As an EV driver, you don’t have to explain to me why EV drivers turn to cars with a combustion engine on holiday. The risks of plugging in the plug are too great in a family context.
You don’t want to end up in a traffic jam in front of the fast charger on your way to Italy with three children in the back under the blazing sun. You don’t want to be the victim of the French backlog in terms of charging infrastructure. You do not want to discover in the morning after an overnight stay that you have hung on a failed charging station with twenty kilometers of range. Not to mention the hassle with non-working charge cards, apps and drops abroad.
I’m now going to get all proud reactions from Tesla drivers whistling at Cannes and Rome. Yep, I almost always do well. But sometimes not. Once, with 7 kilometers of range left, I took a despairing highway exit in the middle of the night, where I miraculously ran into a charging station that was not visible on the app. Who initially did not and only after fifteen minutes of fear and trembling did. I don’t recommend that stress to anyone.
No doubt about it; If I had booked a house in the south of France for a family with school-age children, I would have squeezed young and old into the elderly 850. Even if I hadn’t had a BMW i3 but a Tesla with a range of 500 kilometers in front of my door, I would have opted for the old-fashioned refueling. I understand very well why a Kia EV6 driving colleague takes his boozing Alfa for his trip to Italy with all the tragic financial consequences. You are on vacation, you want peace of mind. And I say that as an ardent supporter of electric driving.
I myself am fortunate enough to be able to take more risks. The kids are out of the house, I don’t necessarily have to go to the Mediterranean, I never mind adjusting a bit. The sport is to keep the situation under control.
I found the i3 trip to Munich an enriching experience in that regard. As a solo traveler I was not a burden to anyone, so I could take all the time to look for charging stations in less privileged German hinterland. The plug traveler looks at what is feasible and splits the route into realistic stages. The adaptability also offers advantages; your trip becomes a blind date. You arrive at destinations that you had not yet visited on Booking.com. Many places in Germany I would have never seen without the limited range of my BMW. Everyone is always just passing through further, further south, hotter. Why? My parents didn’t go to the South of France with their Duck either. Your journey of discovery starts around the corner.
As the transition progresses, more and more new, promising opportunities arise. I can now travel to Norway from Groningen by boat; I should give that a try next year. It’s wonderful to land in that vast plug-in paradise after a romantic sea voyage. After that, the charging network and the range of the i3 can determine the route. I have no idea what landscapes and encounters await me. This is how a holiday should be, a surprising but stress-free escape from the grind. Think electrically, think differently.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl