Just to keep you all busy...another question.
Anyone got a leccy car yet, or are you all still in caravans with big diesel ones?
I have a full electric car. Im assuming finding charging stations is relatively painless, even in fairly rural bits?
Any issues people have found?
------------- Amanda
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I have an EV, and It is a Doddle to charging in Europe, I have Driven down to Florence in 2023, and Charges are every 30 km on the French Motorways, and as you get Further South in Italy they are not so common (again may have changed in the last 2 years). In Italy, they tend to install Single charge Units, as opposed to Banks of 8 to 10 in France. Away from Motorways, the Supermarkets, also tend to have Ample Chargers (both Fast and slow chargers) Most towns and villages, tend to have slow Kerbside Chargers too. I have also Charged in Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium, but Mostly in France, but in all Cases availabilty has been good and a lot cheaper that the UK.
I Use mix of Electroverse Card, Credit Card or Providers app on the Phone, generally in that order.
Quote: Originally posted by cllr_gyppo on 27/10/2025
I have an EV, and It is a Doddle to charging in Europe, I have Driven down to Florence in 2023, and Charges are every 30 km on the French Motorways, and as you get Further South in Italy they are not so common (again may have changed in the last 2 years). In Italy, they tend to install Single charge Units, as opposed to Banks of 8 to 10 in France. Away from Motorways, the Supermarkets, also tend to have Ample Chargers (both Fast and slow chargers) Most towns and villages, tend to have slow Kerbside Chargers too. I have also Charged in Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium, but Mostly in France, but in all Cases availabilty has been good and a lot cheaper that the UK.
I Use mix of Electroverse Card, Credit Card or Providers app on the Phone, generally in that order.
My annual mileage is now about 5,000 a year, so the opportunity cost of a tank of fuel a month for the flexibility, space and comfort offered by a larger vehicle especially for camping and longer trips is worth paying. As its only 6 years old and done less than 40,000 miles it has years left in it.
We do have a Toyota Yaris hybrid which more than suits the needs as our town runabout vehicle, but it isn't as well suited to longer motorway trips.
We keep the Mondeo these days just for towing. Couple of years ago we bought a used EV. It is by far our favourite car for driving. For most of our journeys which are for shopping etc the most we travel is 25 mile round trip so no mileage problem and we charge at home from a 3 pin socket specially installed for the purpose.
Next month we are going to Cromer, about 200 miles away. This is an annual trip for the Thursford Christmas Spectacular. I have 3 regular stops en route for recharge rest and obigatory toilet visit. I would need to stop that number of times on the journey whatever vehicle I was using, so no problem adding a re charge.
Any long journeys we make, I spend a few moments in advance planning our stops using the electroverse maps which show every charge point in Europe, so I can recommend the app and electroverse card which can sometimes gain you a discount on charging cost.
One of our neighbours has recently bought a hybrid. Talking to him, he said he was too worried about range of an EV so went with the hybrid. Turns out he drives about 10 miles a day. He looked at me quite forlornly went I commented he would only need to charge most new EVs every other weekend. He just had not thought it out before deciding.
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Mine is a brand new one, and my commute is 60miles/day plus weekend trips round town etc.
I used to do 80 quid/week in my diesel car.
Now I charge just under twice a week (maybe once every 4 days) which costs me 2.80 per time on my EV tariff.
I get about 250 miles from a charge on mine so far.
It's a lovely drive and well worth it for me.
We have a self charging hybrid. It tows very well(Hyundai Tucson). Economy towing is not dissimlar to our previous diesel Santa Fe. Solo it's very good on fuel. Performance is excellent.
I would consider an ev as a second car as we don't do a huge mileage in our current Mini convertible. However we really like it and are happy to keep it.
I know some (pretty expensive) EVs can tow but mileage would be greatly reduced, plus there is the lack of charging points which can accommodate an outfit or even a reasonable sized motor home.
Next towcar would probably be an other hybrid, possibly plug in( with suitable towing ability) to give greater electric range.Or a diesel,
------------- DS-There's more to life than football!!!
Hope this link works! Should be a map of charging points in the Sarlat area. If not go to chargemap.com - find France abd zoom in on the area you want info on.
In this neck of the Dordogne, charging points appear to outnumber EV's. Being a rural area 80% of vehicles are diesel.
I was Not towing, We Camp with a Fully Loaded car and no Roof Rack.
I Drive a Skoda Enyaq iV60, Which does between 200 and 225 Miles on a Full charge. on Long Journeys, ie Ouistream to Florence, In this instance, we arrived at 8am Ouistream, with 50% Battery Charge, Drove for an hour or so, stopped for breakfast and for a Full charge, Otherwise, I would start my day at 100%, and depart at 9:00am, Drive 3 hours at 65 Miles and hour, and Stop for Lunch, and Charge the Car, to 100% (about an hour) then Drive for another 3 hours, stop for Tea and charge again. This is where I plan our Over night stop if we cannot make it to our destination, and perhaps drive another hour or so, and stay in hotel over night (IBIS often) and I charge my car over night, and repeat until we get to our destination
------------- Best Regards
Nathan
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
Quote: Originally posted by cllr_gyppo on 29/10/2025
I was Not towing, We Camp with a Fully Loaded car and no Roof Rack.
I Drive a Skoda Enyaq iV60, Which does between 200 and 225 Miles on a Full charge. on Long Journeys, ie Ouistream to Florence, In this instance, we arrived at 8am Ouistream, with 50% Battery Charge, Drove for an hour or so, stopped for breakfast and for a Full charge, Otherwise, I would start my day at 100%, and depart at 9:00am, Drive 3 hours at 65 Miles and hour, and Stop for Lunch, and Charge the Car, to 100% (about an hour) then Drive for another 3 hours, stop for Tea and charge again. This is where I plan our Over night stop if we cannot make it to our destination, and perhaps drive another hour or so, and stay in hotel over night (IBIS often) and I charge my car over night, and repeat until we get to our destination
One other problem besides the reduced milage whilst Towing, is as far as I've seen, no charging stations where you can charge with caravan attached. this means uncoupling and leaving your caravan to charge the car. I may be wrong, look forward to EV owners correcting me.
------------- 74,going on 25
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder
You are correct, there seem to be very few charge points which could takexa car and trailer or even a big van.
As a towcar I wouldn't entertain an EV. Plug in hybrid maybe,or as we have now self charging hybrid.
------------- DS-There's more to life than football!!!
Been driving a Skoda Enyaq 85 for over a year now, and I have to say it's the best car that I have ever driven, and I past my test back in 1977 !
Just received my IONITY RFID card, although I mostly use Tesla chargers when public charging, but like to have all bases covered for when we go on our next road trip down to Frejus.
Being with Octopus for home charging I already have the Electroverse RFID card, which again is just for back up, along with my Charge Place Scotland and OVO (aka Bonnet) RFID cards, well you can never have enough RFID cards can you, and they work when the apps don't !
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Another question! Leccy cars
via mobile 27/10/2025 at 10:03am
