Electric Car vacation Fun: “Horror Trip”: German Retired Couple Need 26 HOURS To Make 765 Km Vacation Trip In E-Car"

Source:

https://notrickszone.com/2021/07/21/horror-trip-german-retired-couple-need-26-hours-to-make-765-km-vacation-trip-in-e-car/comment-page-1/#comment-1315358

"A trip that would normally take 7 hours without refueling in a diesel engine car, ended up lasting 26 hours in an e-car.

A German retired couple’s “horror trip” …”creepy parking lot” late at night…

Journalist Jonas Raab at the German Merkur reports on the horror vacation trip a retired German couple had to endure in their new $40,000 electric Golf, a VW ID.3 car.

Like most people buying e-cars, many do so naively convinced of all the wonderful advantages this clean mode of transportation supposedly offers.

But often it all ends in huge disappointment.

Two German pensioners wanted to travel 790-kilometers from Freiburg, Germany, to the south of France, a trip that would normally take about 7 hours in a good old fashion regular car.

One problem after another

But with their brand new electric car, the trip ended up taking 26 hours, the Merkur reports.

The problems: lousy charging stations, lying apps and “suddenly decreasing range indicators.”

So disappointed were the two German pensioners, that they sent their travel report to German Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer and to Focus Online.

First charge after just 178 km

The couple reportedly left their home at 10 a.m. with the hopes of settling into the comfort of their holiday accommodations by evening.

But soon they would find out that the 550-km range advertised by VW was a bit too optimistic, and so they found themselves charging up already after 178 km, according to Focus Online.

But the charging station there was broken and so the couple ended up seeking out a VW dealer a few kilometers away and charging their car in “rain and storm” for 2 hours just to get up to 40% charge.

Lying app: no charging station!

Later at 2 p.m., the couple pulled up to the next rest stop.

But the app lied: there was no charging station there.

The couple luckily found a 22 kW charging station off the highway where needed until 6:30 pm to charge up.

By 9 p.m., the couple should have long reached their destination, but they were only half way to their destination.

Darkness had fallen.

Last scintilla of electricity

The Merkur next reports that the next two charging stops also failed because the charging card didn’t work.

At midnight the couple was forced to stop “at a creepy parking lot” and then a rest stop that was “closed for renovation”.

Merkur reported: 
“With the last scintilla of electricity, the two made it to the VW branch off the highway, charged their car once more and arrived at their vacation apartment after exactly 26 hours.”

Haven’t given up hope

Despite their “horror trip”, the two pensioners told Focus Online they still believed in electric mobility.

But they say, “Europe’s charging network for electric cars is lagging miles behind”.

Gotta admire their patience."