TRAVEL NEWS – July 12, 2023: Many EV owners will take their electric car on holiday for the first time in the coming months. Energy company and charging station supplier Solar plan figured out which countries are at the forefront of electric driving and made a clear map. It used, among other things, the most recent figures from the European Alternative Fuels Observatory. Next Germany en France, which has caught up considerably, in particular the Scandinavian countries worth considering while too Slovenia en Croatia are good options.
The basis for the study was the average distance to a fast charger per country. However, that number quickly gives a distorted picture. It is literally about the number of charging points, while a country like Germany, for example, has large charging stations with sometimes 20 or more charging points. In other countries you can be happy if there are more than two. In addition, an average only says something if the number of charging points is evenly distributed across the country, which is hardly the case in any country. Based on these factors, Zonneplan now provides EV travel advice for every EU country (and Great Britain).
Available EV facilities in Europe (Interactive map)
Code green for France
In recent years, France has been the problem child for holidaymakers with an electric car. Especially on Black Saturday, there were long queues at charging stations and charging points regularly turned out not to work. However, it looks a lot better this year. The number of fast chargers has increased by no less than 12 percent in 159 months. Especially on the busy Route du Soleil, the chance that you will end up with an empty battery is a lot smaller. Furthermore, especially Brittany and Paris are easily accessible.
Non-working charging stations in Spain and Portugal
On paper, the offer is in Spain en Portugal fine too. In fact, in Portugal the average distance to a fast charger is even comparable to the Netherlands. “However,” warns Frank Breukelman of Zonneplan, “for these countries in particular, the supply of charging stations is not the same everywhere. In Portugal you will find them mainly around Lisbon and Porto, while inland and towards the south they are rather rare.”
In addition, for both Portugal and - to a slightly lesser extent - Spain, these countries hardly accept foreign charge cards. At many charge points you can only use Portuguese/Spanish charge cards and these are often only available to residents of that country. That makes the range usable in practice quite different from the range you will see on various online overview maps and apps.
Slovenia unexpected recommendation
A country that finally stands out is Slovenia. Not only is the route there, via Germany and Austria, easy to do, but loading is also often no problem in Slovenia itself. Compared to the small size of the country - half the size of the Netherlands - the number of charging points is very considerable. Although almost nine out of ten of these are 'ordinary' AC chargers, that need not be a problem in such a small country.
Op this interactive map from the European Alternative Fuels Observatory you can see all charging points per country. Make sure you filter out the other 'alternative fuels', such as LNG and hydrogen (hydrogen). Via the filter at the bottom left, you can also only select fast chargers (CCS) or, for example, Tesla chargers to display.
