EVsince2016
Prominent Member
haha, mine is 1365 miles each way
and 4 countries!
Information & Inspiration For MG Electric Vehicle Enthusiasts
Charging across Europe
- Thread starter EVsince2016
- Start date
and 4 countries!
Archev
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Sounds good. As usual I’m planning four escape routes at once. Looking at hotels or lodges in Arrochar, Oban, borders somewhere, or maybe further north ? NC 500 beckons but weather ???
Undecided but primed and ready to go.
Rolfe
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I have to get to Halifax on Saturday. It's 186 miles, which isn't on without a charging stop in an SR, particularly not in winter. The logical place to charge is Booth's in Penrith, I just hope the queue isn't too long as there are only two chargers and it tends to be busy.
EVsince2016
Prominent Member
I'm just back from my 2953 mile jaunt to Portugal.
Highlights: -
It was possible & trouble free.
Charging infrastructure has got better,
Charge rate in winter tops out at 63 kw versus 96 in summer.
miles/kWh were 3.3 versus 3.8
The frunk worked & enabled 15 bottles of wine to be brought back.
Details to follow!
It took me 3 days to drive the 1365 miles to Portugal before Christmas to stay with family.
Day 1 I drove 500 miles to Potiers. Weather was around 7-10C, it was dry. Amazingly, I made France before my 1st charge at an Ionity site and still had 40% charge!
Coquelles Ionity is located at a Holiday Inn with 24/7 facilities. Found using Google Maps, activated by Electroverse and cheaper p/kw than the UK
Just 60 miles later, stopped off at Abbeyville Ionity - just the same. Great services.
Next was Rouen - by now I was using Chargemap to find & navigate via Google maps. These Total Energies chargers are brilliant. Plug in, tap card, starts! Good services.
Next was Le Mans Total Energies - Excellent services.
And one further south.
All have a roof, lighting, clear direction signage and are around 60p/kwh.
I was also doing the ZapMap feedback too!
Luckily my hotel had free charging too!
164.5 kw for £74 or 45p/kwh overall for near 500 miles on motorways.
Highlights: -
It was possible & trouble free.
Charging infrastructure has got better,
Charge rate in winter tops out at 63 kw versus 96 in summer.
miles/kWh were 3.3 versus 3.8
The frunk worked & enabled 15 bottles of wine to be brought back.
Details to follow!
It took me 3 days to drive the 1365 miles to Portugal before Christmas to stay with family.
Day 1 I drove 500 miles to Potiers. Weather was around 7-10C, it was dry. Amazingly, I made France before my 1st charge at an Ionity site and still had 40% charge!
Coquelles Ionity is located at a Holiday Inn with 24/7 facilities. Found using Google Maps, activated by Electroverse and cheaper p/kw than the UK
Just 60 miles later, stopped off at Abbeyville Ionity - just the same. Great services.
Next was Rouen - by now I was using Chargemap to find & navigate via Google maps. These Total Energies chargers are brilliant. Plug in, tap card, starts! Good services.
Next was Le Mans Total Energies - Excellent services.
And one further south.
All have a roof, lighting, clear direction signage and are around 60p/kwh.
I was also doing the ZapMap feedback too!
Luckily my hotel had free charging too!
164.5 kw for £74 or 45p/kwh overall for near 500 miles on motorways.
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Just stumbled back across this amazingly useful thread - thank you @EVsince2016 !
We are planning a trip to Portugal. I am now thinking taking the Santander ferry and driving might be our best option over flights and car hire.
We are planning a trip to Portugal. I am now thinking taking the Santander ferry and driving might be our best option over flights and car hire.
EVsince2016
Prominent Member
For Spain you need Electromaps for most whilst Electroverse does Zunder. Portugal requires a Miio card / app, which also does WENEA in Spain.
For motorways in Portugal order a Via Verde toll tag, there are no toll booths in many areas & it also covers part of the Spanish tolls. Plan B is a foreign tourist entry booth but they are a fafe.
Day 2 was the 420 mile trip into Spain & Santander
From Potiers to Bordeaux I went via the N10 to avoid tolls on the A10. Both dual with hard shoulders, similar times. My 1st issue was Google maps directions to the Ionity chargers. Google maps had swapped the chargers to the wrong side of the motorway! What a pain, Grrrr.
Once found, standard Ionity and decent services
Next was my 1st Shell unit. Found on Chargemap, navigation by Google maps, activated using my old New Motion card. No roof or decent lighting but simple enough to use. All chargers have a language button if you need to switch to English, but in reality unless there's an issue don't bother!
Then yet another Ionity near the French / Spanish border
Before entering Spain and switching to Electromaps to find & navigate on Google maps
Now my 1st Spanish Charger was very tricky to find. Spanish road, signs & directions are awful so I have to loop around the charger untilo I finally got to it. Wonderful Iberdrola set up with roof, lighting etc once found activated on my Electromaps token. Being the Basque country, everything is different, we found a Basque supermarket for some food for dinner, Spanish food stops are not great as found in France!
We stayed the night near Santander and the car park had Iberdrola chargers. Although allegedly Rapids, they only gave 26kw, ideal for an over night stay but not a quick charge as it took 2 hours to charge my car!
Day 2 was 420 miles, 138 kw for £83
EVsince2016
Prominent Member
Day 3 was the drive from Santander to Portugal.
Being winter, going over the top via Burgos, Palencia & Leon on the shortest route was fraught with issues. Snow, thick fog and freezing cold, it dropped to minus 10 the day after we travelled!
Instead, we took the longer coastal route via Gijon & Santiago de Compostela, and extra 40 miles, 1 hour of driving and an additional charge stop. The gain is that this route through Cantabria, Asturias & Galicia is outstandingly beautiful & probably the friendliest part of Spain. Temperatures were mostly 10+, although we got 6C on the only pass and fog. Stunning drive!
Our first stop was an older Zunder unit, just 50kw in Gijon. It was a short walk from the centre of town and wonderful coffee shops. Zunder are cheap too. It was hidden behind a petrol station, activated by the Zunder app / RFID card or Electroverse too.
Our second stop was in a remote village with only a large aged supermarket. I wanted to use the Zunder chargers but a lady with an EV6 had somehow messed it all up trying to charge! Luckily there was a slower EDP unit nearby activated on electromaps
The next leg was 115 miles over the mountains to Santiago de Compostela. Our 1st choice, a row of Zunder units had 2 in use and a 3rd broken so I found an Iberdrola unit nearby outside an Kia/MG dealer! It was closed and the only EV inside was an MG4. At least the chargers worked on the electromaps token.
Our last stop in Spain was close to the border. What a unit! It was a new huge Repsol unit, first I've ever been able to access. It worked on the electromaps app only but had a contactless pay point too. These are becoming more common in Europe especially on Shelll & new Repsol units.
From here I was able to reach my final destination.
429 miles, 99kw added for £46. The lower total is because I didn't recharge to full at the end of the day, higher temperatures & lower speeds.
Being winter, going over the top via Burgos, Palencia & Leon on the shortest route was fraught with issues. Snow, thick fog and freezing cold, it dropped to minus 10 the day after we travelled!
Instead, we took the longer coastal route via Gijon & Santiago de Compostela, and extra 40 miles, 1 hour of driving and an additional charge stop. The gain is that this route through Cantabria, Asturias & Galicia is outstandingly beautiful & probably the friendliest part of Spain. Temperatures were mostly 10+, although we got 6C on the only pass and fog. Stunning drive!
Our first stop was an older Zunder unit, just 50kw in Gijon. It was a short walk from the centre of town and wonderful coffee shops. Zunder are cheap too. It was hidden behind a petrol station, activated by the Zunder app / RFID card or Electroverse too.
Our second stop was in a remote village with only a large aged supermarket. I wanted to use the Zunder chargers but a lady with an EV6 had somehow messed it all up trying to charge! Luckily there was a slower EDP unit nearby activated on electromaps
The next leg was 115 miles over the mountains to Santiago de Compostela. Our 1st choice, a row of Zunder units had 2 in use and a 3rd broken so I found an Iberdrola unit nearby outside an Kia/MG dealer! It was closed and the only EV inside was an MG4. At least the chargers worked on the electromaps token.
Our last stop in Spain was close to the border. What a unit! It was a new huge Repsol unit, first I've ever been able to access. It worked on the electromaps app only but had a contactless pay point too. These are becoming more common in Europe especially on Shelll & new Repsol units.
From here I was able to reach my final destination.
429 miles, 99kw added for £46. The lower total is because I didn't recharge to full at the end of the day, higher temperatures & lower speeds.
EVsince2016
Prominent Member
After my Xmas & New Year of FREE charging at the hotel, some 120 kw, it was time for my return trip.
Day 1 was from Portugal to Santander.
This time the weather had improved sufficiently for me to go over the top via the various mountain passes in Spain. It was mostly dry, didn't get below 6C, no snow and just one area of fog on the 1500m summit in Spain.
My 1st stop was at Chaves, such cool markings for the chargers! Sadly too early for it to be open to use the toilets & naked women! Activated on Miio. Incidentally, Miio charges an energy fee + charger owner fee + VAT, a system seemingly unique to Portugal.
My second stop has changed since the summer, high up in the mountains just after the summit section. Again, sadly the Hotel was closed so we had steak & chips at a nearby cafe. Really good Veal steak.
The 2 chargers on the right are the old ones moved over but they were in fault mode. The one I used had auto-charge & is very cheap at 37p/kw. I love Zunder chargers! I use auto-charge on Zunder but now Octopus Electroverse works this charger too.
This time, to save time I decided to cross the plains to Palencia to cut out a charge stop. The plains are so different in winter. Wife drives that bit. We did have a problem mid way with tumble weed. The very first time I drove across the plains we named them the tumbleweed roads because they were deserted & reminded up of Westerns, not realising that tumbleweed was a real hazard! You really don't want to hit them as the badly scratch your paintwork. Quite a shock when they appear unexpectedly!
We stopped next near Palencia at the WENEA charge that failed us in 2022. Luckily this time the WENEA app worked as did the new charger! I could have also used the Miio app too. We went into the most wonderful cafe at the golf club & received outstanding service too. Half way into the cuppa I got a notification that charge had stopped. It happened when a Kia Niro plugged in, so I had to disconnect, wait & reactivate, The Kia then stopped charging! Well, I got my charge required to complete the trip for 51p/kw so not too bad.
This got us to the old Iberdrola unit at the Santander hotel, a rapid that charges at just 26kw.
(online image as it was dark each time I was there)
So Day 1 was 390 miles, using 127kw for £64 and probably the best run I've had that route yet!
So for anyone doing the Santander Ferry to Portugal or Northern Spain, see it's easy now!
Day 1 was from Portugal to Santander.
This time the weather had improved sufficiently for me to go over the top via the various mountain passes in Spain. It was mostly dry, didn't get below 6C, no snow and just one area of fog on the 1500m summit in Spain.
My 1st stop was at Chaves, such cool markings for the chargers! Sadly too early for it to be open to use the toilets & naked women! Activated on Miio. Incidentally, Miio charges an energy fee + charger owner fee + VAT, a system seemingly unique to Portugal.
My second stop has changed since the summer, high up in the mountains just after the summit section. Again, sadly the Hotel was closed so we had steak & chips at a nearby cafe. Really good Veal steak.
The 2 chargers on the right are the old ones moved over but they were in fault mode. The one I used had auto-charge & is very cheap at 37p/kw. I love Zunder chargers! I use auto-charge on Zunder but now Octopus Electroverse works this charger too.
This time, to save time I decided to cross the plains to Palencia to cut out a charge stop. The plains are so different in winter. Wife drives that bit. We did have a problem mid way with tumble weed. The very first time I drove across the plains we named them the tumbleweed roads because they were deserted & reminded up of Westerns, not realising that tumbleweed was a real hazard! You really don't want to hit them as the badly scratch your paintwork. Quite a shock when they appear unexpectedly!
We stopped next near Palencia at the WENEA charge that failed us in 2022. Luckily this time the WENEA app worked as did the new charger! I could have also used the Miio app too. We went into the most wonderful cafe at the golf club & received outstanding service too. Half way into the cuppa I got a notification that charge had stopped. It happened when a Kia Niro plugged in, so I had to disconnect, wait & reactivate, The Kia then stopped charging! Well, I got my charge required to complete the trip for 51p/kw so not too bad.
This got us to the old Iberdrola unit at the Santander hotel, a rapid that charges at just 26kw.
(online image as it was dark each time I was there)
So Day 1 was 390 miles, using 127kw for £64 and probably the best run I've had that route yet!
So for anyone doing the Santander Ferry to Portugal or Northern Spain, see it's easy now!
Last edited:
Gomev
Distinguished Member
@EVsince2016 Can I ask how the cost of getting to Santander via this route, channel crossing, hotels, charging costs, expenses etc was compared to using the ferry to Santander/Bilbao.
I know the ferry itself is quite expensive but how much of that cost could be mitigated with the savings of not having to travel through France, not to mention time possibly saved.
EVsince2016
Prominent Member
There are a lot of variables and I haven't finalised my costs yet but . . .
Ferry
The ferry tends to be the most expensive and doesn't actually save time, but naturally is the easiest. Summer fares are high, but cabins can be just £90 for an inside double each way but much more for a better cabin. The experience is excellent as Brittany Ferries are a 50 year old family run business with life long employees, a bit like John Lewis / Waitrose partners. Typical summer return costs are around £1600 with car and deluxe outside cabin return. Winter costs can be below £500 if you can stomach rough seas & accept cancellations due to weather. I can, family can't! The cruise experience is outstanding but with travellers rather than cruise type passengers.
I find the shorter crossings to Northern France are of no use.
Drive via France
This option take 3 days, so equivalent to drive to ferry, on ferry, drive to destination time wise.
Le Shuttle is a fair price, cheaper if you can avoid peak days. I used Flexplus for Xmas so I didn't have to have a fixed slot. It also saves at least 1 hour on your trip. Coming back it has dedicated rapid chargers for you to use, saving a charging stop on top of the 1 hour transit saving & no fixed time slot. Going out they're not in yet.
Tolls are c£100 each way to Santander and you can avoid one section easily.
Charging costs - see my blog
Hotels. I strongly recommend All.Accor for France. Ibis Budget is c£60 per and decent. There's also the old super cheap F1 hotels at well under £50, then you can go up to any price. Super easy to book, check in online and arrive, often with free destination chargers. The cheaper ones tend to have nobody using the chargers & expensive ones tend to be taken.
Booking.com is fine for Spain and you can filter on chargers but expect them to be public ones near the hotel in Spain.
French Services are outstanding, and near off Autoroute ones better. Spanish services are utter rubbish, food is bad, overcrowded, just don't bother until Portugal where you stop at the first place and fill up! I tend to cross Spain on a packed lunch.
Huge advantage of driving is the places you can stop at and route variations. Think making one holiday into a multi-destination break!
I often drive out & ferry back.
EVsince2016
Prominent Member
Day 2 was the drive from Santander to Potiers in France.
Not wanting to get lost again trying to find the excellent Iberdrola hub in Bilbao, I headed further on to a selection of off motorway chargers near Eibar. The charger was easy to find but the place was hell on earth, more akin to the slums that surround cities in 3rd world countries! I had to walk via collapsing, derelict abandoned buildings to reach a cafe!
The charger was a base Iberdrola unit and so dodgy was the area, my eldest stayed with the car to guard it!!! Unit worked fine but again, a hell of a challenge to access taking 10 mins from seeing it to reaching it. The Basque country is no tourist attraction!
Onwards into France! I chose a Freshmile charger for it's location. I had the option of 60p/kw plus 1.10 per minute overstay on Chargemap or 82p/kw on Electroverse, I took the latter option! I chose this unit simply because it was a 10 min walk from the centre of Bayonne and a nice French lunch, plus some exploration time. Also 1 euro to park.
Next was an Ionity unit past Bordeaux on the N10, the toll free route bypassing the A10. Yes Google maps got its location on the wrong carriageway again, but this time I was ready! Easy to find & again Electroverse.
This got me to Potiers and a full free charging session!
As a result this was 430 miles using 133 kw for £52 with 47 kw for free!! happy days
Not wanting to get lost again trying to find the excellent Iberdrola hub in Bilbao, I headed further on to a selection of off motorway chargers near Eibar. The charger was easy to find but the place was hell on earth, more akin to the slums that surround cities in 3rd world countries! I had to walk via collapsing, derelict abandoned buildings to reach a cafe!
The charger was a base Iberdrola unit and so dodgy was the area, my eldest stayed with the car to guard it!!! Unit worked fine but again, a hell of a challenge to access taking 10 mins from seeing it to reaching it. The Basque country is no tourist attraction!
Onwards into France! I chose a Freshmile charger for it's location. I had the option of 60p/kw plus 1.10 per minute overstay on Chargemap or 82p/kw on Electroverse, I took the latter option! I chose this unit simply because it was a 10 min walk from the centre of Bayonne and a nice French lunch, plus some exploration time. Also 1 euro to park.
Next was an Ionity unit past Bordeaux on the N10, the toll free route bypassing the A10. Yes Google maps got its location on the wrong carriageway again, but this time I was ready! Easy to find & again Electroverse.
This got me to Potiers and a full free charging session!
As a result this was 430 miles using 133 kw for £52 with 47 kw for free!! happy days
slmorgan42
Prominent Member
I am jealous of your trip. Sound wonderful so far
find the charger system France so far ahead of us.
As a note I normally use the Electroverse but I did notice in France using a credit card was often cheaper than it. I always double check now.
The cost was normally written on the charger or there was a qr code to their website.
Rolfe
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I was a huge fan of the Rosyth to Zeebrugge crossing, but they discontinued it. I looked at the Newcastle ferry, but it seems to be compulsory to have a single occupancy cabin which more than doubles the cost. If you're travelling alone it's impossible to justify. If I go to Europe I'll have to drive a full day to the Chunnel.
EVsince2016
Prominent Member
Day 3 was the return from Potiers to home, the longest leg of my trip.
I started by driving north up the A10 via Tours to Le Mans to use the Total Energies chargers there.
I started in bay 3, but my Electroverse card was rejected as was my Chargemap card, so I moved to bay 4 where my Electroverse card worked. There must have been a comms issue because I haven't received a bill for this one at all and I have for all subsequent charges. Note the little credit card pay booth on the left! It enables you to pay contactlessly on any of the chargers. Looked like you select charger & tap card! The services here were excellent, lots of Le Mans racing images, a free games car for kids, decent food and friendly staff. Very well maintained, exceptionally actually.
The second stop was at a Fastned charger. Having set up auto-charge I was looking forwards to this one. Unfortunately, auto-charge didn't work and I had to use the emergency release cable to unplug & start again. I then used the app & got told off for not using auto-charge. I gave suitable feedback! The A13 services here near Rouen were rubbish, dirty, no water in the toilets, a real s*** hole. Yes they were doing the place up but no excuse for the state of the place,
After here it was back to IONITY at Abbeyville. Google maps shows it as Shell Recharge and despite many attempts to correct it, Google seem incapable of doing so despite pictures, the web link and feedback! On a positive front, 2 extra charge units there will help in the summer. The services are fine, a bit of an oversized shell garage with everything branded shell, even stickers on the IONITY units!
My last stop was at Eurotunnel, using the Engie Vianeo units at the Flexiplus lounge. At just 29p/kWh these are a bargain. Also I used the time to eat & drink whilst my car charged with the ability to depart as soon as loading started. My only issue with this charger was that its in a narrow lane with high kerbs, fitting in was unnecessarily tricky! Activated on Electroverse.
With Flexiplus you bypass the entry queue, but not customs queues, get free drinks & snacks, then last minute priority access to the next departure. Excellent as Mr Burns would say.
No pictures as it was dark, pouring of rain and none found online either!
The drive home through Kent & Sussex was hell, flooded motorways, stranded cars & slow traffic. On the positive front, EVs don't die when hitting floods and my Michelin Cross Climates coped with deep floods at speed without aquaplaning too.
After driving 1365 miles across Europe home, all the issues were in the last mile. Roads closed due to a murder-suicide, others closed due to flooding, I drove through 2 feet of water, over the bonnet to get home only to hit a huge pothole 200m from home & arrive with a destroyed new front tyre & the car off the road 4 days awaiting a new one. Welcome home to broken Britain eh!
495 miles, 114 kWh for £55 or £37 if not billed for the TE charger.
I started by driving north up the A10 via Tours to Le Mans to use the Total Energies chargers there.
I started in bay 3, but my Electroverse card was rejected as was my Chargemap card, so I moved to bay 4 where my Electroverse card worked. There must have been a comms issue because I haven't received a bill for this one at all and I have for all subsequent charges. Note the little credit card pay booth on the left! It enables you to pay contactlessly on any of the chargers. Looked like you select charger & tap card! The services here were excellent, lots of Le Mans racing images, a free games car for kids, decent food and friendly staff. Very well maintained, exceptionally actually.
The second stop was at a Fastned charger. Having set up auto-charge I was looking forwards to this one. Unfortunately, auto-charge didn't work and I had to use the emergency release cable to unplug & start again. I then used the app & got told off for not using auto-charge. I gave suitable feedback! The A13 services here near Rouen were rubbish, dirty, no water in the toilets, a real s*** hole. Yes they were doing the place up but no excuse for the state of the place,
After here it was back to IONITY at Abbeyville. Google maps shows it as Shell Recharge and despite many attempts to correct it, Google seem incapable of doing so despite pictures, the web link and feedback! On a positive front, 2 extra charge units there will help in the summer. The services are fine, a bit of an oversized shell garage with everything branded shell, even stickers on the IONITY units!
My last stop was at Eurotunnel, using the Engie Vianeo units at the Flexiplus lounge. At just 29p/kWh these are a bargain. Also I used the time to eat & drink whilst my car charged with the ability to depart as soon as loading started. My only issue with this charger was that its in a narrow lane with high kerbs, fitting in was unnecessarily tricky! Activated on Electroverse.
With Flexiplus you bypass the entry queue, but not customs queues, get free drinks & snacks, then last minute priority access to the next departure. Excellent as Mr Burns would say.
No pictures as it was dark, pouring of rain and none found online either!
The drive home through Kent & Sussex was hell, flooded motorways, stranded cars & slow traffic. On the positive front, EVs don't die when hitting floods and my Michelin Cross Climates coped with deep floods at speed without aquaplaning too.
After driving 1365 miles across Europe home, all the issues were in the last mile. Roads closed due to a murder-suicide, others closed due to flooding, I drove through 2 feet of water, over the bonnet to get home only to hit a huge pothole 200m from home & arrive with a destroyed new front tyre & the car off the road 4 days awaiting a new one. Welcome home to broken Britain eh!
495 miles, 114 kWh for £55 or £37 if not billed for the TE charger.
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Glad you got back safely, sorry to hear about the tyre, hidden traps is why I avoid floods if at all possible but sounds like you couldn't avoid that one.
Thanks for sharing all the details of your trip, very helpful.
Thanks for sharing all the details of your trip, very helpful.
EVsince2016
Prominent Member
The pothole was nowhere near a flood, but being dark, raining hard and a twit coming the other way well on my side as he didn't want to get his wheels in puddles didn't help! A fully loaded car too!
At least I had a laugh when I collected the car. I've known the manager there for 20 years, great chap who always ensures I get the best price and has excellent customer skills & knowledge that makes this branch boom in sales. This short arse git who works there has zero customer skills, is a know-it-all and is very arrogant told me that I'd have to pay £30 extra for the tyre in a very rude manner. The manager corrected his inflated price & short arse did his nut when I went to pay! Imagine fighting with your boss over cost in front of a room full of customers!! As I left I said thanks mate to his manager in front of him. He was furious! I felt so smug
EVsince2016
Prominent Member
So 2953 miles in typical temperatures of 6-12°C at cruising at 60-70 mph
896 kWh costing £375 if I'm billed for the last charger.
3.3 miles per kWh versus 3.8 in the summer
63 kW charging versus 96 kW in the summer
And a puncture 200m from home!
Last edited by a moderator:
Gomev
Distinguished Member
Have you ever considered the Portsmouth/Le Havre or Newhaven/Le Havre route as an alternative to the tunnel. In the past I have found these to be reasonable in cost and save some driving either side of the water ?
EVsince2016
Prominent Member
I did look and going out via the catamaran could work but coming back with a fixed slot was too risky. Cost was still higher & no time savings either.
Gomev
Distinguished Member
I understand what you mean about the fixed slot.
My regular race from midway between Toulouse and Limoges (my brothers place) for a fixed ferry time was a slog, no fun stops for a pleasant lunch. Abandoned using Calais which was soul destroying and switched to Cherbourg or Caen as cost dictated at booking time.
That was in an ICE of course, he has since returned to the UK so no cheap holidays there any more
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