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Driving in Europe

Dragonfly

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Location
York
Driving
MG ZS EV
Last year I bought the HS PHEV because several times a year we drive 1400 miles across Europe, but really I wanted a ZS EV, since then of course the Long Range has been launched. Which makes driving to Bulgaria "Technically" possible.

Has anyone any experience of driving in Europe, is it all Apps and RF Cards like over here, or do a fair percentage of chargers take Debit Cards??

What is reliability like, round us, I reckon 20/30% of chargers are out of order at any time, then add some in usage ones, it doesn't take much to become a problem on a long Motorway run.

Anybody any thoughts or preferably first hand experience?
 
I have driven in Spain & Portugal and will be driving across France this summer.

As a start: -

Chargemap best for France
New Motion for Germany / Low countries
Electromap best for Spain
Miio for Portugal only

Electric Juice / Plugshare help

ABRP for planning your route.

Few accept credit cards, there's no one app that shows let alone activates all chargers.

Hours of research pays dividends!
 
I can throw in (limited) experience from Portugal.

I've not used the Miio app in Portugal yet (need the car first!) but basically Portugal seems to be set up so that you can use just one operator. This seems to be any of the electricity providers or the Miio app. The charging structure seems be split into three - charge point operator, electricity, tax). The charge point operators charge by the minute and the electricity providers by the KWh by the electric company (weighted based on max potential charge rate). This mean that if things are going slowly you are charged more! To make things more complicated the Miio app is demand based pricing. As I say, yet to experience it, but it seems a bit complicated.

The supermarkets (like Continente) do seem to have offers where you can discounts if you use the shop - so worth downloading their apps if you ever come to Portugal.

The below quoted app (Bonnet) doesn't seem to have any chargers in Portugal, but they do in other European countries and, crucially, don't charge by time, only KWh.

Anyone who is using the Bonnet App, here are three (working as of today) codes for 100% discount, thus three free electron refills if paid for via the app. Just popped up on a French EV group, have tried them on our app and all have been accepted.

ND3FB
FREECHARGE1
FIRSTCHARGE
SPEAKEVBNT (this one only works if you have not already used a free refill discount such as FULLYCHARGED)

Bon chance!
 
I can throw in (limited) experience from Portugal.

I've not used the Miio app in Portugal yet (need the car first!) but basically Portugal seems to be set up so that you can use just one operator. This seems to be any of the electricity providers or the Miio app. The charging structure seems be split into three - charge point operator, electricity, tax). The charge point operators charge by the minute and the electricity providers by the KWh by the electric company (weighted based on max potential charge rate). This mean that if things are going slowly you are charged more! To make things more complicated the Miio app is demand based pricing. As I say, yet to experience it, but it seems a bit complicated.

The supermarkets (like Continente) do seem to have offers where you can discounts if you use the shop - so worth downloading their apps if you ever come to Portugal.

The below quoted app (Bonnet) doesn't seem to have any chargers in Portugal, but they do in other European countries and, crucially, don't charge by time, only KWh.
I use Miio as it is the only provider of EV access in Portugal that does not need a Portuguese address.

No other systems seem to work in Portugal other than the approved providers but by law all chargers must be accessible from one card / app it's brilliant.
 
I use Miio as it is the only provider of EV access in Portugal that does not need a Portuguese address.

No other systems seem to work in Portugal other than the approved providers but by law all chargers must be accessible from one card / app it's brilliant.
Yeah, it was quite refreshing to find that one app does it all here! Portugal has some super simple ideas in some areas. The pricing model, on the other hand, seems super frustrating. My experience in the UK was it was impossible to know how fast a charger would actually go and it depended on a multitude of factors, many of which are out of your control, so any kind of charging by time is surely frustrating. I shouldn't need to use the public charging network much, but it will be interesting to see how it actually works when we (finally) get the car.

I'm guessing Teslas don't play by the same rules, so it will be interesting to see if they open their chargers up in Portugal.

Anyway, the lesson is, every country in Europe does it differently....
 
Thanks to both of you,

I have driven in Spain & Portugal and will be driving across France this summer.

As a start: -

Chargemap best for France
New Motion for Germany / Low countries
Electromap best for Spain
Miio for Portugal only

Electric Juice / Plugshare help

ABRP for planning your route.

Few accept credit cards, there's no one app that shows let alone activates all chargers.

Hours of research pays dividends!


My limited research based on your information.

Suggests Chargemap, should do most of my route from Netherlands to Hungary, then I may need an additional Charger for Romania, then another for Bulgaria, possibly e-charge and fines.

I will also further investigate New Motion for Germany, when I get more time.

It looks like Chargemap has live data for chargers, similar to zapmap, which will be useful.
 
Thanks to both of you,




My limited research based on your information.

Suggests Chargemap, should do most of my route from Netherlands to Hungary, then I may need an additional Charger for Romania, then another for Bulgaria, possibly e-charge and fines.

I will also further investigate New Motion for Germany, when I get more time.

It looks like Chargemap has live data for chargers, similar to zapmap, which will be useful.
Chargemap also is on Android auto for free
 
Supposedly New Motion is now Shell Recharge. Who's website appears to show chargers in both Romania and Bulgaria, definitely better coverage than any of the other European apps for this part of the Europe.

What isn't clear is, if it is showing other networks, or partnered networks that you can access with their app etc.
 
I have driven in Spain & Portugal and will be driving across France this summer.

As a start: -

Chargemap best for France
New Motion for Germany / Low countries
Electromap best for Spain
Miio for Portugal only

Electric Juice / Plugshare help

ABRP for planning your route.

Few accept credit cards, there's no one app that shows let alone activates all chargers.

Hours of research pays dividends!

Driving in France so far I've found the Electric Juice card works well and it quite cost effective.

With Ionity it is 66p per kwh rather than per minute. The standard rate for a >50kw charger is 0.79€ per minute so it works out to be about half price.
 
Supposedly New Motion is now Shell Recharge. Who's website appears to show chargers in both Romania and Bulgaria, definitely better coverage than any of the other European apps for this part of the Europe.

What isn't clear is, if it is showing other networks, or partnered networks that you can access with their app etc.
I believe you can, if you go into the app and move the map to those countries, you can select chargers. It gives a price and a big blue button saying 'Charge'
 
Driving in France so far I've found the Electric Juice card works well and it quite cost effective.

With Ionity it is 66p per kwh rather than per minute. The standard rate for a >50kw charger is 0.79€ per minute so it works out to be about half price.
Good to Know, I have that card. Ionity does have some deals with some cards that give half price, maybe that's one!

I also found electromap tokens were half the price of Chargemap cards

OK 350kw cheaper on Juice but 50kw cheaper direct.
 
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I believe you can, if you go into the app and move the map to those countries, you can select chargers. It gives a price and a big blue button saying 'Charge'
So it does, that's good to know. Just wish it did route route planning. What is really needed is an app that integrates with your chosen networks, and obdii on the car, and plans the route accordingly.
 
So it does, that's good to know. Just wish it did route route planning. What is really needed is an app that integrates with your chosen networks, and obdii on the car, and plans the route accordingly.
It can do route planning to a charger if you know where you want to go.
When you have clicked on a charger and got the info showing, at the top right of the info bit (to the right of the charger network) is a little arrow with the number of miles to that charger. Click on it and it will give you a choice of which satnav to use based on the ones installed on your phone.
 
It's close but doesn't help plan aroute, and adapt because you've used less/more KW than planned
 
It's close but doesn't help plan aroute, and adapt because you've used less/more KW than planned
Not many things do apart from Teslas and a subscription to ABRP with a Bluetooth OBD2 dongle.
 
Didn't know ABRP did it to be honest, shame alot of the dongles set the alarm off on modern cars.
 
Didn't know ABRP did it to be honest, shame alot of the dongles set the alarm off on modern cars.
 
Following on from this, having recently done our route in a Diesel Discovery a few times, while waiting for the ZS to be delivered, I was wondering if anybody knows of any route planners, that can find the cheapest route, that takes cost of charging, and vignettes and tolls into account, and works out the cheapest route.
 
Avoiding motorways avoids tolls & finds cheaper chargers often at supermarkets also using less energy, but at a considerable cost in time & charger reliability. France does have some good national routes you can follow too or go south via Belgium & Luxembourg which have no tolls.

Route planning does have an avoid tolls option and Google is bringing in EV planning too.

Checking on Google, Home to Portugal is 20.5 hours on motorways or 25 hours avoiding tolls of £160. Not a huge change on that route.
 
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