And the great anual migration to the south begins. First stop, Örebro 🇸🇪 with 24 stalls open to every EV plus 12 more from another provider. Coffee and cheap water in nearby ICA. Great stuff.
Second stop: Gränna, 🇸🇪 20 stalls available to all EVs. This is what it takes to open one of these massive stations: 1. A transformer station 2. Five V4 cabinets each supporting 4 stalls. Also visible the gateway with redundant communication for HA 3. 20 stalls 4 Optional view
High Availability monitoring is extra important because it build trust amongst users. You rely on these stations to always be working and you get notices in vehicle of which stalls are out of order. Tesla already knows this and is probably scheduling a technician to repair it.
Third and last stop before leaving Sweden, and what more appropriate than Helsingborg, 🇸🇪 home of the 1000th Swedish supercharger stall! This one has it all! Power transformer, 6 cabinets, 24 stalls open to all EVs and solar panels providing both energy and shade. Gold standard!
This slightly longer charge was perfect for a light lunch, the always required bathroom stop, and a coffee run. Ready to leave just in time 👌 next up: The Bridge over to Denmark 🇩🇰
One more unremarkable stop in Fredericia 🇩🇰 in another 24 stall supercharger where a McDonalds latte costs 5.5€ don’t love that part about Denmark.
And now we get to my favorite country for zzummm zzummmm. Neumünster 🇩🇪 with 20 stalls where I arrived with 3% left. I’m not making that mistake again. I’m charging extra to be able to comfortably reach my last supercharger for the day. Even with zummm zummm speeds 😬
Well 😬 that didn’t work. The zummm zummm speeds are just too irresistible. Still made it though. 3% is plenty to arrive at a closed gate? Thankfully the car UI has an access code to open it. My heart stopped for a bit, while staring at the closed gate.
Another massive 20 stall station at Soltau-Ost 🇩🇪 this one has starlink connectivity 😎
Germany is always a good spot to verify that the power electronics cooling fans of the car are working properly. THEY ARE WORKING PERFECTLY (sorry, didn’t hear you with all that fan racket) 🙉
And I’ve arrived at my hotel for the night. You would think that I would be exhausted after a full day of driving, but the reality is that the car did all the driving. I just monitored it while listening to hours of podcasts between the stops for charging and snacking.
Minus the zummm zumm parts. Those I drove. Of course 🏎️
The hotel for the night was super nice. In the middle of the countryside, the largest single bed I’ve seen, good sower and awesome breakfast. Germany never disappoints with the stays and especially the breakfasts. Scrambled eggs with real fresh eggs? What a concept!
I just can’t help it, can I?
I will definitely charge enough at Northeim-Nord 🇩🇪, 12 gloriously empty stalls to arrive at the next supercharger with plenty of slack. At least that is what I’m telling myself. I might drive sensibly this time…
I’ve done it! Arrived with 12%! It did help that most of this stretch was limited to 120km/h. Germany, what are you doing, do you think you’re <any other European country with sensible speed limits>?
One more short stop at another gloriously empty 16 stalls supercharger in Guxhagen, 🇩🇪 this is just sooooo easy…
And one more stop at Asfeld, 🇩🇪 16 stalls, mostly empty
Possibly, the funnest supercharger name yet, Pfungstadt, 🇩🇪 with an odd number of stalls: 15. In the middle of the day on a work Friday, the autobahn is full of Stau. I guess the fun ended for this trip. It’s ok though, I got more than enough to last me for two months :-)
The European cross-country spring traveler best friend. This is the content you came here for… I’ll spare you the before picture…
Last stop in Germany. Kappel-Graphenhausen 🇩🇪 with 10 stalls. A bit longer stop for a light lunch and then off we go to the country next door
Besançon 🇫🇷 12 stalls in the biggest parking lot of a massive shopping center. Sunny 30° outside and people go to the shopping mall in droves. Maybe for the AC? Doesn’t look like it in the picture but the parking lot was full to the brim.
And I’m glad to return to Aire du Bourbonnais 🇫🇷 Surprisingly few repeat superchargers in this trip. I was expecting to see more familiar sites since I’ve been doing this journey since 2020, but they are so many now that it is only by chance that you hit the same ones again.
The last French supercharger for the night is a weird one. Complete with solar panels but in the middle of nowhere next to an old hotel. Saint-Pardoux-l’Ortigier, 🇫🇷 continues the old French supercharger tradition of close to a hotel, and to nothing else.
Last night hotel was… something. The cherry on top, was the bright red toilet seat cover. Where does one even buy this?
Another French charger in the middle of nowhere with just a hotel nearby in Castets 🇫🇷 really interesting that most of the superchargers I used in France in all these years have been next to hotels. Recently shopping malls but mostly hotels. I wonder why is that.
And now we’re getting in repeat territory. Rivabellosa 🇪🇸 I’ve been in this one and the next two, every single time for this last leg of the trip.
And the lovely Tordesillas 🇪🇸 makes me feel that I have arrived at the Iberian peninsula just because of the pine trees (pinheiro manso in Portuguese). I absolutely love these trees and the amazing shade they provide in days of scorching heat.
And the last charger as always at Guarda 🇵🇹 This time I took the longer charge time to take a nap and forgot to take a picture. But it is the same as all other years. Still the same number of stalls on the back of a local hotel.
I have arrived at my destination in Portugal. 4000+km using ~900kWh of energy in three days. This time the average was a bit higher than other years. Usually is around 205 Wh/km but this time was 219 Wh/km. Two of the days were exceptionally hot and the last day rained as heck…
