electricfelix updates - Issue #6

February 14, 2020

Newsletter number six! The Ionity (hot potato) issue. Many electricfelix roadtrips ahead! Cheaper fast charging around Europe.

How to plan an electric roadtrip from Amsterdam to Madrid with the Mercedes EQC or any comparable battery powered car like the Jaguar I-Pace, Audi e-tron. What should you pay attention to, which charging cards do you need, where should you go for a charge, what should you avoid.

Curious how I go about planning an international roadtrip? Find out all about my upcoming #EQC2Madrid -- Mercedes-Benz (NL) was kind enough to drop the EQC in my lap, I had a plan! Ajax is playing Getafe in Madrid next week, mentally I'm already on my way. With the Izivia news of 188 chargers shut down along the French highways it will be even more exciting than I already thought. I just published the looking forward blog Part II: Poitiers to Madrid!

If you want to follow us every step on the way and find out more about the consumption and charging, tune into polarsteps! Departure is Monday morning, 17th of February!

Follow electricfelix' #EQC2Madrid trip

Ionity

My website has never seen the amount of visitors as it did last month, a lot of "Ionity based" clicks. Did you check out my long read? Nobody knew what would happen, but now we do. Overall the end result was not that surprising. But it happened fast and the responses were not pretty. It seems especially in Germany the backlash (at least in PR) is quite serious.

What surprised me the most is the recent EnBW mailing (a German energy giant) informing their own customers that they will keep Ionity pricing as it was (for now) but they do suggest to look for alternative chargers when available. And did you read the almost political statement Chargemap wrote?

If you read my newsletters last year, I warned a couple of times because personally I thought the 'new' pricing would've arrived somewhere in 2019 already. Of course I was hoping for a lower tariff than what seems to be the 2020 reality. Anybody wondering where these prices are coming from, Ionity is building something nobody else is. The fastest charging infrastructure to be found in Europe right now. It's like a five star hotel for electric vehicles.

The Ionity alternative(s)

I would love to (blindly) recommend Innogy, EnBW and Allego HPC's (if we focus on Germany for example). My daily routine involves helping my patrons find the best way to travel Europe. Most of the time that includes explaining to them they should not try the newest Innogy charger or that EnBW HPC over there, because simply they are not functional (or reliable) yet. I know this will change this year. And that might make my work all the more interesting, every day!

Best pricing at Ionity (live updates)

If you head over to my website (click above), the newly introduced 'Services' menu has a special Ionity button. Clicking it will always point you to a live overview of live pricing for Ionity with some of the most popular EU charging cards/apps. It's hard to predict for how long Maingau will be able to keep pricing as it is. Since Maingau has a 300kWh monthly charging cap(!) heavy users will have to find another way. I will be here to look into personal usecases, sign up as a patron and we can discuss matters!

electricfelix on Patreon

After going live on the "Dutch Patreon": Petje.af last month I have also opened the doors to an international audience this week. You can become a patron and instantly access all the EV travel guides to Europe that I made including personal advice through my electricfelix.com/request-advice form.

Become a patron of electricfelix today: Read posts by electricfelix and get access to all travel guides to Europe by EV including personal advice for your travel plans

For the Dutch speaking crowd, just click below to become a patron at Petje.af!

Welkom bij electricfelix! Als adviseur over alles wat met elektrisch rijden te maken heeft, ben ik graag onderweg. Op zoek naar nieuwe snelladers, goedkopere laadpassen, sneller ladende voertuigen, en andere mooie trucs. Ik deel mijn ervaringen graag met jullie, vandaar deze "petje af"-pagina! Je kunt bij mij terecht voor advies betreffende al je Europese roadtrips, neem contact met mij op om een reisgids te ontvangen met tips over reizen met een EV door Frankrijk, Duitsland, Engeland en Spanje! Aan volgende reisgidsen wordt gewerkt. Bovendien kun je als lid van electricfelix altijd terecht voor persoonlijk reisadvies!

I enjoyed the 17-minute video about how electric mobility has reached 'The End of The Beginning', I think the speaker has some valid statistics and arguments, and it will be super interesting to see where we're headed in the coming years of EV!

Travel guides

Traveling to France, Germany, Spain and the UK with an electric vehicle? Here you will find the ultimate travel guides to Europe. Made after my own discoveries with all kinds of electric vehicles, small cars, bigger cars, electric motorcycles, and many other vehicles using electric engines. Charging up cheaper at Ionity, Fastned and Allego. Find out all you need to prepare your ultimate roadtrip!

Upcoming roadtrips!

Next Monday you can follow the #EQC2Madrid ride, for days on end I will be enjoying the French and Spanish countryside, try to catch some football, report on the state of High Power Chargers from Amsterdam to Madrid (and maybe Valencia, Barcelona?)

Of course Twitter is a fast medium for live updates and I will use polarsteps and Instagram too. Hope to meet you somewhere!

I will meet up with Dave at the end of February to try out his fresh Audi e-tron, get some more data on actual consumption and charging for a trip to Maastricht or maybe even flooring it in Germany? He is quite skeptical about EV's himself, so it might make for an interesting talk while in the car.

The promise made by Peugeot to drive the e-208 GT one day is still out there. No date has been communicated yet, I will keep you posted!

March

Is when I will be heading to Switzerland with my dad and sister. The idea was to rent an I-Pace, the only disadvantage is that Sixt never has updated the cars. So no H264 updates and so on to test. I reached out to Jaguar for an updated I-Pace but for now that's a dead end. If you want to laugh by the way check the Sixt link up there because the statistics for the I-Pace they put on their website...

If you have an EV that you wouldn't need between 7-15 March I would be interested to take it on an adventure to Switzerland, please reach out to me if you have ideas that could help me make that trip a bit more interesting! Looking forward to writing about that one!

The electricfelix Berlin Challenge

The first one: December 2018 [Jaguar I-Pace]

The second one:

October 2019: A speedy trip from Amsterdam to Berlin with the Model 3 Long Range!

The third one:

Can I beat the 7 hour ride the Tesla Model 3 made possible?

If you can guess the vehicle for The electricfelix Berlin Challenge Part III, I might save you a seat! Become a patron to stay up to date!

Stay tuned, the next newsletter will be a promising one!