Looking forward to an electric roadtrip to Madrid Part II

Poitiers to Madrid in the electric Mercedes here we go!

Did you read Part I, the road to Poitiers yet? Oh and the scooter you spotted is one of my favourite shared mobility vehicles in the world. 100km/h? No problemo!

Tuesday morning 18th of February we hope to wake up in sunny Poitiers (FR). With the battery (almost) full, we can smoothly sail south in direction of Bordeaux, San Sebastian and other pretty places. Let’s take a look at A Better Roadplanner predictions with the right settings. Well that certainly is an interesting picture!

Look at that beginning!

Look at that beginning!

We shall take a closer look at these stations we are expected to use today. Because what’s going on if we were to leave ‘not full’, if for some reason charging up over night has a hiccup anywhere in the process.

Well that’s certainly a challenge.

Well that’s certainly a challenge.

What I’m looking forward to the most

Is using MBUX. The Mercedes infotainment system should come up with a workable plan obviously. But will it know which chargers in France are powered off (hint: many at the moment). This is going to be a pretty serious test. And I will drive as slow as necessary to make it to the SDEEG charger! Wait a second. This is just ABRP (abetterrouteplanner.com) being buggy. Of course we will drive to Bordeaux and have a croissant next to a free charger!! That is what I signed up with Freshmile for, haha. Look at the photo below for an idea where I did my morning charge with the Jaguar last year!

France or Italy what am I looking at?

France or Italy what am I looking at?

Bordeaux, I want to love you

Bordeaux has been offering free fast charging for a couple of years now. It was one of the reasons to head south last year, just to try out this ‘Charging Heaven’. Yet obviously with high expectactions, reality sometimes deliveres quite the low blow. Last year we found ourselves driving around town for a reliable charger. Road works were everywhere, we had to park next to a tree to make it work (partly obstructing the sidewalk).

It seems not much has changed, or maybe the situation even deteriorated. I will tell you all about it when we get there. First I need to make a list of chargers that I have enough faith in to visit. Just clicking around on Chargemap brings me to commentary in French. Some of the best located chargers in town were blocked by a couple of Renault ZOE cars this week. Both not charging, yet blocking this fast charging infrastructure. Put there for everybody to use for free. How can this be? Even if you don’t speak French the ‘Catastrophe’ that the users are talking about must be very clear to everybody.

Might even be worth it to visit this paid charger. If that means it will be working and not so crowded because it is paid! Hopefully a boulangerie close! Seems I found a charger that delivers 31kW speeds (that’s a lot for Bordeaux, I know because of last year..) It’s close to the paid charger. This charger could be interesting because around the corner there is one more delivering 36kW speeds recently. The wonders of free infrastructure.

Moving on to Spain!

Where life will get even more exciting. We could charge up in France, but we can also do it in San Sebastian. The day itself will smile upon us to tell us what to do. Maybe the car just guides us and we just sit back and relax. Will there be an on-board massage? Premium Plus AMG edition they said, you tell me if it will be included!

There is one goal in particular in Spain that I’ve been looking forward to visiting for a while now. Last year Repsol was the first top open a HPC station. It happened less than a month after we almost stranded in the area. It took some months before uptime got stable. But recently it seems ok!

After using one of the fastest chargers in the country (this week only the second Ionity-station of Spain opened), we will continue our journey. A last stop will be made at the Tudanca charger. Since I’ve been charging up the Jaguar here last year, I already know what to expect. Redundancy!

Find the station of your dreams on your way to Madrid one click away.

Find the station of your dreams on your way to Madrid one click away.

What time will it be, when we leave this station. Pretty hard to predict. Already in Bordeaux the exact charging time is unknown, and consumption will differ a lot depending on weather. Might be rainy (and windy) all day. That won’t help. Since we’re thinking of heading all the way to Toledo, that’s even a bigger challenge. With a lot of ‘slow’ fast charging in Spain it might turn out to be one step to far. Let the adventure begin!

By the way, with some more time you can of course just drive from Poitiers to San Sebastián (and later move on to Madrid) and find yourself in all comfort with any electric vehicle that would be a very easy trip, just for your information! But we are gonna try to push for maximum results.

Let’s have a look at our return trip

I hope to be able to visit friends in Toulouse on our way north. One of our options if weather seems good enough is to drive straight through the mountains. That could look a little bit like this.

Possibilities!

Possibilities!

There are many options really. Other friends invited me to come over to Montpellier, you can still find it on the far top end on the right of this map. But what would a ride look like? As you can see it would be undoable without leaving at the break of dawn.

Some fast charging upgrades needed in the region!

Some fast charging upgrades needed in the region!

I would love to be able to compare this drive now, to future improvements. If I come back to Spain by EV (and obviously I will) then these Ionity stations on the map shown below will have been finished. And it will make all the difference. Some France upgrades still urgently needed of course. Look at the short term predictions.

When these white stations are done, the road to Barcelona is too easy!

When these white stations are done, the road to Barcelona is too easy!

Something that I didn’t point out yet is pricing of a charge. Charging up in Spain might be not so fast, it’s also not really expensive. But, it depends how you activate your charge. Most brands have their own charging (cards) on offer, and they might work in Spain. For example at Iberdrola. But look at the differences comparing Iberdrola app to Mercedes Me app.

Left: Mercedes Me interface price listing in Spain. Right, same charger using the Iberdrola app.

Left: Mercedes Me interface price listing in Spain. Right, same charger using the Iberdrola app.

Recently a lot of attention was given to pricing of (fast) charging around Europe. In the above screenshot you easily spot that we have a long way to go still. It feels like the old cellular roaming prices all over gain. Back then I always immediately bought a local SIM card on arrival. The local charging cards/apps are like a local SIM card in a way. This should and will improve in coming years, I’m sure.

To guide you on your way I offer charging guides for many common travel destinations within Europe, more guides for other countries will follow this year. When you become a patron of electricfelix, you will receive my personal recommendations wherever you go. Traveling fast and cheap(er) has never been this easy!

Follow each step of the way using polarsteps, photos, extra info on the chargers, consumption, like being in the car with us!

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To give you some impression on what I will have used on our way from Amsterdam to Madrid:

test drive, electric roadtripFelix Hamerelectric roadtrip, mercedes-benz, EQC, ajaxComment