A big journey in a small car: Canterbury to Italy. Here’s the full video — all the highs and lows of the driving, the charging, trying to use A Better Route Planner, and (perhaps worst of all) hotel food.
Here are the costs if you’re interested:
– Car: Onto very kindly gave me the car and charging for free. If you got a car from them it’d be £1,407 in total. More info here: https://youtu.be/89P-X5_e_XY
– Eurotunnel: €434.58 / £373 (I bought last minute so it was high)
– Mont Blanc tunnel: €51.50 / £44.20
– Tolls: €157.40 / £135.10
– Hotels (excluding food!): €193.57 / £166.14
If you’re interested in trying our ABRP and Tronity, use the referral links here:
Tronity: 25% off — https://app.tronity.io/signup/cdwklOAdg or use the code: cdwklOAdg
ABRP Premium: 30 day free trial — https://abetterrouteplanner.com/premium/?referral=DHEJRJDI
—
Support the channel! Visit my Ko-Fi page and buy me a coffee (or my wife a gin and tonic): https://ko-fi.com/misterev
Please use my referral links:
Octopus Energy: £50 off — https://share.octopus.energy/free-sage-191 (or quote “free-sage-191” to them)
Octopus Electroverse: £5 credit — https://electroverse.octopus.energy/network/sign-up?referralCode=free-sage-191
Chapters:
00:00 – Getting ready
02:24 – I need the battery percentage!
04:26 – Le Shuttle
07:38 – 12v warning!
08:55 – Welcome to France
09:39 – Baralle. The first charge? Or maybe not.
10:41 – Charger 1: PowerDot, Saint Quentin
13:27 – Charger 2: Allego, Carrefour, Reims Tinqueux
17:13 – Hotel 1: Hotel Akena, Troyes, France
18:45 – Day 2
20:04 – Tweaking ABRP settings, and loving Tronity
24:42 – Charger 3: IONITY Langres Perrogney
27:21 – Charger 3: IONITY Jura
30:45 – Driving me round the bend
32:44 – Is a Tesla easier?
35:35 – Charger 4: IONITY Bonneville
36:24 – Why I like IONITY… but wish they used Kempower chargers
39:16 – Siri-assly
40:40 – Mont Blanc… any time now…
42:38 – Hotel 2: 3T Boutique Hotel, Ivrea, Italy
43:36 – Walking around Ivrea
47:40 – Charger 4: Free to X, Genova
51:30 – Charger 5: IONITY, Versilia Ovest
52:08 – How to order at an Italian bar
52:49 – Broken charger!
56:10 – Charger 6: Avveva, Grosseto
57:09 – Charger 7: Free to X, Civitavecchia
58:31 – I’m here! Time for a cocktail
43 Comments
37.49 mins in and loving it
53.54 in so far. Come on, have you employed a BBC editor
44.38 in, You have a generous heart and thrifty cos you have to be to make ends meet, we all do when we're living month to month. Tell Flaviana to trust you. Half a bottle of red in now and getting fruity.
Love you Man (P.S. i'm a light weight)
45.00 in. Dear soppy Git Keep up the good soppiness.
All the best from
one soppy Git to another
If I get to the end of this bottle Andrew and say I love you, please don't take it personally as I'm looking for a beautiful Italian like yours and if our relationship goes any further it will be completely of a platonic nature even though you have got a nice bum. I'm fluffing with you and when I say fluffing I mean f—ing with you. keep up the great work.
P.S.
When I hit the big time with my podcast I'll try and give you a leg up. Don't know how but I'll work on it.
live long and prosper. nanoo nanoo
50.42 mins in, and yes think I've been duped int thinking i's ok to speed more than th limit and consequently think I'v got a couple of tickets. Fluff!!!!! thank goodness My UK licence won't get any points on it as a result.Mama Mia!!!
Would be good to show us more than just chargers although only 50% of the way through so far. As far as those Dinosaurs driving their diesel's claiming one tank well just think they will have a higher cost to their health due to not stopping or using an empty bottle because they are 'cool' not stopping anywhere but their destination. Wee-wee Doctor is waiting for them. So now what happens with Onto in administration, mean you go back to your Ioniq 5 get a new one with full App support this time? 😉
Loving your content, especially the road trips. I’m new to EV world and we’re planning on getting a car next year. My wife is disabled so using the motability scheme. She needs a higher car to get in and out of so we were thinking of the Audi Q4. Only trouble being we’re on the IOW and our nearest dealer is Southampton. We would we have to go over on the costly ferries for any services etc. Do EVs need servicing every year like ICE cars? TIA
Excellent video as per thank you. I can’t travel long distances because of health issues so really enjoy watching your peregrinations around Europe.
The problem now is that ONTO has gone into administration, great idea, shame they simply couldn’t get financial backing further than September.
So onto have gone bust,how does this leave you?
Reims is pronounced Rannz – you're welcome!
We are still very new to EV life in real terms and did our first motorway trip over a 5 day weekend camping in The Lakes. We live in central England.
We decided to pop into many services just to familiarise ourselves with charger locations and equipment and being older, our bladders welcomed the opportunities to check out toilet facilities.
What we found was very disappointing as we do not drive a Tesla. Services on the M6 / M6 Toll do not signpost the EV chargers at all and those sites we visited only had a couple of chargers each. This is piss poor on so many levels
On the plus side all the chargers we used actually worked and we spent a happy journey where both ourselves and the car could "splash and dash". The Gridserve chargers worked just fine.
The worst services imo were on the M6 Toll. Again, no signage to the chargers which were tucked well away round the back but the services themselves were an unpleasant warehouse of doom. Add to that incredibly bad signage for getting out of the place including blocked access roads for signed exits and frankly we will not be going there again. Ever.
Previous experience (pre EV) of French motorway services convinces me that once again, in Britain everything is done for profit first, service begrudgingly and convenience, never!
Perhaps the best charging experience of our trip was at a Booth's supermarket closely followed by charging on an electric hookup pitch at the campsite.
The Moto EV charging at junction 1 of the M6 has loads of charging for both Tesla and non-Tezla alike but is so close to home as to be of use only in an emergency for us.
Thanks Andrew welcome to Marina de Cerveteri !! Great video
Your video watches like a storybook. Very relaxing! What do you think its actual, practical range is on a full charge?
Glad you got through all the editing & got this video out great evening viewing for me & my Daughter Gilly
Excellent! Yes, Tesla have initially set up their network of chargers in Hotel car parks with the idea that customers can use the Hotel facilities. Never had a problem with any hotels using their facilities. Recent supercharger sites are in Supermarket car-parks or service stations. However, while there is good and sensible progress, some supercharger stops are in very weird locations.
I have had similar problems with chargers just stopping. My conclusion was that the charge station itself had overheated – combination of weather and charging – and had stopped as self-protection.
I think the mapping systems are based on Google maps and I've had the same problem being told to turn left when it should be right or straight on. I dont always trust the voice directions.
Toll tags. Emovis Tag in the UK will do a tag for France and you can get a separate one from them for Spain and Portugal. However, not Italy despite the fact that Sanef's Bip & Go does a combined everything tag. Emovis just use Bip&Go tags so not sure what the difficulty was. So I contacted Bip&Go direct (via the Sanef website) and ordered one using my UK address. Arrived a week or so later. Used it this summer with no problems and sent Emovis their Frence only tag back after I got back from our Sicily trip. The Bip&Go everything tag works with the Messina Ferry too (which comes up on your account as "parking" ).
Beautiful — a veggie burger with gerkins! If you have it made to order, BK has the best Impossible Wopper Burger. It doesn't taste like cow breath (believe you me, I know what a cow's breath is like after growing up on farms).
Agree with you on road trips with charge breaks. Never a hassle! With our Tesla X, as comfortable and roomy as it is, we would rather get out every so often, stretch the legs, have a coffee & croissant while the car charges. It does make the trip so much more enjoyable.
Hey, always enjoy your videos even though we live a continent away! Love seeing the European maps with your charging stops, chuckling with your lovely sense of humour!
Hello Andrew, the 208 is definitly a good looking car, but the battery size is really too small. With my eNiro (same version as you had) I no longer planned trip in France, there are enough charging points actually, and it made me discovered "Electra" which is the same charging device as Fastned but cheaper.
In France Ionity reduce their price, is it the same in England ?
Watched it. Gives me confidence to do road trips to Europe.
Whoa! I have just heard from the MG EV Forum that ONTO have gone into Administration?! Would love to hear your views on this? 😢😮
Good video. Surprised at efficiency. Less than 4 miles per kwh seems low. We have a niro and would expect more than 4 this time of year? Had ours 4 and half years and still love it (except the weird radio!)
Great video. Did that trip years ago using petrol. Great to see familiar places again and that the major problems are still language and customs. Never did understand how shops worked!
Hi Andrew, great vid as always – just a tip on this car, it has x2 12 volt batteries. One is for starting car/traction battery and the other for everything else. Bizarre, I know! 😊
Looking forward to seeing this.. jeez I'm worried about travelling from Glasgow to Bridlington in Oct!
Do you need an additional adaptor if you're not a tesla , but using their charging station
Great video Andrew. I'm driving through France and Spain in 2 weeks in my Zoe ze50. What does the future have in store for your channel now that onto has gone into administration? Tbh i think you and Flaviana could do anything and people would watch. Keep up the good work all of you
I agree the French do pull over on motorways its just a pity idiots in the UK hog the centre lane breaking the law. Yes French drivers do leave indicators on and there are loads of services plus Aire de stops.
Another great road trip video, thanks. We managed a long weekend in Normandy recently, our first EV experience abroad, and it all worked pretty well. Ionity are brilliant, particularly with plug and charge enabled. And on Electroverse they are also a bargain at 39p per KWH. However away from the main routes, some of the urban charging infrastructure (7kw AC) seems not quite as reliable, to put it mildly….
Why oh why do you put yourself through such grief? My 520D has a range of 1,100 kms when full. It does 54mpg and I've never yet pulled into a filling station to find all the pumps broken. Why are so many ev chargers so often out of order? Also it takes 2 mins to fill my car. Go figure.
Another great video Andrew. Anyone on here done any long trips through France and down to the south of Spain? Wondering if anyone has any tips for Spain – We have a 62 kwh Leaf so would be Chademo chargers
Finished watching – took 3 sessions 😀. Hubby really wants to do a long trip in Europe, but I am not so keen. I would need a holiday when we got back. Your experiences are pretty much what we find in the UK – plenty of chargers and they mostly work.
Whatever your opinion of this car is, I hate mine. I've had it for 3 years and I can't wait to get rid of it. Had nothing but trouble with the bloody thing since I got it. French engineering at its absolute bloody worst…..
Just imaging how boring it would be. Having to watching someone constantly stop……… and fill up their Diesel car!
Reims……. The locals pronounce it "RRantz". They seem to roll their R's when they say it. Go figure.
Lovely video as usual just a suggestion: I appreciate filming the road a little bit more than your face, don't get me wrong you have nice eyes but the video is about the road trip 🙂
I’m not sure I like EV’s, but I love these videos.
Got my first EV (MG4 Extended range) last week. I have a beard but I'll pass on veggie burgers!
UK guy
driving a French car
to Italy
Perfect!
Fly for crissakes
wow. get a tesla
Absolutely agree buttons for functions are a lot less distracting than having to navigate menus for a function.
Tesla are getting worse new Model 3 does not have Indicator or Light Stalks, these are now operated by buttons on the steering wheel, stupid idea, just try it driving around an island or even a corner & wanting to indicate!
Do you still have to bring your own charge cable in Europe on the 7/22kw chargers ? 😊