When Bertha Benz in 1888 made the first long distance journey in an automobile, she had to get the fuel from the city pharmacy and had to stop numerous times to deal with technical problems. However, she managed to reach her destination and her goal; she showed the world the usefulness of the automobile for the general public and was able to report back her encountered technical problems resulting in various smart modifications for the automobile.
While driving an electric car for a long distance across various European borders I felt a bit like the pioneer she must have been, discovering the possibilities and limits of this new form of mobility. Normally, in a conventional car, I would not hesitate to drive from London to Oslo. However, in an electric car this trip took a bit more planning.
In preparation of the trip I spend days searching the internet for hotels with charging facilities, because charging overnight is a must if one wants to be on the move again at the break of day. Some chargers are painstakingly slow and some don’t work entirely which can really cause nerve breaking situations. Another challenging aspect when crossing international borders in en electric vehicle is that for each country a different charging card, registered to your car and address, is required.
However, even though the electric car presented us these challenges that a fossil fuel car would not, at every stop we caught ourselves in excited conversations with general passers-by, interacting with local people and other ev-drivers. Indeed it takes a bit more effort and preparation to travel with an electric car but I usually find that preparing for a holiday only adds to the fun.
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