EV Transeuropean '23 by Team LaChaineEV
In the French blogosphere a real adventure has been taking place a week ago with “La Chaine EV” & weelyke undertaking a new #eCanonnball record beating trip from Portugal to Norway.
Since I’m not convinced the story reached much beyond the French speaking areas of the world, I wanted to introduce you to an English speaking audience, so please, go ahead Jean-Cristophe, tell us a short background story on LCE and this trip in particular!
All the way “up north” ;-)
How did you plan your charging stops, did you let the vehicle choose, ABRP, other apps? I’ve seen a lot of Google maps running on your videos, did you use Waze at all?
Team LC:
“On the eve of our departure, we covered a distance of 1500 kilometers from Bordeaux to Sagres, Portugal. This leg of the journey allowed us to gain a better understanding of our vehicle, particularly in terms of its electric consumption, and to input consistent data into the ABRP route planner. We also utilized Chargemap to access information about charging stations we were unfamiliar with and to explore alternative solutions in case we encountered any charging issues. Consequently, we meticulously planned our route, starting from our point of departure and ending at our final destination, applying various filters related to charging networks and the power levels of charging stations.
To enhance our organization, we compiled a comprehensive list of charging points in a shared Google Sheets document, complete with GPS coordinates from Google Maps. This served as a tracking table for charging stations, allowing us to monitor our progress against our projected timeline. We made use of Android Auto and our vehicle's built-in GPS system for navigation. Additionally, when we ventured into colder regions, we employed our vehicle's integrated route planner to activate pre-conditioning.”
How many charging operators did you use? Do you know how many different chargers you used? Did you always have a good charging experience, in all countries?
“The majority of our recharges (17 out of 23) were done at Ionity. In Spain, we had the opportunity to try Zunder, while in France, in addition to Ionity, we used a Shell Recharge station and Fastned. In Sweden, we relied on Circle K and Allego, in Finland, we used Recharge, and in Norway, we used Kople. We encountered no specific issues during our charging sessions. It was clear to us that in France, we were well-served when it came to rest areas and charging stations along the highways.”
Did you use one charging card for the whole trip, or did you also need apps, credit cards?
“We used Chargemap and the Shell Recharge card. Additionally, we had to download two apps, Kople and Elton, to enable us to charge our vehicle within the networks in Sweden, Finland, and Norway. It's important to note that the only networks where the option to pay for our charges by credit card was available were Fastned and Shell recharge in France and Allego in Sweden. The use of credit card payments should be increasingly encouraged to simplify the charging process at stations.”
Did you pay a lot of tolls, take any ferries?
“The rule imposed was to follow this route by land, which meant that ferry crossings were excluded. We haven't collected all the toll data yet, but one thing is certain, we encountered the most tolls in France.”
Do you think your new record can be beaten, and will you try this yourself, ever?
“At the present time, we are convinced that no other electric vehicle is capable of surpassing the record set by the Ioniq 6. It checks all the essential boxes: an exceptional drag coefficient (CX) of 0.21, a 620 km range according to the WLTP cycle, and thanks to its 800V platform, it offers an outstanding charging curve with power peaks reaching approximately 230 kW.
We believe that this record could be beaten using an Ioniq 6 with a team willing to take more risks. During our journey, it was rare to arrive at a charging station with less than 20% battery, and it's feasible to do so with 20 charges or even fewer.
We favored nighttime driving to avoid traffic and congestion on the roads. However, the nights in Sweden, Finland, and Norway were cold, and the roads were wet. We occasionally had to contend with reindeer or moose crossing the road, necessitating us to slow down to ensure their safety and ours.
During the last two stages, we reduced our speed to 85 km/h instead of the usual 100 km/h for safety reasons. After analyzing the stopwatch during the last three charging stops, we realized that we had lost an additional hour compared to our projections due to the reduced speed.
If we were to undertake this experience again, we would choose the month of June to ensure better weather conditions and to take advantage of the midnight sun, as during that time, the sun never sets. It's not excluded that we may attempt it again someday!”
A huge thank you to the team taking the time to answer some questions, be sure to give them a follow, can’t miss them on their adventures!
They made all stats available from the trip.