European EV road trip.
Discussion
Looking for a bit of real world advice from people who’ve done a decent European road trip in an EV.
We’re doing around 4 weeks this summer in the ID.7 Tourer. 2 adults, 2 kids and the dog. Route is broadly Amsterdam > Luxembourg > Colmar > French Alps > Provence > Troyes > Durbuy > Amsterdam with longer stays rather than constantly moving every night.
I’ve had an EV for about 2 years now but realistically 99% of charging has just been at home so this will be the first proper trip relying on public charging day after day.
I’m not massively worried about range as the ID.7 is pretty efficient on motorway runs, more just wondering what it’s actually like once out there in the real world.
Which apps/cards ended up being essential?
Did you mainly stick to Ionity/Tesla/Fastned etc or just use whatever was nearby?
How much planning did you actually do vs just winging it?
Any issues with queues in peak summer?
Did accommodation with charging become a must?
I’ll take the granny charger as backup as well just in case.
Just after honest real world experiences really rather than YouTube “we drove across Europe with zero issues” content
We’re doing around 4 weeks this summer in the ID.7 Tourer. 2 adults, 2 kids and the dog. Route is broadly Amsterdam > Luxembourg > Colmar > French Alps > Provence > Troyes > Durbuy > Amsterdam with longer stays rather than constantly moving every night.
I’ve had an EV for about 2 years now but realistically 99% of charging has just been at home so this will be the first proper trip relying on public charging day after day.
I’m not massively worried about range as the ID.7 is pretty efficient on motorway runs, more just wondering what it’s actually like once out there in the real world.
Which apps/cards ended up being essential?
Did you mainly stick to Ionity/Tesla/Fastned etc or just use whatever was nearby?
How much planning did you actually do vs just winging it?
Any issues with queues in peak summer?
Did accommodation with charging become a must?
I’ll take the granny charger as backup as well just in case.
Just after honest real world experiences really rather than YouTube “we drove across Europe with zero issues” content
If it helps, I've stayed at this hotel in Amersfoort before. It's only 40 miles from Amsterdam. There are approx 12 Tesla Superchargers in the hotel car park (open air car park); there's also a covered parking underneath the hotel (no charging in that car park though):
www.hotelleusden.nl
Lovely hotel with nice big rooms and a good restaurant. If you arrive too late for an evening meal, the hotel will arrange for takeaway food, from various local places, to be delivered to your room which is a bonus.
It's close to the motorway so it's very easy to get to but it's far enough away so noise isn't an issue.
Have a nice trip
www.hotelleusden.nl
Lovely hotel with nice big rooms and a good restaurant. If you arrive too late for an evening meal, the hotel will arrange for takeaway food, from various local places, to be delivered to your room which is a bonus.
It's close to the motorway so it's very easy to get to but it's far enough away so noise isn't an issue.
Have a nice trip
Edited by CharlieAlphaMike on Saturday 9th May 18:57
I ve taken mine (a BMW) to Italy once and France a few times. I always just rely on the car to tell me when it needs charging, and select from the options it offers that suit me. I have never planned charging stops here or in Europe. I manage with a BMW charging card, an Electroverse one and a credit card. Hotels with charging aren t essential, but definitely nice to have. Leaving with 100% charge in the morning makes for a more efficient next day I think.
What did catch me out once was my normal strategy (in the UK) of ignoring the first charging stop that the car offers and pushing on to the next one. In France service stations are further apart
That meant arriving at the next charger with less charge than I d anticipated remaining… I have queued several times at charging stations on the A26 en-route to Calais, though only for 5/10 minutes. I ve also made the mistake of diverting off the autoroute to avoid queueing, and ended up at a McDonalds (of which many have high-ish speed chargers) only to find the charger out of use, and then diverted elsewhere to an industrial estate and what looked like someone s office car park, albeit with half a dozen 150kWh chargers in the car park - which took credit cards. I arrived there with 6% remaining. But, I plugged in in, wandered across the road to a Carrefour and picked up a few things to eat and all was good
What did catch me out once was my normal strategy (in the UK) of ignoring the first charging stop that the car offers and pushing on to the next one. In France service stations are further apart
That meant arriving at the next charger with less charge than I d anticipated remaining… I have queued several times at charging stations on the A26 en-route to Calais, though only for 5/10 minutes. I ve also made the mistake of diverting off the autoroute to avoid queueing, and ended up at a McDonalds (of which many have high-ish speed chargers) only to find the charger out of use, and then diverted elsewhere to an industrial estate and what looked like someone s office car park, albeit with half a dozen 150kWh chargers in the car park - which took credit cards. I arrived there with 6% remaining. But, I plugged in in, wandered across the road to a Carrefour and picked up a few things to eat and all was good Ages ago, I was convinced that my car worked properly only on Shell V-Power.
That was a much harder to stick to than driving an EV and using only IONITY in the parts of Europe you're considering. We have the manufacturer's card as a backup, but we've used it maybe half a dozen times (out of hundreds) for DC charging on the road trips. Mostly in eastern parts of Croatia.
These days you could skip the backup card, since IONITY power gives you a relatively reasonable rate in Fastned, Electra and Atlante chargers. Credit card works in an emergency.
Never used a Tesla supercharger (800V car and alternatives are everywhere), but I understood having the charge port on the rear right position (same as ours) might not be ideal (you'd need to block two bays?).
That was a much harder to stick to than driving an EV and using only IONITY in the parts of Europe you're considering. We have the manufacturer's card as a backup, but we've used it maybe half a dozen times (out of hundreds) for DC charging on the road trips. Mostly in eastern parts of Croatia.
These days you could skip the backup card, since IONITY power gives you a relatively reasonable rate in Fastned, Electra and Atlante chargers. Credit card works in an emergency.
Never used a Tesla supercharger (800V car and alternatives are everywhere), but I understood having the charge port on the rear right position (same as ours) might not be ideal (you'd need to block two bays?).
PetrolHeadInRecovery said:
Ages ago, I was convinced that my car worked properly only on Shell V-Power.
That was a much harder to stick to than driving an EV and using only IONITY in the parts of Europe you're considering. We have the manufacturer's card as a backup, but we've used it maybe half a dozen times (out of hundreds) for DC charging on the road trips. Mostly in eastern parts of Croatia.
These days you could skip the backup card, since IONITY power gives you a relatively reasonable rate in Fastned, Electra and Atlante chargers. Credit card works in an emergency.
Never used a Tesla supercharger (800V car and alternatives are everywhere), but I understood having the charge port on the rear right position (same as ours) might not be ideal (you'd need to block two bays?).
That’s good to know to be fair. Sounds like I’m maybe overthinking it a bit and the infrastructure is better than I’ve imagined.That was a much harder to stick to than driving an EV and using only IONITY in the parts of Europe you're considering. We have the manufacturer's card as a backup, but we've used it maybe half a dozen times (out of hundreds) for DC charging on the road trips. Mostly in eastern parts of Croatia.
These days you could skip the backup card, since IONITY power gives you a relatively reasonable rate in Fastned, Electra and Atlante chargers. Credit card works in an emergency.
Never used a Tesla supercharger (800V car and alternatives are everywhere), but I understood having the charge port on the rear right position (same as ours) might not be ideal (you'd need to block two bays?).
Interesting on the Tesla chargers too I've never used one. So I’d probably end up being “that guy” taking two bays.
a311 said:
PetrolHeadInRecovery said:
Ages ago, I was convinced that my car worked properly only on Shell V-Power.
That was a much harder to stick to than driving an EV and using only IONITY in the parts of Europe you're considering. We have the manufacturer's card as a backup, but we've used it maybe half a dozen times (out of hundreds) for DC charging on the road trips. Mostly in eastern parts of Croatia.
These days you could skip the backup card, since IONITY power gives you a relatively reasonable rate in Fastned, Electra and Atlante chargers. Credit card works in an emergency.
Never used a Tesla supercharger (800V car and alternatives are everywhere), but I understood having the charge port on the rear right position (same as ours) might not be ideal (you'd need to block two bays?).
That s good to know to be fair. Sounds like I m maybe overthinking it a bit and the infrastructure is better than I ve imagined.That was a much harder to stick to than driving an EV and using only IONITY in the parts of Europe you're considering. We have the manufacturer's card as a backup, but we've used it maybe half a dozen times (out of hundreds) for DC charging on the road trips. Mostly in eastern parts of Croatia.
These days you could skip the backup card, since IONITY power gives you a relatively reasonable rate in Fastned, Electra and Atlante chargers. Credit card works in an emergency.
Never used a Tesla supercharger (800V car and alternatives are everywhere), but I understood having the charge port on the rear right position (same as ours) might not be ideal (you'd need to block two bays?).
Interesting on the Tesla chargers too I've never used one. So I d probably end up being that guy taking two bays.
PSRG said:
I ve taken mine (a BMW) to Italy once and France a few times. I always just rely on the car to tell me when it needs charging, and select from the options it offers that suit me. I have never planned charging stops here or in Europe. I manage with a BMW charging card, an Electroverse one and a credit card. Hotels with charging aren t essential, but definitely nice to have. Leaving with 100% charge in the morning makes for a more efficient next day I think.
What did catch me out once was my normal strategy (in the UK) of ignoring the first charging stop that the car offers and pushing on to the next one. In France service stations are further apart That meant arriving at the next charger with less charge than I d anticipated remaining I have queued several times at charging stations on the A26 en-route to Calais, though only for 5/10 minutes. I ve also made the mistake of diverting off the autoroute to avoid queueing, and ended up at a McDonalds (of which many have high-ish speed chargers) only to find the charger out of use, and then diverted elsewhere to an industrial estate and what looked like someone s office car park, albeit with half a dozen 150kWh chargers in the car park - which took credit cards. I arrived there with 6% remaining. But, I plugged in in, wandered across the road to a Carrefour and picked up a few things to eat and all was good
That s reassuring to be honest and probably how I was hoping to approach it rather than planning every stop in advance.What did catch me out once was my normal strategy (in the UK) of ignoring the first charging stop that the car offers and pushing on to the next one. In France service stations are further apart
That meant arriving at the next charger with less charge than I d anticipated remaining I have queued several times at charging stations on the A26 en-route to Calais, though only for 5/10 minutes. I ve also made the mistake of diverting off the autoroute to avoid queueing, and ended up at a McDonalds (of which many have high-ish speed chargers) only to find the charger out of use, and then diverted elsewhere to an industrial estate and what looked like someone s office car park, albeit with half a dozen 150kWh chargers in the car park - which took credit cards. I arrived there with 6% remaining. But, I plugged in in, wandered across the road to a Carrefour and picked up a few things to eat and all was good Good shout on France services being further apart though as that's exactly the sort of thing I'd do!
Edited by a311 on Saturday 9th May 21:20
CharlieAlphaMike said:
If it helps, I've stayed at this hotel in Amersfoort before. It's only 40 miles from Amsterdam. There are approx 12 Tesla Superchargers in the hotel car park (open air car park); there's also a covered parking underneath the hotel (no charging in that car park though):
www.hotelleusden.nl
Lovely hotel with nice big rooms and a good restaurant. If you arrive too late for an evening meal, the hotel will arrange for takeaway food, from various local places, to be delivered to your room which is a bonus.
It's close to the motorway so it's very easy to get to but it's far enough away so noise isn't an issue.
Have a nice trip
Cheers. I should have added that we're getting the overnight ferry from Newcastle so the plan will be to roll onto the ferry full charged if possible then roll off and get a decent distance under our belts.www.hotelleusden.nl
Lovely hotel with nice big rooms and a good restaurant. If you arrive too late for an evening meal, the hotel will arrange for takeaway food, from various local places, to be delivered to your room which is a bonus.
It's close to the motorway so it's very easy to get to but it's far enough away so noise isn't an issue.
Have a nice trip
Edited by CharlieAlphaMike on Saturday 9th May 18:57
Last year June-July did Liege, Regensburg, Vienna, Munich, Zurich, St Quentin.
Polestar 2 LRDM '21, 78 kWh battery, approx. 200 motorway mile range.
Apps - Tesla + Electroverse.
Planning - mainly followed the car's nav, sometimes tried to pick somewhere to eat lunch and charge.
Queues - none encountered.
I did try to select hotels with charging, or a nearby carpark with chargers. In one or two cases this didn't work out. I think it's worth trying for as it's then a fairly uncompromised trip the next day, but not a disaster if you can't or it doesn't work out.
I did use the granny charger - with plug adapter - at one hotel which I was glad of, as that was the only option.
We did charge while waiting for the Chunnel, which was handy.
There were a couple of slightly tricky times trying to locate a charger and get it working, but I never came close to running out or anything, and we didn't lose much time. Mostly it just worked fine. The countries you mention all have better public charging than the UK I think.
I wouldn't anticipate any particular problems assuming the ID.7 can find chargers as needed. Have a nice trip
Polestar 2 LRDM '21, 78 kWh battery, approx. 200 motorway mile range.
Apps - Tesla + Electroverse.
Planning - mainly followed the car's nav, sometimes tried to pick somewhere to eat lunch and charge.
Queues - none encountered.
I did try to select hotels with charging, or a nearby carpark with chargers. In one or two cases this didn't work out. I think it's worth trying for as it's then a fairly uncompromised trip the next day, but not a disaster if you can't or it doesn't work out.
I did use the granny charger - with plug adapter - at one hotel which I was glad of, as that was the only option.
We did charge while waiting for the Chunnel, which was handy.
There were a couple of slightly tricky times trying to locate a charger and get it working, but I never came close to running out or anything, and we didn't lose much time. Mostly it just worked fine. The countries you mention all have better public charging than the UK I think.
I wouldn't anticipate any particular problems assuming the ID.7 can find chargers as needed. Have a nice trip
I've been all around France with an EV of moderate range (250mi on a good day) and found it pretty easy. I particularly like the autoroute signage in France which indicates "chargers at this services, next ones in 32km". So easy - why can't we have it in the UK?
I generally have a vague pre-plan of where we might stop with some combination of A Better Route Planner, Octopus Electroverse app, Google Maps or the in-built car system (also VW group). Mainly so we try and hit somewhere near natural break or meal times. Given that we charge when stopping anyway, we're barely ever waiting for the car to charge.
If you're doing overnight stays then a charger at the hotel really helps because you arrive empty and leave full in the morning. If you stop over in a city for a few hours then it's easy to choose a car park where you can plug in for a few hours.
In terms of apps and cards:
- Octopus Electroverse RFID card: my first choice, accepted almost everywhere. Most rapid chargers accept credit cards but RFID is quicker and easier. Slow (e.g. hotel) chargers are unlikely to take credit cards but all accepted the Octopus Electroverse card.
- Tesla app is useful for occasional supercharger use but I believe V4 also take credit cards
There are other posts on here who might suggest getting an Ionity subscription or Tesla subscription for the period you're travelling. Maybe worth looking into but TBH I haven't bothered as certainly in France rates are way lower than UK and I didn't want to be restricted to only one charge network.]
If you sign up to Electroverse with my referral code we each get a fiver: https://electroverse.com/sign-up/magic?referralCod...
That's my experience in France ... I can't comment on the other countries but I imagine they'd all be fine too.
I generally have a vague pre-plan of where we might stop with some combination of A Better Route Planner, Octopus Electroverse app, Google Maps or the in-built car system (also VW group). Mainly so we try and hit somewhere near natural break or meal times. Given that we charge when stopping anyway, we're barely ever waiting for the car to charge.
If you're doing overnight stays then a charger at the hotel really helps because you arrive empty and leave full in the morning. If you stop over in a city for a few hours then it's easy to choose a car park where you can plug in for a few hours.
In terms of apps and cards:
- Octopus Electroverse RFID card: my first choice, accepted almost everywhere. Most rapid chargers accept credit cards but RFID is quicker and easier. Slow (e.g. hotel) chargers are unlikely to take credit cards but all accepted the Octopus Electroverse card.
- Tesla app is useful for occasional supercharger use but I believe V4 also take credit cards
There are other posts on here who might suggest getting an Ionity subscription or Tesla subscription for the period you're travelling. Maybe worth looking into but TBH I haven't bothered as certainly in France rates are way lower than UK and I didn't want to be restricted to only one charge network.]
If you sign up to Electroverse with my referral code we each get a fiver: https://electroverse.com/sign-up/magic?referralCod...
That's my experience in France ... I can't comment on the other countries but I imagine they'd all be fine too.
Drove London to Switzerland and back last summer.
Got an electroverse card/app. 8% discount because I'm an Octopus customer.
Used a combo of Ionity/Tesla (with the Tesla app)/Fastned, but also whatever happened to be on the motorway services when I felt like stopping.
A little bit of planning (i.e. looking at stopping at places that have at least 6 rapid chargers)
Stopped somewhere in France off the motorway and planned to charge at Total Energies. Something like 12 bays, and all occupied, but they had someone there who was managing the queue, and he told you to park across from the bays, and he would alert you (and stand in the bay) when it became free. Very civilised. Had to wait just 3 mins for a bay to become free.
During the road trip, for me, it worked out quicker to stop around 5% and charge up to 60%, rather than do 20-80%.
Didn't bother to find accommodation with charging. There ended up being a Tesla supercharger in a mall 10 mins from my accommodation, so I would just go there in the evening, and charge up for the next day's sightseeing.
Safe travels and enjoy!
Got an electroverse card/app. 8% discount because I'm an Octopus customer.
Used a combo of Ionity/Tesla (with the Tesla app)/Fastned, but also whatever happened to be on the motorway services when I felt like stopping.
A little bit of planning (i.e. looking at stopping at places that have at least 6 rapid chargers)
Stopped somewhere in France off the motorway and planned to charge at Total Energies. Something like 12 bays, and all occupied, but they had someone there who was managing the queue, and he told you to park across from the bays, and he would alert you (and stand in the bay) when it became free. Very civilised. Had to wait just 3 mins for a bay to become free.
During the road trip, for me, it worked out quicker to stop around 5% and charge up to 60%, rather than do 20-80%.
Didn't bother to find accommodation with charging. There ended up being a Tesla supercharger in a mall 10 mins from my accommodation, so I would just go there in the evening, and charge up for the next day's sightseeing.
Safe travels and enjoy!
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