First road trip in EV

I decided to buy an electric car in the Netherlands and then drive it home to Lisbon. I hope this will be useful to avoid some mistakes and also help with planning and setting expectations.

If you're not living in Portugal, skip this paragraph. Portugal has some high import taxes but these are currently waived for electric vehicles (might be? I'll write another post on registering the car). I would not recommend bringing a petrol car from another country to Portugal (with the following exception: if you have already owned a vehicle in an EU country for more than six months, it might make sense, but you should look into the details; I don't know too much about this).

Learning how an EV works 

Tesla specific notes

This is my first Tesla. I bought a 2019 Model 3, standard range, RWD. Before you even buy the car, download the app. The very first thing you want to do is to claim 'ownership' of the vehicle on the app. When you charge at the supercharger, you don't need to unlock the cable, but don't let the end of the cable fall out and land on your car.

You'll want to use the navigator to navigate to the Supercharger - this way the car prepares the battery. If you end the day near a Supercharger, it's better to charge up the night before, so your battery can be prepared on the way. I woke up early one cold morning, headed to a nearby Supercharger and the battery charged quite slowly. Be aware that if you navigate to a hotel or restaurant, Tesla might plan for you to end your trip on low battery and you might not have enough to make it to a Supercharger. My modus operandi was to put in a location far away, and then try to find a hotel or restaurant near one of the Superchargers. I didn't plan in advance, but it definitely took some of my attention to plan along the way (I often did this while waiting for the car to charge).

Range notes

I think my vehicle officially has 350km of range. However, I only charge it up to 80% if I'm charging overnight. If I'm doing a stop on the road, I typically charge from around 10% to 65/70%, let's say 200km. But if you're going 120kph and/or going over hills, you'll get a lot less than 200km. Typically you want to shoot for 100/120km or so between charging. I did 142km and had to go 80/90kph to make it (there were some hills and wind). 

My Route

NB: I didn't record the times I arrived at the hotel or left from the hotel the next morning. I do have the time I charged at each Supercharger, so will use this in my 'reality vs expectation'.

Day 1

Due to a flight delay, I actually got to the dealer after 5pm. I just drove down to Eindhoven (117km in ~2h), parked the car, got a hotel, went to a restaurant and went to sleep. There were electric chargers at the Q-Park garage, but I couldn't download the app because my phone is set to the US. This sort of thing was common and quite frustrating. 

Day 2

I drove through Belgium, took a detour to the Australian National Memorial in France and stopped just short of Tours. The detour cost me a lot, because I realised that I needed to charge, so drove about 23km / 23min past the Memorial, and the same time to get back to it (see the map). With hindsight, I could have stopped at a Fastned Charging Station (I think I was successful setting up the app for charging), which would have almost eliminated this extra distance. Google Maps thinks you can do the 700km in about 8h, I took 12hr 04min but obviously I stopped for some time at the Memorial. From the Supercharger in Eindhoven to the Supercharger near Amiens took 5hr 42min and from the Supercharger in Roye to the Supercharger near Orléans 3hr 24min (compared to Google Maps' 3hr 45min and 2hr 42min respectively).

Day 3

I drove all the way to Burgos, Spain. It was a long 900km which Maps thinks you can do in 9hr 40min. First Supercharger of the day to the last Supercharger of the day took 12hr 44min, whereas Google Maps predicts 9hr 22min.

Day 4

I drove home. This day was my most frustrating day. Without stops, it would have only been 718km (6hr 47min). I chose a 820km route that Maps says should be 8hr 14min because the Supercharger at Castelo Branco isn't in operation (and has been for years). Needless to say, this is a much longer route. I also had issues that the distance between Superchargers was quite long, twice (about 150km, between Salamanca and Guarda, and again between Guarda and Mealhada). Starting off at 120kph consumed much more battery and I was forced to slow down to 90kph in order to make it. After three days, I was also getting sick of driving. Being the first day of Easter, there were now queues at the Superchargers (silver lining - I made a new friend and had some great conversations). I got home exhausted. First Supercharger of the day to the last Supercharger of the day took 10hr 48min compared to a predicted 6hr 31min.

Price for Tolls and Electricity

I got billed €190.82 in total for use of the Superchargers. While this is cheaper than petrol/diesel, I'm not sure it's much cheaper (probably would consumed at least 140L of petrol). I can also put in the price of the tolls, if you're interested. Comment below if you'd find that useful.

Conclusion and Lessons

Over 3 days I stopped at 23 Superchargers. That's about 6hr stopped charging at a Supercharger. If we sum the four 'Supercharger to Supercharger' measurements, we get an 'expected vs reality' of 22hr 37min vs 32hr 39min! That includes some meals, charging times and the times I was waiting for a Supercharger (but doesn't include the time at the Memorial). I spent over 12 hours on the first day (including the Memorial, charging and meals), 12 hours on the second day (including charging and meals) and over 11 hours on the third day (including charging and meals).

Driving an electrical car on a road trip definitely takes longer than driving a petrol car. Petrol stations are typically accessible on the highway and you can fill a tank in minutes. I needed to stop for 10 or 15 minutes to charge every 100km or so. While charging, I did use the bathroom and often used my phone to find restaurants or book hotels. When I was driving in a direct manner through southern France and Spain, I was quite efficient, as there were convenient Superchargers. The detour to the Memorial was far less efficient as it didn't have a Supercharger where I needed it so I drove a long way out of my way. Driving in Portugal was also less efficient, as I had to pick a longer route, had to slow down to make it between Superchargers, and had to wait to use the Superchargers.