I’ve had a ‘first gen’ EV ([22kW, Renault Zoe](https://ev-database.org/uk/car/1026/Renault-Zoe-Q210)) for the past 6 years and before we move to a larger range EV we wanted to see what it was like to drive to France for our regular summer holidays in it.
It didn’t feel realistic with very young kids, then Covid put paid to a few years but this summer we decided to go for it.
With a wife and 2 kids and a week in Northern France in plan, Zoe was packed up and a route planned.
*The Route*
We’d be driving from Northern England, with an overnight stop in Canterbury to break up the journey. Day two would be short drive to the channel tunnel, to our nice little seaside town destination in the Pas de Calais region.
**The Journey**
**Day 1**
|Distance (cumlative)|Driving Time|Charge #|Charging Time|
:–|:–|:–|:–|
|61 miles|1h 15m|#1 (BP Pulse)|50m|
|126 miles|1h 15m|#2 (GeniePoint)|70m|
|180 miles|1h|#3 (Osprey)|60m|
|234 miles|2h 45m|#4 (PodPoint)|80m|
|285 miles|1h 30m|[destination]||
The only snag on the journey down was the M25 being very slow, that leg took twice as long as we had anticipated so we switched plans and had dinner at charge stop #4 (instead of in Canterbury as we had planned).
All the charge points worked seamlessly and there was zero queues (i know how lucky am I!)
At each of the legs we got out and did something – a coffee shop at charge point 1; brunch at charge point 2; a walk in a park and the kids played on the play park at stop 3; aforementioned dinner at stop 4 so whilst the above looks horrific on paper, it was perfectly pleasant.
If we had a longer range EV then I’d happily have removed stops #1 and #3, but certainly no matter what we’d have needed a couple of reasonable stops along the way for lunch and a snack/stretch of legs, so in our calc it’s really just those ~2h hours that added to the journey time.
Charging in Canterbury…was good once I gave up on the dream of using one of the ‘local network’ EV chargepoints that was in the car-park near our hotel for the night. That would’ve been ideal as I could’ve put it on charge and popped out a bit later to move the car out of the bay into a normal parking spot…but try as I might I couldn’t get a charge going so I gave up and dropped it a local supermarket for an hour.
**Day 2**
Day 2 was incredibly straightforward – we had enough charge to get to our ‘gite’ so changing was optional.
I had earmarked to charge at the tunnel whilst we waited for check-in just to add back on the ~15 miles lost getting from Canterbury to the tunnel…but there was no Type 2 chargers working…in fact the charge options on the UK side of the tunnel were basically non-existent {Tesla aside} and put to shame by the French side that had several sets of chargers available.
That grumble aside, we used the [electroverse](https://electroverse.octopus.energy) app and our Electroverse card (we got it earlier in the year from Octopus who provide our electricity) to find a charger on route just because we had a bit of time to kill before check-in at the gite and it would be our first time charging on the continent.
We saw a charge point in a Lidl car-park in a random town en-route to our destination so pulled in. It was in use but there were 2-3 options nearby…except it turns out all of those options were in business car-parks which were locked on a Saturday…nevertheless by the time we’d tried getting those options the Lidl one had become available.
Charging was seamless – swipe the RFID card, the door to the socket opened, plug in, close, and walk away to a very handily placed Boulangerie for a taste of precisely why we make France our regular summer holiday (excellent bread and croissants).
**TLDR?**
* Whilst clearly a compromise vs longer range EVs/ICE vehicles, our 350 mile journey in a short-range EV worked well
* Planning stops around ‘activities’ made what could’ve been an arduous and painful journey, pleasant
* If you have a low-range EV and are going to have to stop regularly and or longer periods than modern EVs, highly recommend planning charges ‘in the city’ rather than at service stations. The UK has good general coverage these days
**Driving on the continent – Electroverse card**
In preparation for the trip I had made a note to order a [ChargeMap pass](https://chargemap.com). The card would costs €20 but I figured it would be worth.
However by chance, our electricity provider (Octopus) had sent out an [Electroverse charge card](https://electroverse.octopus.energy) which promised 1000s of charging locations on the continent.
A quick look at the map and I ditched spending any money on a ChargeMap pass and went for it.
Only have experience of a ~50 mile area in Northern France for continental charging, but the app worked well; the card worked and having chargers added straight to your electricity bill rather than having to load/setup yet another app was very much welcomed.
Hopefully the above is of interest to some people still – appreciate it’s a bit more of a throwback to the olden days of EV ownership now that most new EVs could do the trip I described in 1 or 2 chargers – would be great to hear from others if you’d have a bit of an EV road-trip adventure to share…the good and the bad.
by footyDude
3 Comments
>All the charge points worked seamlessly and there was zero queues (i know how lucky am I!)
What religion are you? I want to convert.
In other words, you could have been at your destination with 100 miles left in the tank 4 hours ago. EVs aren’t it written all over this if you value your time. Forcing yourself to look for stuff to do while your car charges isn’t my idea of fun.
Let alone in the eventuality someone has a problem back home that requires me to get there ASAP.
Thanks for this.
Does your car only have a 60ish mile range or were you continually topping up?
Not sure I could tolerate that much stopping if I’m honest (activities aside)