Gregster
Legacy Member
I posted this elsewhere but have been wanting to share it here…
Last month we flew to Germany for Easter and we rented a Model 3 at Hertz in Frankfurt for the trip. I’ve been toying with renting an EV for our last few European trips and finally decided to try it. We flew from Montreal to Frankfurt on the day of the ice storm!
Our drive would be Frankfurt to Berlin, Berlin to Dresden, Dresden to Colditz then to Stuttgart and back to Frankfurt. Or 1500-1600km
Yes you can absolutely 100% a roadtrip with an EV in Germany. While the Tesla supercharger network is flawless you also have offerings from Ionity, Fastned and a few others. Hertz bills all supercharging at the end of your rental to your CC so no need for a Tesla account. The shell recharge dongle included with the keycard is pretty useless as we could never find a shell with a DCFC over 50kw and it didn’t work at partners. I used one Ionity charge point and the app was very easy to use and charge speeds over 150kw. However for stress free voyage stick with Superchargers.
Being a President’s Circle member at Hertz meant we just walked up to the car (knew 24hrs before what bay it was at) got in and drove off. Actually from off the plane, passport e gates and in the car was like 30 mins.
I’ve had some experience with Model 3s but never anything over a few days. I must say we really enjoyed it… so much so that it’s No.1 on the list for EV No.2 if the new Mini isn’t sold here. Ours was a Chinese built Model 3. Very comfortable for long drives, stable at high speeds(Frequently topped out on unrestricted autobahns) and handled great. Only annoying part was the random update for 45 mins that decided to start and me blowing by an exit for a supercharger leaving us having to use a random chargepoint in a small town to top up. Luckily there was a cafe there while we waited.
I figure we had to stop every 2.5-3hours to use a supercharger to top up which is fine considering the speeds we were travelling at 120-140. Wasn’t really counting “Km range” as endurance in hours made a bit more sense.
Example Frankfurt to Berlin required 2 stops. One was for lunch so a complete scratch and the second was for 7 mins which I did 14 mins to have a “buffer” The café at that location was really good though.
In the end the rental was 149€ plus 80€ for going over the included KMs and around 130€ in supercharging plus the 22€ at Ionity. I really wanted to try Ionity as the reviews have been good
Would I do it again? 100% We enjoyed the car and the charge stops were nice to stretch our legs or get a drink or in my case having the bladder of a pregnant lady. Pretty much everyone we know was laughing saying we would get stuck, they laugh at us at home anyways… I think I could have made this trip with the Mercedes EQS Or EQA or Polestar that’s how good the charging network was. Not only that the charge stations are really nice.
Next up UK in a couple weeks with a Polestar 2
First stop
Fastned station at McDonald’s with 20 supercharger stalls as well
Allego were pretty common as well
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last month we flew to Germany for Easter and we rented a Model 3 at Hertz in Frankfurt for the trip. I’ve been toying with renting an EV for our last few European trips and finally decided to try it. We flew from Montreal to Frankfurt on the day of the ice storm!
Our drive would be Frankfurt to Berlin, Berlin to Dresden, Dresden to Colditz then to Stuttgart and back to Frankfurt. Or 1500-1600km
Yes you can absolutely 100% a roadtrip with an EV in Germany. While the Tesla supercharger network is flawless you also have offerings from Ionity, Fastned and a few others. Hertz bills all supercharging at the end of your rental to your CC so no need for a Tesla account. The shell recharge dongle included with the keycard is pretty useless as we could never find a shell with a DCFC over 50kw and it didn’t work at partners. I used one Ionity charge point and the app was very easy to use and charge speeds over 150kw. However for stress free voyage stick with Superchargers.
Being a President’s Circle member at Hertz meant we just walked up to the car (knew 24hrs before what bay it was at) got in and drove off. Actually from off the plane, passport e gates and in the car was like 30 mins.
I’ve had some experience with Model 3s but never anything over a few days. I must say we really enjoyed it… so much so that it’s No.1 on the list for EV No.2 if the new Mini isn’t sold here. Ours was a Chinese built Model 3. Very comfortable for long drives, stable at high speeds(Frequently topped out on unrestricted autobahns) and handled great. Only annoying part was the random update for 45 mins that decided to start and me blowing by an exit for a supercharger leaving us having to use a random chargepoint in a small town to top up. Luckily there was a cafe there while we waited.
I figure we had to stop every 2.5-3hours to use a supercharger to top up which is fine considering the speeds we were travelling at 120-140. Wasn’t really counting “Km range” as endurance in hours made a bit more sense.
Example Frankfurt to Berlin required 2 stops. One was for lunch so a complete scratch and the second was for 7 mins which I did 14 mins to have a “buffer” The café at that location was really good though.
In the end the rental was 149€ plus 80€ for going over the included KMs and around 130€ in supercharging plus the 22€ at Ionity. I really wanted to try Ionity as the reviews have been good
Would I do it again? 100% We enjoyed the car and the charge stops were nice to stretch our legs or get a drink or in my case having the bladder of a pregnant lady. Pretty much everyone we know was laughing saying we would get stuck, they laugh at us at home anyways… I think I could have made this trip with the Mercedes EQS Or EQA or Polestar that’s how good the charging network was. Not only that the charge stations are really nice.
Next up UK in a couple weeks with a Polestar 2
First stop
Fastned station at McDonald’s with 20 supercharger stalls as well
Allego were pretty common as well
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
