Long-distance travel with an EV

We took delivery of an EV, a new VW ID.3 Tour with a 77kW battery in mid-July, just in time for our annual summer trip to our family in Italy. In order to deal with range anxiety, I decided to not fly but drive this time. This is a short overview of the trip, going down there and return. It demonstrates that, contrary to the FUD thrown around regarding electric cars, they are perfectly feasible as long-distance vehicles in Europe.?The total distance covered during the summer was around 3,000 miles

Planning

One important thing with EVs is that you need to plan your trip. Charging networks are critical, and govern where you can go. Fortunately enough, thanks to cofinance by the EU Commission, even non-Tesla drivers can now do this by using the Ionity network.

The car was loaded up with ca. 45kg in the boot, and ca. 120kg of humans in the front, for ca. 165kg total. We managed to get in a large Samsonite wheelie and two carry-ons, as well as odds and sods, after removing the fake floor. With more care a third carry-on would have been possible. The boot cover remained in place. Prior to the trip I purchased??a3-pin ‘granny’ charger which I wedged in the side pocked for access, while the Type 2 cable fitted perfectly between the wheels of the Samsonite.

Our plan was as follows:

Day 1

• Eurotunnel
• Autoroute des Anglais
• A31
• Nancy
• Colmar (for overnight)

Day 2

• cross the Franco-Swiss border at Basel
• Gotthardt
• cross the Swiss-Italian border at Como
• Milan
• Piacenza
• Forli and then into the hills of central?Italy.

Total trip length ca. 1,100 miles, one overnight stop. Departure charge 100%, three planned charges on the first day, arriving with 25% at hotel, overnight trickle charge at hotel (pre-arranged), three charges on the second day, arriving with 25% at the destination. This didn’t quite work out as planned.

Day 1 planned charging locations were at:

• Ionity Rely (ca. 150 miles)
• Ionity Vrigny outside Reims (161 miles not great because you have to travel 20-odd km in the wrong direction and then turn back), and
• Ionity Haut Koenigsburg 210 miles. as final destination and trickle charge is only 34 miles from there.

Day 1

From London to the channel tunnel terminal is ca. 68 miles which I managed at 3.3mi/kW, which was not great, given speed average 45 miles and top speed 70 mph, but a clear lack of familiarity and??failure to really work with the car played at that. The driving experience overall is something else entirely. Relaxed, car doing a lot of things you would have done yourself in the previous cars I owned, and you get to rely on it quite quickly (e.g. auto brake, distance keeping).

In France quickly reached Ionity Aire de Rely, and only charged up to 77% to be able to get going more quickly. It turns out that this was a mistake. I compounded this mistake by going for the non-Ionity Reims Sud BP charger rather than the planned Ionity Aire de Vrigny, at which point the mistake turned into a very close call with disaster, and this would ultimately cost me three hours, but taught me a valuable lesson.

Aire de Rely Ionity Charger, France

I got to Reims Sud with 120km left, and the charger was broken. The ten Tesla super chargers next to it worked, and I now know Tesla envy. Fortunately enough, there is a bridge to Reims Nord but as I was to find out, you cannot just use that one and turn right once over the bridge, so the Reims Nord charger was out of reach for the moment. I then went back across the bridge (another mistake, I should have decided there and then go to Vrigny), drive south 15km or so using hypermiling technique (stick behind a truck or caravan, maximize recovery, and then turn around (all a bit of a pain because of Péage), to Reims Nord. As I get there the charger is working, as a Leaf is on it which takes 35 minutes before vacating the spot Once it is free I connect and! "There is an internal charger error. Please press this button..." On pressing the button the message changes to "There is an internal charger error, the maintenance team has been alerted. Some tapid calculations, and I should be able to get Ionity Gueux, although the car is tutting that I should really charge it as range has dropped below 20%.?

After Gueux I had to go 15km west before turning back east. Knowing that there would be another charger just around the corner, at Gueux I charged only to 80% (after a charger disconnect at 43% that fixed itself) and then charged again to 100% on the opposite side at Ionity Vrigny. This could have been avoided if I had not speculated on the broken BP chargers at Reims Sud and Nord. At this point my confidence level was very very low. So even though A Better Route Planner gave me a direct route to Haut Koenigsburg Ionity via Nancy, I decided it looked too dicy (now I would do it). Instead I went to Ionity Hauconcourt, adding more time. On getting there out of seven potential chargers only five had been installed and one of these was permanently non-op. There were ten or 12 Tesla superchargers in the car park, they were empty. The four operational Ionity's were full and had a queue of three, to which I added myself. After a 20 minute wait we got a charger, and this time I charged to 100%. This afternoon was the low point of the trip.

On to Haut Koenigsburg, with a traffic jam to start, and then the scenic route for a while. No issues, Ionity Haut Koenigsburg worked like a dream (picture). Charged up to 70ish percent and off to the hotel where we arrived at 10pm, instead as optimistically planned 1730ish (pessimistically 1930ish). As we were so late their technician had gone home, so no trickle charge possible.?

Ionity Haut Koenigsburg, France.

Day 1 data:

• 91km/h average,
• 962km total
• 10h26 pure driving
• 5.2km/kWh average
• started day at 97%
• ended day at 59%

Used air con a fair bit, CarPlay, music.

Charges (all Ionity with UKP7.99 WeCharge subscription pack):

• Aire de Rely - 27.94kWh/30mins/EUR9.26
• Aire de Gueux 1 25.96kWh/12mins/EUR3.84 (tripped)
• Aire de Gueux 2 27.59kWh/20mins/EUR6.16
• Aire de Vrigny 11.74kWh/14mins/EUR4.42
• Hauconcourt 52.32kWh/40min/EUR12.26
• Aire de Haut Koenigsburg 23.7kWh/19mins/EUR5.84
• Total 169.25kWh charged and 29.26kWh battery run down day start/day end for a total of 198.51kWh.
• Total time 2h15 on chargers
• Total cost EUR41.78

Lessons learned:?

1. If you pass close to an Ionity, use it.
2. See 1.
3. If you rely on any non-Ionity charger in France, make sure you have enough battery charge left to make it to the next Ionity charger.
4. See 3.
5. Ionity chargers look sleek, the app is fancy, and they work, every time. Other chargers look like something the mad professor from Back to the Future built, they are banged up, nobody knows if they even have an app, and they are broken. This is the law, and this is now my France EV charging rule to live by.
6. Don't go faster than 130km/h - your efficiency drops like a stone.

Day 2

This was a considerable improvement over day one. We left at 10.30 hours after a COVID test, crossing the border is no issue, no controls, and zoomed down the very nice but busy Swiss highways. First stop was Ionity Neuenkirch, a marvellous charging location with a nice playground and view of the mountains. Taking some time there the ID.3 is charged to 100%. On arrival at the four chargers a XC40 occupies another one, and that's it. While there a couple rocks up in an Ionity 5, test-driving, and obviously seeking out other EV drivers for a chat (there is a nice social aspect in charging, you get to talk to lots of fellow EV drivers if you are so inclined).?

Then onwards to the Gotthardt tunnel, and yes, mountain motorway driving is fun, the recharge function is working overtime, and the distance on the Guessometer keeps going up. As there are traffic jams advertised at the Gotthardt, a quick comfort break and opportunity top-up at Ionity Gotthardt Süd. Another nice location, next to a river. The Swiss do motorway stops in style.

Then off to the tunnel. A 5km traffic jam before the entry costs us about 30 minutes. My daughter decides to take a nap in the back, and (another EV advantage) conks out completely for the next 3 hours. Lack of noise and vibrations makes for better sleep I guess. As the old joke goes, I want to die peacefully and in my sleep, like grandpa, and not screaming and in terror like the others in his car.

As the car is now quite well charged, and as the descent from Gotthardt means recharge is now permanent, there is no need to stop at Ionity Bellinzona, which would have woken my daughter up, and we are instead going straight off to Ionity Binasco, just south of Milan. Again, no checks at the border, only a short traffic jam shortly after the border, and then heavy but fast-moving traffic to Milan. At Binasco there's a charger, McDonalds and not much else. Top-up to 100%, as there is a 281km leg coming up to Forli, and I don't intend to stop at Carpi or repeat yesterday's experience. We cut through to the A1 direction Bologna rather than going north and then south again via the Milano Tangenziale Sud, shaving 5 or 6km off. Then it's straight 280km down the motorway at 130km/h without a break. The ID.3 just goes 'Range Anxiety, what's that? I keep monitoring use, but we go along with music and nav system on and a/c running at comfortable level all the way, at allowed speeds.

We get to Forli in the dark, the Ionity station is a bit off the motorway at a major shopping centre. So we shop a bit, have a coffee for the last leg, and stretch our legs. Then it is off into the night down the SS3bis. Which is actually a constant construction site down to Perugia, with the only benefit that it's so bad, even truckers spurn it and go another way south. We eventually make it and around 23.30 at our destination with a reasonable charge, and another memorable day ended. I now have full trust in the range capacity of the ID.3 Tour, a much better idea of what I can push it to.

Day 2 stats

• Distance covered = 861km
• Speed = 86km/h average 1
• Pure driving time = 10h12
• Average efficiency = 6.1km/kWh?
• Day started charge level 59kwh

4 Charges:

1. Ionity Neuenkirch 55.82 kWh/58mins/CHF16.75 (to 100%)
2. Gotthardt Süd Ionity 6.56 kWh/12mins/CHF1.97 (top-up)
3. Ionity Binasco 32.14 kWh/44mins/EUR9.64 (to 100%)
4. Ionity Forli 52.10 kWh/53mins/EUR15.63 (to 100%)
5. Day ended charge level 53kwh
6. Total 146.62 charged and 4.62 battery drawdown for total of 151.24 kWh, 2h47 charging time, EUR42.68

In?Italy

We spent about four weeks in Central?Italy, with two return trips to Firenze airport (200km each way) and two return trips to Abruzzo where my parents now live most of the year (200km each way). We also racked up about 50-100km per day driving around, e.g. to the public pool in the morning, shopping etc. All on hilly and bendy roads. Charging was done mostly at home, on reduced AC current overnight, with no major issues. You can't have other heavy loads going, it will blow the fuse as?Italy?only has 3.3kW as mains power standard in a domestic connection. High-speed charging was available at Ionity Valdichiana Outlet (Bettole, ca. half-way to Florence). The place was crowded the first time I went there, and I ended up looking for a nearby EnelX which also worked. Our village also has a BeCharge column (22kW, but the ID.3 does only 11kW on AC charging, unfortunately) which was good to have as backup but too expensive at 45c/kWh. We used a 7.4kW hotel charger in Pineto twice, which also worked very well, on a timed charge by the looks of it, and a free (!) 11kW Lidl charger in Foligno once.?

One thing to consider for home charging in?Italy?is that if you have a power adapter on your granny charger, make sure the adapter is rated to 15 amps. In Abruzzo power quality was very low, the adapter only rated to 10 amps, and it melted it. Fortunately enough no fire, but this was a close call.

Return trip

This was from Abruzzo, up the A14 to Bologna, then the A22 north to Bolzano, where we stayed for the night. Onwards to Innsbruck, then Fernpa?, followed by the A7 then the A8 via Stuttgart on to Luxembourg through the Eifel region. Two nights in LUX, Covid tests, and then through Belgium and northern France home to London via Eurotunnel.

On the way north we started with an 84% per cent charge and planned charging at Ionity Forli. This worked without a hitch, the 290km distance was easily done, with charge to spare, and I charged about 44kWh gross in half an hour. There was the shopping centre where as on the way down we had a comfort break and a coffee. Due to the usual traffic jam around Faenza - Imola (yeah, ironic), I then took the national road that runs parallel up to Imola and then on to Modena, where we turned on the A22. The options now were an early stop for lunch at Ionity Carpi or push on to Ionity Trento and overnight charge in Bolzano. We went with the first option, adding 42kWh gross at Carpi. We got to Bolzano in good time, and after some fighting with the system I managed to use WeCharge to recharge at a very expensive Neogy charger near the hotel.?

The next morning up the Brennerpa?, across the border with Austria. A vignette was bought at the border crossing, and then down the pass to Innsbruck. It all worked well until we got to the Fernpa?, which was an endless traffic jam, all the way up and down. Still, nice landscape. We took a break at Ionity Nassereith, and I smiled at all the stinkpots queuing to refill there, while I was munching a sandwich. We charged 22.5kWh gross and continued on. Once in Germany, the A7 was quite empty at first so I took the car to 104 miles per hour which seems to be the top speed. I had resolved to recharge at ionity Illertissen so didn't really care about how many kWh I burnt while putting it through its paces. Also great fun to leave the Porsches behind you because they cannot accelerate as fast (they catch up eventually). Before Illertissen we hit traffic and I got off the motorway and went side streets. Once there we charged ca. 30kWh gross.?

Ionity Illertissen, Germany

The next leg was shorter, but due to the necessity of working with the Ionity system. Ionity Denkendorf Nord was the target, about half done on side roads due to traffic, and we added 24kWh gross there to get to 100% for the last leg. From then on it had to work to Luxembourg, which is a bit of a trek at 320km. But again this wasn't a problem. We got there with just under 20% to spare, and recharged at a local 11kW charger, just outside the home of the friends we were staying at, using WeCharge. There we Added 62.5kWh gross in two sessions interrupted by a short trip to the airport, for COVID tests.

After two days we departed, straight north into Belgium, with a 100% charge. We charged only once at Ionity Froyennes Nord, ca. 290km, again no issues. Then on to the Chunnel terminal, where for no particular reason there was quite a traffic jam. While not needed I charged 11.35kWh at Ionity Channel Gateway, while trying to figure out what my poison of getting into London was - Dartford or BlackwallTunnel.

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