable distance from the camping site. So the night before our departure, I left the car there to charge, and we were ready to roll in the morning.
Compared to a gas car’s road trip, the comments I would make are:
-The obvious: you no longer stop “when the gauge gets low”. You aim at the next charging station and that’s where you’ll stop, period.
-Stops are longer than a gas car. It’s true that you can go for a coffee or alike, but that’s how I realize that I never take 20mins to take a coffee… Add to that some stations are getting crowded, and multiple times we had to queue as all stations were occupied and some more cars were on an improvised list. Everyone behaved well waiting for their turn, but as EV get more popular, I assume bad players will start appearing too. This may get balanced by the wide adoption of the NCAS in North America (car makers are converting to Tesla’s connector format in US and so that will follow in Canada), so all charging stations, Tesla and the others, will be usable by everyone eventually.
-The car is a blast to drive on a daily basis, and also pleasant to drive on long trips, though the road’s noise is very present in the cabin (I’ve never tried any of the “hacks” to reduce the noise). This car has a ridiculous torque, so loading it does not impede much its driving pleasure.
We did a road trip in Spain last month (2800km), but we rented a small gas car instead of an EV, part because I was uncertain about the charging network, and part because I was uncertain about the chargers cost in Spain. In North America, the joke is fast-charging will be soon as expensive per km as a gas cars…
Absolutely! We’re always driving our 58kWh ID.3 1st edition from Amsterdam to Frankfurt, or Paris, or in a couple of weeks through Belgium, France, into the EuroTunnel and around the UK for a week.
We prefer to stop every 3-ish hours, and that’s perfect for a stretch of the legs, a recharge and pee, a coffee and/or a sammich.
We’ve driven from Idaho to California with a Tesla model 3 long range.
Main advice is to try and plan you rest stops around your charging stops if possible.
