Welcome to the very first edition of electricfelix updates!

Introduction

Book a Ride! — electricfelix — www.electricfelix.com

We can go anywhere around Europe in the Jaguar I-Pace, contact me for a personal request.

I like to be on the road, for the past ten years I've been traveling all over Europe by car. Mainly Diesel cars, thanks to BlaBlaCar I've been able to share costs and sustain these travels even without ever owning a car. Then last year Jaguar introduced the I-Pace for the Dutch market. I've been able to rent it at competitive prices from Sixt and now I can travel more sustainable to meet with friends living all over Europe.

EV guidance all over Europe

Since I still feel a bit like a pioneer, even though we're already in 2019, it's not so common yet for people taking EV's all over Europe yet (excluding Tesla's of course, they have been doing this for years thanks to the Supercharger network). This has many reasons but definitely the Wild West of charging standards, speeds, and cards are a big factor. This is where electricfelix comes in. Since last December I've been doing electric roadtrips from Wales to Madrid, from München to Copenhagen, from Paris to Stuttgart. I've decided to create an EV guide per country (that I visited), because I feel that makes the most sense right now with a lot of companies (outside of Ionity & Fastned) focusing mainly on their 'own' country. Many quality and price differences exist even within countries but especially if you go wider. So far I made a guide for France (v4), the UK (v2), Germany (v2) and Spain (v1). Where the number stands for the most recent update I made to it. You can always contact me for a (new) guide.

The land of chargers

Both Paris (FR) and Amsterdam (NL) will have new HPC's opening shortly. I know the link to the Dutch station is in Dutch, and talks about a CNG station, but PitPoint is actually also opening HPC chargers there, both CCS and CHAdeMO plugs supplied. Proof:

But that's not the end, Shell in the Netherlands is joining the charging party. They are promising hundreds of HPC's this year, which I won't believe until I see them, but you really notice the normalisation of fast charging that is going on now that the 'big brands' are joining the ranks of Tesla with cars that are actually able to compete at decent charging rates (100kW+). Of course if their consumption is way up from great cars like the Ioniq and so on, that's a small gain for a high cost, so efficiency, please!

It's easy to see that depending on where you are going this summer, if you rely on CCS charging and a big battery, life is improving steadily. Especially when companies like Total and Shell join in, this could get very pretty very quickly. I hear a lot of people that don't love to charge at Shell (for example) which I completely understand, but meanwhile Ionity itself is mainly sponsored by 'German Big Auto', also known as the big Diesel people.. So yeah, we just have to try and improve the future by putting small steps forward, today.

Ionity charging

There have been some videos, even from Ionity themselves on Twitter, that make the process of charging here look even more cumbersome than it really is. I won't be surprised if they take the tweet down, but for now you can still check it:

Also I read about the E-tron having charging issues, especially if you don't hold the cable when starting, the Jaguar still mostly charges around 80kW even if 100kW was promised last year.. The EQC (Mercedes) seems to have the first deliveries in the Netherlands but I haven't spotted any on the road just yet. And then there is the new Model 3 updates that make some Ionity chargers in Norway crumble around 190kW speeds(!) - Never a dull moment in the world of EV.

Car updates

The land of EV's, it will grow tremendously. The Sion is coming, the Mercedes is finally arriving, the Porsche (I was really sad to hear this week that it will launch with 250kW charging 'only' which the Model 3 is already doing anyway..) is on the way (spotted all around Germany in the past weeks), you can order the new Citroën, or the new Renault Zoe with CCS(!), yes EV's are going to run the years to come, it's clear. Dutch politicians are trying to help out 'Big Auto' by creating a lot of fuzz about subsidies in the Netherlands, which is sad, but it won't stop these cars from being a success. Just look at the thousands of Model 3 lease cars already cruising all around NL.

Trips

As you hopefully know, it's possible to schedule a ride with me anywhere you wish to go. I will look into local charging possibilities and give an honest prediction about the trip & pricing when you tell me where you'd want to go. You can find the booking form here.

In August the first weekend of the month I'm heading for Berlin. You can still join the ride for € 50,- there is one seat left, we leave Friday morning at 9AM at Amstelstation, Amsterdam.

The final weekend of August I'm heading from Amsterdam to Bretagne (FR), you can join me all the way to the beautiful village of Carantec. On the way there we will take a break at Boulogne-sur-Mer so it's also possible to join part of the ride. Two seats to Boulogne and one seat to Carantec is still available.

These rides around Germany and France will help me take notice of the updates to the charging networks that are happening everywhere. So expect a newsletter somewhere in August to update you on my findings. (Chargemap just updated it's pricing alone the French autoroute this week, there is now a 1,50 startup fee.. I was recommending Chargemap in my guide because you didn't have to pay a startup fee, so it's sad to notice this recent change and bump in pricing). Especially when these machines are so prone to errors.

I guess Izivia really wants you to order their own badge. Which I now can easily recommend to anyone charging up in France near the highway. Ordering a card is easy, here.

Tomorrow, for the people reading this still on 'release Friday', I'm heading to Hamburg, you can join, for € 30,- a person you will find yourself in central Hamburg on Saturday early in the evening! After Hamburg I will continue to Copenhagen, and then, for the first time in my life, continue the drive into Sweden. Of course I hope to make a guide for Denmark after the trip, and Sweden too if I find enough chargers to try. There should be some lessons there.

I can already recommend you to order the following charging card, if you're planning a trip heading to Sweden yourself.

Blog

Did you check out the blog about the Zero SR/F? I went and got a rental in Helmond recently from Electric Motorbikes to enjoy a couple of days free riding and visiting (new) friends in direction of Stuttgart. It was a beautiful trip, the Electric Night Ride itself was very nice because of the meeting of new and old friends, I took many pictures and it's a motorbike that's stuck in my head. Even though I don't really believe in 'owning vehicles', this is one that would be very nice to have. I recommend you to try it out, I'd even go as far as to say it's worth it to get your license just so you can ride this machine (and the generations that will follow) in the coming years. You don't even need to buy it. Just rent it for a nice summer roadtrip. EV love! Find the blog at electricfelix.com/blog.

Sponsors

Even though I love to rely on myself and myself alone, riding the Jaguar (or any other EV vehicle) around Europe will never be completely free. If you are looking forward to more guides, more blogs, more updates in the form of this newsletter, I am always open to donations. Just a Ionity charge is already getting me another 250km, so it doesn't have to get crazy! Also I'm always open to talk about sponsorships, a banner, a blog about your shop/vehicle/website - if it's useful to the EV drivers and interested people out there, we can talk! Find me on twitter.com/electricfelix or just sent me an email at [email protected]

Feedback

I would love to hear what you think, about the website, the blog, this newsletter, the PDF guides, what are you missing, how can I help you drive further, faster, and for less money! Let me know what you think, a reply on this newsletter is also possible of course. See you on the road!

Signing out

One new discovery this week was Chargebuddy useful if you'd like people being able to reach you without leaving your phone number behind the windshield while charging up. Now of course the thing with apps like these could be that the person you need it for the most will never download this app, but still. One can try.

Wait, did you see the trailer that was shot in December when I was driving to Berlin? 2018 in the I-Pace!