Thousand kilometer challenge to France with Peugeot e-2008

A new adventure. Fast charging in France can deliver a level of excitement that’s hard to find in the Netherlands or Germany. When a friend in need asked if we could try this “not very EV friendly route” in direction of Brive (FR), I didn’t have to think long.

Very thankful that Peugeot had the e-2008 on standby for us on short notice, here we go!

The practice run from NL to FR

A quick check-in on ABRP shows that this might not be easy. Then again ABRP can’t tell the whole story. I’ve had my fair share of trouble as soon as you enter France, the Paris region is problematic to say the least. Very little IONITY fast chargers around, doesn’t help. Total EV Charge is the new game in town. Before even reaching Paris we can already try several of their brand new stations, see this one in Nazareth (BE) for example:

We ended up following some advice by ABRP and using a more manual loose Chargemap/Google Maps/Waze approach. After several Total charging stations (where we got lucky, it was quiet) it was time to try maybe the wildest charger of them all: only one charging card works here: Izivia’s. No roaming whatsoever. It’s raining complaints on Chargemap but clearly, nobody seems to care. The QR code on the machine is available to everyone, just south of Paris!

Don’t just trust your range, check the terrain ahead

Things got way too exciting later that day when getting closer to our last IONITY charger. An uphill battle where I once found the Hyundai IONIQ (classic, 28kWh) in turtle mode. Even for my standards it became truly adventurous creeping up the hill at 85km/h and “no range left”. A couple of kilometers to go when the tacho showed us nothing anymore but the turtle, we made it, gloriously, with 0% at the charger.

It was a long first day! Getting to know the vehicle. Especially learning how to interpret the battery gauge on the left is important as I always try to make the most of my charge.

22kW AC charging (Corrèze, Dordogne)

France is amazing. 22kW (or 18kW in some places) is available everywhere. Not really of course, but if you find yourself a charger, chances are high it’s a pretty fast paced one. The connection fee can be steep, and in some places you can get around it by using the NewMotion badge. Shown here is the town of Ayen where you could technically charge up and wash your vehicle at the same time. The supermarket is next door as well, plus some hiking trails start right here.

Cross the regional border to the Dordogne and the chargers become a bit pricier, I didn’t even mention that in Ayen you can charge up during the night, for free. With most 2021 EV’s you will be charging up at 11kW speeds, an hour will deliver close to 11kWh and should set you back around €2,50 using the NewMotion badge. (Nowadays sold as Shell Recharge). If you have a one phase charging vehicle, things will be slow(er) and pricy. Be prepared. (And bring that schuko charger).

On one of my Too Good To Go rides around the region, I encountered Ségur-le-Château, picture above.

We visited the Sunday Market of Objat, where we tried yet another local charger!

What a pleasure it was driving around the Corrèze & Dordogne, we were so lucky to catch only sunny days. Drove with the roof open on the local roads. Bliss. I like all these EV’s with pano roofs a lot, but the ones that can actually still open have a special place.

Terrasson-Lavilledieu

If you’re looking for more pictures of the e-2008 around France, check out the socials.

The Challenge: 1000km back home

Waking up in Saint-Robert, Corrèze it’s the coldest morning since we arrived. We’re trying to preheat the vehicle, it’s minus three outside and the schuko is not delivering enough power (8A Peugeot standard) to counter the heating element. By preheating over half an hour (I activated three different time slots in the app since 5AM, departure at 6) we’re leaving with 98% SoC.

I made up the route by myself, mostly ignoring ABRP this time. In the morning consumption turns out significantly higher than I hoped for thanks to the freezing temperatures even when reaching the highway. So the decision is quickly made to not try and arrive empty at GreenSpot but to charge up at IONITY Boismandé (and visit Paul for a pain a chocolat!) A truck is blocking half the station:

It seems we didn’t really succeed in heating up the battery, the charging curve is not great dropping to 44kW around 60% SoC. Since this speed is still higher than i expect at the 50kW charger we’re visiting next, i decide to keep at it for a bit longer. At 74% SoC (21 minutes, 19kWh charged) we hit the real throttle and I’m lucky to have found myself a team that jumps into the car and we’re off immediately.

At GreenSpot (Châteauroux) one of the chargers seems to be broken, the security guard comes at us to ask questions as we’re parked in a way that’s guaranteed to make some people unhappy.

Lucky for us, the e-208 is connected to the AC charging cable, so we can still use CCS. If you manage to find out the best deal here, please do let me know.

Nearly 14 minutes it takes us to reach 10kWh. At 77% we’re off to an IONITY station I’ve never visited before: Jardin des Arbres. Mostly escaping the autoroute and taking local roads to get us there. It’s gonna be a long one. By now the sun is creating a beautiful day on the road, nearly 11AM and this helps ease the battery.

Almost two hours later we connect at IONITY with 9% left. We received two range warnings (first seems to come at 12%, then again at 10%). What’s weird is that at 12% the predicted range left will mostly be 12km which is simply only true when doing 130km/h on the highway (which we have done, but not right now). Fifteen minutes of charging adds 19kWh to the battery. This means we’re free to go, since the next IONITY is nearby:

#alwaysbecharging

The trick when driving vehicles with a relatively small battery, on a longer journey is simple. Just keep at it, start full, drive as long as you can. Just before you hit zero, find the fastest charger on the route (or the cheapest one) and charge from 5 to 55% or a bit more or even less. Whatever you (or your passengers) prefer. This way you can keep the pressure on, enjoy the best part of your charging curve. Please share your story!

I got lucky and could hide behind a Porsche Cayenne for a bit at 130km/h. IONITY Darvault is nearby. At 23% we arrive. Ten minutes here and we’re back at 53%, 13kWh added. After 13 minutes it’s enough, with 16kWh at 59% we head out to yet another new charger, near the airport of Paris!

Airport charging, squeezed in between Audi and VW! Powered by Allego.

Just seven and a half minutes and the first 10kWh is in. The next Total HPC is not far away, great news for our short charging break strategy. 10 minutes, 13kWh and we’re off again. The logbook that Nander keeps:

Just sixteen minutes and we’ve added 20kWh using the only functional HPC at Ressons-Est. Nothing has changed since our visit last week. Only this time we’re alone, no Taycan. I’m speeding up and we’re just enjoying the autoroute like all the others, because I know the chargers aren’t far away and all the apps give the green light.

What is quite hilarious on a day like today is that the Peugeot doesn’t show you the battery in percentage, unless you’re charging. Yet some of the (EVBox) chargers we find at Total for example, don’t show you percentage, just the amount of kWh’s added. Of course this all has to be improved before going electric will actually go mainstream completely, but as a nerd it’s a lot of fun.

We’ve made it to Lille and it’s not even close to 6PM yet, which is great news since that means we’ve beaten the French curfew. Super.

Belgium still has lots of expansion by Allego, Total and Fastned going on this year, (fast) charging will only get easier. Yet, some of these Allego and Total stations have only two HPC’s, so it will be exciting to see how well they handle a steadily growing stream of travelers.

Total Nazareth is done better at the South side (compared to North that we visited just days ago), more space but also further walking distance to shop, food and toilet (and air). Seventeen minutes, 21kWh done. #alwaysbecharging

Time to go home! Unfortunately for our record beating ride we hit quite the traffic jam around Antwerp. Still, we even make it to Fastned before 7PM (after 19:00 in the Netherlands you can drive at 120/130km/h depending on your location).

Good old Hazeldonk. It might look quiet now, in summer it’ll be nice to have Fastned and Shell competing for customers! In the Fastned app it’s easy to see if the (HPC) slot you’re looking for is available.

A twenty minute charging break (22kWh added), hesitation about grabbing some food. We have a curfew (9PM) to beat, people to drop off in Utrecht, Amsterdam. Time to go!

It’s 19:50 by the time we are on location in Utrecht (970km done). Ready to drop off Nander and head back to Amsterdam. The weather in The Netherlands is like from a horror movie, windy, rain, darkness.

Around 20:30 we set foot in Amsterdam (just over a 1000 km). It was my goal to best fifteen hours of travel. And we did, by half an hour! Plus we escaped some toll roads south of Paris by going local (with low consumption). All this in winter, including heavy Paris and Antwerp traffic. And countless(!) charging sessions. That all went well.

Average consumption of our trip resulted in values around 160Wh/km (the vehicle had a 10.000km standing average displayed of 180Wh/km).

Before finding food and shelter, I’m parking next to one of the 4000 AC chargers Vattenfall is powering in and around Amsterdam. I’ll miss this steering wheel!

Six hours predicted by the vehicle for a full charge at this public 11kW charger coming from 5% SoC.

See you for a next adventure!

Find the full travel log detailing all chargers and over 2000km of traveling this winter with the Peugeot e-2008 on Polarsteps.