electricfelix updates - Issue #14

May 31, 2021

May 2021: Can I hug you?

It took a while, but the sun is definitely shining again!

A spectacular month full of adventures, some of which I wrote about already. The polarsteps logs are all there for you that wish to check on specific tours.

To start it off, did you check out the BMW iX3 ride from Berlin to Amsterdam yet? The first #BerlinChallenge of 2021 is up for your viewing pleasure.

For those of you that rather read (since this is a newsletter I'm guessing quite some) the blog is incoming soon. I can shed some light on my experience though: the consumption surprised me even at 130km/h on the Autobahn. The fast charging curve is not as spectacular as the e-tron 55 for example, but the ramp up is swift and peaked even above 155kW! With traffic being super fluent the BMW (and I) got lucky too. Did I manage to arrive in Amsterdam in under seven hours?

Electric Rental Life

What a nice surprise when I went to look for a rental vehicle for one of my clients. Since he has been using Hertz (Overtoom, Amsterdam, NL) for as long as he remembers I checked out what they had in store.

I contacted Hertz right away after the "ID.3 discovery" and a couple weeks later I could battle my own BMW iX3 ride with the "new beetle"!

The results are on YouTube, blog incoming!

Can you still travel "for free"?

I like to call myself a "travel hacker", but what does that even mean? Well, as my mom once taught me, if you look for it there are always good deals out there.

Before I "raced" the VW ID.3 to Amsterdam at the "fastest possible speed", I tried to drive it to Berlin without paying for the energy used. Thank you LIDL for all efforts being made to electrify Germany (and Europe)!

Special thanks to Chargemap for the great filter options and active community.

An EV roadtrip based on free fast charging only, with our Hertz rental

Volkswagen ID.3 from Amsterdam to Berlin. Can it be done, how much time

does it cost, can we make it during daylight? Thanks to LIDL (Germany)

there are many fast charging options nationwide for your German roadtrips.

Fast charging infrastructure Europe update

With so much going on, I think it's important to keep track of some key specifics: in France Allego has started to put a station a week online and they chose some tactical spots where not that many 100kW+ options were already available (Toulouse, Montpellier and more on the way).

In the UK Fastned announced a new station, openings in NL, DE, Belgium were also specified in their latest email round.

IONITY is still working on some French and other locations, but thanks to Stefan we found out something way more interesting: upgrades. With pretty much any IONITY location being prepared for six chargers (but mostly outfitted with four) I've been wondering for years when this would change. Here we go!

Now with growing infrastructure

What will happen to pricing?

Thanks to EnBW the DACH-speaking region has had an amazing offer for over a year now, that expanded to half of Europe plus became compatible with Fastned, IONITY etc.

EnBW became the "go to" 22kW AC charging card, in The Netherlands it offers nearly unbeatable tariffs. Of course it couldn't last and I can only say thank you for an incredible offer for such a long time. I will use it with only joy for the next month and it makes for an even more interesting puzzle when July 6th comes around.

Watch my pages (IONITY / Cheap Fast Charging) for timely updates on how to solve that puzzle on your international travels this summer.

A big thank you

People are looking into getting those fresh EV's on the European roads and that means I've been welcoming new members to the electricfelix club!

Fifty people (even more if also counting Patreon) are now making sure I can continue my work and I will! On to a hundred and beyond!

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Hier lees je alles over elektrisch rijden, de beste deals bij de laadpaal, de verschillende EV's en veel tips en trucs om he...

Cool URL's

Eine App für dein Elektroauto: Der j+ pilot konzentriert alle wichtigen Fahrzeug- und Ladedaten in einer einzigen App und dient gleichzeitig als steuerlich akzeptiertes Fahrtenbuch.

PUMP - The world's fastest charge planning for electric cars

Der Ladetarifrechner für dein Elektroauto. Auto auswählen und den günstigsten Tarif finden.

Ladefuchs

geografische Darstellung von Schnellladeparks

Rental update

In The Netherlands spectacular things are happening.

Hertz added the ID.3 (58kWh, more blogs coming) but not only that: the Model 3 became cheaper to rent. The Twingo EV(!) got added to the fleet, around 200 euros per week to ride it. AC life, should I try this?

Sixt added lots of KONA's (64kWh) and you can also find them in Sixt Share cities in NL (A'dam, Den Haag, Rotterdam).

I might've just hit my record JAG charging speed last night. VIDEO!