France / Netherlands in an EV?
Discussion
Morning all.
Has anyone done a trip to mainland Europe in an EV?
My wife is looking at a BMW i5 Touring 4.0 as a new lease car and we test drove one yesterday. It will be absolutely fine as our main family car as we don't do too many long trips (South Wales to Gatwick and Cornwall a couple of times a year so easy to stop to top up en-route) but has anyone done a longer trip to France or further afield in one?
It will probably only be for the odd holiday to a Eurocamps type place in France or the Netherlands once a year.
Is this doable? I appreciate that it will take a bit more planning than in an ICE car but would it be an issue?
We're both EV newbies and I have no idea what the situation is like in mainland Europe compared with the UK and how easy it would be to charge up once over there.
Many thanks
Has anyone done a trip to mainland Europe in an EV?
My wife is looking at a BMW i5 Touring 4.0 as a new lease car and we test drove one yesterday. It will be absolutely fine as our main family car as we don't do too many long trips (South Wales to Gatwick and Cornwall a couple of times a year so easy to stop to top up en-route) but has anyone done a longer trip to France or further afield in one?
It will probably only be for the odd holiday to a Eurocamps type place in France or the Netherlands once a year.
Is this doable? I appreciate that it will take a bit more planning than in an ICE car but would it be an issue?
We're both EV newbies and I have no idea what the situation is like in mainland Europe compared with the UK and how easy it would be to charge up once over there.
Many thanks
WestyCarl said:
Europe in and EV is much easier than the UK (assuming you don't go completely rural in Fance)
I've done a number of trips to Austria, South France and its been no problem at all.
Note: I mainly stick to paige main roads
That's reassuring, thanks.I've done a number of trips to Austria, South France and its been no problem at all.
Note: I mainly stick to paige main roads
Yes we would likely be doing similar and not really out in the sticks.
Davey S2 said:
Morning all.
Has anyone done a trip to mainland Europe in an EV?
My wife is looking at a BMW i5 Touring 4.0 as a new lease car and we test drove one yesterday. It will be absolutely fine as our main family car as we don't do too many long trips (South Wales to Gatwick and Cornwall a couple of times a year so easy to stop to top up en-route) but has anyone done a longer trip to France or further afield in one?
It will probably only be for the odd holiday to a Eurocamps type place in France or the Netherlands once a year.
Is this doable? I appreciate that it will take a bit more planning than in an ICE car but would it be an issue?
We're both EV newbies and I have no idea what the situation is like in mainland Europe compared with the UK and how easy it would be to charge up once over there.
Many thanks
2.5 years ago, we did our first EV trip to The Hague from Geneva. The only issue was that we did some planning, so when the consumption went up a bit (torrential rain and heavy winds - bad enough conditions to make a dent in an ICE economy) we were a bit concerned. It would have been better to simply enter the destination into the navigator and look for chargers along the way as needed.Has anyone done a trip to mainland Europe in an EV?
My wife is looking at a BMW i5 Touring 4.0 as a new lease car and we test drove one yesterday. It will be absolutely fine as our main family car as we don't do too many long trips (South Wales to Gatwick and Cornwall a couple of times a year so easy to stop to top up en-route) but has anyone done a longer trip to France or further afield in one?
It will probably only be for the odd holiday to a Eurocamps type place in France or the Netherlands once a year.
Is this doable? I appreciate that it will take a bit more planning than in an ICE car but would it be an issue?
We're both EV newbies and I have no idea what the situation is like in mainland Europe compared with the UK and how easy it would be to charge up once over there.
Many thanks
On the main roads, it's enough to start looking for the next charger when your battery is around 35%. This way, you can miss one or two chargers before you're in real trouble. You can also let the car plan the charging stops for you; pretty much any car will do an OK job with that (Hyundai navigation would take the occupancy and weather into account when scheduling the stops). We prefer to optimise and prioritise Ionity chargers (cost issue), but it is often more of a hassle than it is worth.
In my experience, once you're on the continent, no planning is necessary before entering Bosnia.
the netherlands has chargers practically on every street.
i worked a short term project there last summer, hired an EV from schiphol. there were 4 chargers outside of the office i worked from, 3 outside the hotel, a dozen more within 1km. this was a rural village about 30mins south of rotterdam.
i worked a short term project there last summer, hired an EV from schiphol. there were 4 chargers outside of the office i worked from, 3 outside the hotel, a dozen more within 1km. this was a rural village about 30mins south of rotterdam.
Should be a piece of cake,
We're planning a trip to Paris in September and I've been weighing up the pros and cons of taking the car Vs the Eurostar,
currently the Eurostar is looking like the favourite, mainly because there are four of us going and I think with luggage it may end up being a bit cramped.
If We did decide to take the car I'm in no doubt we'd have little trouble making the journey based on other trips we've done,
it's just a case of entering the destination into the cars Sat Nav and letting the car plan the journey stops and all, which in the i5 should be the same as our i4
I would also recommend getting a few rfid cards for the chargers,
we've got the BMW charge card and also the Electroverse card as well as the relevant apps which together have pretty much covered all our public charging needs and failing that many now seem quite happy to accept credit cards as well.
timberman said:
Should be a piece of cake,
We're planning a trip to Paris in September and I've been weighing up the pros and cons of taking the car Vs the Eurostar,
currently the Eurostar is looking like the favourite, mainly because there are four of us going and I think with luggage it may end up being a bit cramped.
If We did decide to take the car I'm in no doubt we'd have little trouble making the journey based on other trips we've done,
it's just a case of entering the destination into the cars Sat Nav and letting the car plan the journey stops and all, which in the i5 should be the same as our i4
I would also recommend getting a few rfid cards for the chargers,
we've got the BMW charge card and also the Electroverse card as well as the relevant apps which together have pretty much covered all our public charging needs and failing that many now seem quite happy to accept credit cards as well.
I used the Electroverse card in all but the IONITY chargers and was getting a kw for 19 euro cents at the IE chargers, that’s cheaper than my daytime rate at home! We're planning a trip to Paris in September and I've been weighing up the pros and cons of taking the car Vs the Eurostar,
currently the Eurostar is looking like the favourite, mainly because there are four of us going and I think with luggage it may end up being a bit cramped.
If We did decide to take the car I'm in no doubt we'd have little trouble making the journey based on other trips we've done,
it's just a case of entering the destination into the cars Sat Nav and letting the car plan the journey stops and all, which in the i5 should be the same as our i4
I would also recommend getting a few rfid cards for the chargers,
we've got the BMW charge card and also the Electroverse card as well as the relevant apps which together have pretty much covered all our public charging needs and failing that many now seem quite happy to accept credit cards as well.
Mark V GTD said:
Rhonda said:
Just back from doing 1500 miles in France. Not an issue finding a charger and it s much cheaper over there for commercial chargers.
It’s a while since I was in France - roughly what sort of cost are we talking now?It will be easier than you expect.
When I first drove my iX to Netherlands 3 years ago, I planned ahead so much, and after doing the trip (and seeing how easy it was to find a charger), I realised I could simple drive over like an ICE car, without any real thought.
So that's what I've done from now on, and driven much further across Europe in subsequent trips (with the infrastructure improving every year)
You will get a BMW charge card with the new i5 (so that will give you access to charging points all over the UK and Europe) with billing to one account, plus it will have plug and charge (so with some chargers, you just plug in, it authenticates and starts charging, so no need to even tap the card or use the BMW app)
I believe BMW still give 12 months discounted charging at Ionity chargers with brand new cars. That's what I got back in 2022 anyway.
The built in nav worked well in Europe, providing real time availability on which chargers available (and how many are free) on your route, rerouting to a different charger en route if desired charger become completely full, and you can set options like min % of charge when arriving at a charger or min % of charge when arriving at destination. I initially used a setting of arriving with 20% of charge at a charger (in case of issues) but after the 1st trip, then I realised that a setting of 10% worked well in reality, and I don't recall having any issues with charging anywhere I stopped.
I frequently found the car arrived at a charger consuming less electricity than the car predicted, thus making the charging stop even shorter.
When I first drove my iX to Netherlands 3 years ago, I planned ahead so much, and after doing the trip (and seeing how easy it was to find a charger), I realised I could simple drive over like an ICE car, without any real thought.
So that's what I've done from now on, and driven much further across Europe in subsequent trips (with the infrastructure improving every year)
You will get a BMW charge card with the new i5 (so that will give you access to charging points all over the UK and Europe) with billing to one account, plus it will have plug and charge (so with some chargers, you just plug in, it authenticates and starts charging, so no need to even tap the card or use the BMW app)
I believe BMW still give 12 months discounted charging at Ionity chargers with brand new cars. That's what I got back in 2022 anyway.
The built in nav worked well in Europe, providing real time availability on which chargers available (and how many are free) on your route, rerouting to a different charger en route if desired charger become completely full, and you can set options like min % of charge when arriving at a charger or min % of charge when arriving at destination. I initially used a setting of arriving with 20% of charge at a charger (in case of issues) but after the 1st trip, then I realised that a setting of 10% worked well in reality, and I don't recall having any issues with charging anywhere I stopped.
I frequently found the car arrived at a charger consuming less electricity than the car predicted, thus making the charging stop even shorter.
Edited by raspy on Tuesday 24th June 04:28
Edited by raspy on Tuesday 24th June 04:31
Rhonda said:
For the IONITY with the power subscription for a month (£7.99) I was paying 33 cents a kw, with IE and Electroverse card I was paying 19 cents a kw. Both of those are with a 350 kw charger.
19 cents (in €, right?) per kW sounds great! Does the electroverse card have a monthly fee, or is it tied to a household electricity contract? I see 0.25€ as the price on https://iecharge.io/ and on the Electroverse website, which is still very good.
PetrolHeadInRecovery said:
Rhonda said:
For the IONITY with the power subscription for a month (£7.99) I was paying 33 cents a kw, with IE and Electroverse card I was paying 19 cents a kw. Both of those are with a 350 kw charger.
19 cents (in , right?) per kW sounds great! Does the electroverse card have a monthly fee, or is it tied to a household electricity contract? I see 0.25 as the price on https://iecharge.io/ and on the Electroverse website, which is still very good.
You'll be fine, also, the car should take care of the planning for you and also give you an indication of how long you'll be "on charge" for at each stop. It will re-navigate if things change en-route. Mine does and I'm heading to Provence this year, with some stops are forecast to be 7min top ups, max wait being 20mins.
FlatSixBoxer said:
You'll be fine, also, the car should take care of the planning for you and also give you an indication of how long you'll be "on charge" for at each stop. It will re-navigate if things change en-route. Mine does and I'm heading to Provence this year, with some stops are forecast to be 7min top ups, max wait being 20mins.
The only thing I do on such a long trip is look for a good time/place to eat (bf/dinner/lunch), which easily takes 30min+, so I make sure I don't charge too much before that, which then limits the time needed at other stops.
PistonTim said:
PetrolHeadInRecovery said:
Rhonda said:
For the IONITY with the power subscription for a month (£7.99) I was paying 33 cents a kw, with IE and Electroverse card I was paying 19 cents a kw. Both of those are with a 350 kw charger.
19 cents (in , right?) per kW sounds great! Does the electroverse card have a monthly fee, or is it tied to a household electricity contract? I see 0.25 as the price on https://iecharge.io/ and on the Electroverse website, which is still very good.
Electroverse might be worth the trouble for Italy, though. For example, Free To X pricing seems to go from highway robbery to just very expensive (still 60% more than IONITY, but you don't need to leave the motorway).
PetrolHeadInRecovery said:
PistonTim said:
PetrolHeadInRecovery said:
Rhonda said:
For the IONITY with the power subscription for a month (£7.99) I was paying 33 cents a kw, with IE and Electroverse card I was paying 19 cents a kw. Both of those are with a 350 kw charger.
19 cents (in , right?) per kW sounds great! Does the electroverse card have a monthly fee, or is it tied to a household electricity contract? I see 0.25 as the price on https://iecharge.io/ and on the Electroverse website, which is still very good.
Electroverse might be worth the trouble for Italy, though. For example, Free To X pricing seems to go from highway robbery to just very expensive (still 60% more than IONITY, but you don't need to leave the motorway).
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