Electric cars are popular, but not all countries have the same options for charging a car yet. Maja took a leap of faith and travelled around Europe with her White Swiss shepherd Charly and a full electric car. From Arnhem to Prague (with an overnight stay in Germany in between), Brno, Bratislava, Vienna, Budapest, Tuzla, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Salzburg, Munich and Frankfurt. What is her experience? And what tips does she have?
How did you come up with the idea?
“It was a combination of a long-held desire and practical advantages,” says Maja. “I really wanted to visit new countries and see cities I hadn’t been to yet. I wanted to go with my electric car because it is familiar, because I am flexible, and because my charge card offers coverage almost everywhere in Europe and therefore works on local charging systems.”
Did you have to charge often?
On average, Maja had to charge every 2 to 2.5 hours: every 2 hours if she drove a lot on the highway and every 2.5 hours if she drove more through a city. “With my car, I can charge at a fast charger and with 20 minutes of charging it is 80% full again. From then on, charging slows down, so there’s no point in charging longer than that. So I usually charged for between 15 and 20 minutes, depending on how long I needed a break myself. During that time, I walked my dog Charly, got coffee and went to the toilet, so I rarely got bored and could continue driving again straight away.”
Is the information about charging points reliable?
“I have a charging card from my work, it’s from Shell. Shell’s app is super reliable, that is really fantastic! I was rarely disappointed. Another advantage of the app: if my charge card didn’t work, I could start charging via the app. That’s a real relief. What was occasionally disappointing was that I had found charging stations located in company car parks, which were closed on a Sunday and public holidays. But then again, it was Easter when I was travelling, so I sometimes found myself in front of a closed gate unfortunately.”
In which places are there a lot of charging points?
“In Germany and Austria, there was super good coverage. There were also a lot of fast chargers. But I noticed that the further I got on my journey, the number of charging stations decreased.” According to Maja, there is a reasonable network, so you can charge your car in quite a lot of places. But she also wanted to take into account the charging stations that were covered by her charging card, because she didn’t want to pay extra when she didn’t need to. That makes a big difference in your choices. “In Croatia, for example, you have a network called Elen which has a lot of charging stations, but they are not affiliated to Shell.”
Maja certainly sees progress in terms of the number of charging stations. “But in Tuzla, the town where my grandparents live, there are three charging stations. One is at a hotel and is only for guests. Therefore, I often had to park my car at a shopping centre. I would go there to eat, shop, go to the toilet, etc. Funnily enough, you could charge for free at those charging stations. They do this to attract tourists to those malls. It’s really starting to become more of a thing and they realise that people are driving electric cars more and more. But it’s nowhere near comparable to the Netherlands. Then again, the Netherlands has a network that is far too good, because people are encouraged to drive electric and there are lots of grants available for that.” Maja’s conclusion: if you would plan your journey very precisely, you might find yourself charging at shopping centres less often. “But on the other hand, it’s free and you can easily entertain yourself there.”
What is smart to find out, arrange or book in advance?
It was important to make sure there were charging stations nearby so Maja could leave with a charged car. So in advance, she checked where she could charge when she arrived somewhere. “Other than that, I just looked at where I wanted to charge on the road on a day-by-day basis and tried to stretch it out as long as possible,” she says. Shell’s app allows you to give charging stations a star, so you can find them again later and easily re-set them as destinations. For me, this was the perfect way to do it. I know there are also people who plan everything in advance and people who use the car’s navigation to find charging stations, but I personally find it quite unreliable.” One tip is to buy a large internet bundle. After all, you can go through it quickly if the Wi-Fi at your sleeping place is not good. And, of course, you want your navigation to keep working.
Because Maja had her dog Charly with her, she was more limited in choosing a place to sleep. It was also important that there was some green space to walk Charly. “And I wanted to be near the city centre so I could go there and back quickly, because I didn’t always want to take Charly with me but also didn’t want to leave him alone for too long. Sometimes it was harder to find something near the city centre because dogs aren’t allowed everywhere. But a big advantage of big cities, is that you can rent an electric scooter. I did a lot with Bolt. So definitely consider electric scooters too! You grab them, leave them and move on again. Or consider public transport – although that wasn’t always an option for me because Charly wasn’t always allowed to come with me.’
Furthermore, Maja checked what she wanted to see per country. “I planned the routes I wanted to walk in the cities, to take in as much as possible in one day. I also looked per country to see what the national dishes were, because I wanted to taste them. In Bratislava, for example, I wanted to eat one of those garlic soups in a loaf. That was SO intensely delicious!”. A few tips: delve into things you would like to do in the Netherlands, but that are quite expensive there. Massages, for example, are much cheaper in the Balkans. Furthermore, according to Maja, it is useful to know some basics of the local language to be able to communicate with people who do not speak English. “The level of English is lower in the Balkan countries. In Slovenia, the older generation had had Croatian in school, so I could communicate much better with my mother tongue there than with English.” (Maja is originally from Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina).
Did you encounter any challenges?
The number of challenges was not too bad. Very occasionally: 1) there were few chargers, 2) there were chargers in the app that Maja could not access due to holidays or 3) there were a few chargers near where she was sleeping, but they were occupied. “In the Balkans, these spots were also often occupied by a petrol or diesel car. That is very irritating, because I had to drive somewhere with little charge and then charge somewhere before I could continue. But what annoyed me most was that there weren’t always charging stations near the sleeping places I had found – but in my case this was because I had a dog with me. Which meant I had to charge somewhere else before I could drive any further. If I hadn’t had Charly with me and could have booked places to sleep near the city centre and thus near charging spots, it would have been much more efficient.”
Would you recommend to go to the Balkans with an electric car?
Maja doesn’t have to think about the answer. “Absolutely, I would recommend it to anyone! In fact, I want to make another trip like that myself, but in countries in northern Europe. I found it a little nerve-wracking, but I also was looking forward to it and I thought: I’ll see. I think if you also want to make a trip like this, you do have to have that mentality. You can’t stress too much about things.”
What was your fondest memory?
“I still look back on it fondly because I saw so much and every city was so beautiful! Hungary was the most beautiful place for me to drive through. It might have been because of the season, because large parts of the mountains were completely covered in yellow flowers. That looked SO beautiful!”. There was another thing that was beautiful about this trip. When Maja had mapped out her route, she shared it with her mother. “My mother said that a friend of ours lives in Brno. We were friends with her and her parents when we lived in Germany during the war, so I grew up with her. But when we went back to Bosnia, we lost track of each other. I visited her and even got to sleep there. We caught up and she is now also planning to come to the Netherlands. I really enjoyed seeing that people – like Bosnians, Serbs and Croats – are so well spread across Europe. Travelling helps to get in touch and really connect. When I was in Ljubljana, my mother’s niece turned out to live there. My mother urged me to contact her, but I was thinking: she doesn’t even know me. But she was very happy that I contacted her and together we traced out the family on our sides. A big advantage of this trip is that I got in touch with people I had lost sight of over time, or didn’t even know because they live far away.”
