How many times have you been on holiday with your EV and where did you go?

Due to my home base in Würzburg in the heart of Germany, it makes a lot of sense to go on holiday with the car because typical holiday locations within Germany and Europe are within a day’s worth of driving distance for me and my family. Therefore, we have regularly been on holiday with our EV and visited friends and family all over Germany. We have also taken skiing trips for the weekend to Austria and drove to Italy for camping at Lake Garda. With my small family, I take a trip like that roughly every two months. It’s important to me to mention this: Our attitude towards going on holiday by car has not changed at all since going all-electric!

What was the most memorable trip and why?

The first time going abroad with my Tesla Model 3 in the summer of 2019 was very exciting. It was one of those trips going down to Lake Garda: the car was fully packed, my baby son was on board and we had to drive almost 650 km all the way across Bavaria, through Austria, over the Alps and quite a bit through Italy. We set off around lunch time when the baby took a nap and arrived late at night – just as we would have done with any other car. Being fairly new to driving such long distances, we relied on Tesla’s Supercharger network and that worked perfectly. This trip really opened my and my (skeptical) passengers’ eyes for the comfort of driving electric and showed that there was already enough charging infrastructure for any kind of trip.

Which countries in Europe do you consider a go with an EV and which a no go

I would feel comfortable driving anywhere within the EU with an electric car. In fact, I recently agreed to meet people in Prague and I am considering holiday trips to the Mediterranean Sea and plan to go there with my Tesla. In both cases, I made this commitments without having checked for charging opportunities along the way or even at the destination. I know, it’s easy to say that as a Tesla driver, but I have actually often challenged myself to only rely on other fast charging networks and these trips have been just as successful. My confidence in the European charging infrastructure is at 100%.

Going to the east of Europe, I would be careful and definitely do some research into charging networks, the available providers and pricing. However, I have seen reports that it is very well possible to travel around there with an electric car and I am sure that this will improve dramatically in the near future.

Which MSP card or app would you advise E-drivers to use during their trip?

In my opinion, the most reasonable MSP offers are those which are based on the amount of energy (kWh) charged. This also makes it very easy to understand for new EV drivers because it is comparable to the old-fashioned way of filling up a car. Different prices for different charging speeds make sense, too. My main charging card for charging within Germany is from EnBW. However it does no longer include charging at IONITY, which I like to do sometimes. At the moment, there are still some great alternative tariffs for using that network. When going on a trip across Europe, I would advise to always have a backup from Plugsurfing because it will cover almost all of the chargers in Europe, although pricing might not be ideal compared to local providers.

What is your golden tip for holidays with an EV?

Trust the system. Modern electric cars have great range and there are so many different fast charging opportunities that it is really easy to travel longer distances, such as going on holiday. At your destination, a basic outlet will be sufficient to charge the car for the daily driving needs and to prepare for the way home. There is no excuse not to go electric when going on holiday with your car.

Follow Max’s experiences on social media or check his website for more details.

#KeepDrivingForward