I recently took a short (2 hours each way) road trip out of Berlin. I’ve driven a couple EVs, but most of my experience is with a Tesla (I have a Model Y). I rented a BMW ix40 from Sixt.

I did a little bit of research. I knew that the EU standardized on a CCS variation, and I knew that they had an extensive EV infrastructure. My research suggested that I could use my credit car (via Tap, or Apple Pay) in most places (a little more on this later). I know that in the US charging outside of Tesla is an app nightmare (I have four charging apps on my phone alone), so I was a little worried but not too worried.

When I picked up the car, I mentioned my slight concern to the Sixt person helping me and they handed me a ShellRecharge card and a QR Code to set it up in the app.

Driving the car in German was delightful. The highway system is excellent, with high quality road surfaces and orderly driving culture. I enjoyed the actual driving experience very much.

They gave me the car at about 60% SOC, and both the car nav and ABRP suggested at least one charge was necessary, I decided to do it on my outbound leg so I wouldn’t have to worry about it on the way back (Sixt offered a “return at any charge level” option standard). I picked a place right off the highway and pulled up at about 46% and realized that this particular charger did not accept debit cards. I became slightly concerned. I tried setting up the app for the charge company, but it wasn’t available outside of the EU region on iPhone, so I tried their website. This also failed, because they didn’t like my non EU credit card.

At this point I was a little concerned, but i had the Shell card so I found one nearby and headed towards it, arriving at about 43%. I started setting up the card and realized that the QR code also pointed to an EU only app, and that the US version of the app doesn’t allow you to add IC cards in that way.

In a last ditch “I otherwise have to turn around and drive back, scrapping the day” move I picked “RFID” from the screen at the ShellRecharge station and held my authed ApplePay up to the reader. To my great surprise it turned green and prompted me to plug in my car. From there It worked perfectly. Charged from 43% to 82% for about 7 euro and was on my way (124kv).

Things I learned: only new installations are technically required to have credit card readers on them, many old stations are app only. This would be fine if their apps worked cross region, but they don’t. When I could create accounts on websites, credit cards often didn’t work.

So my takeaway is: EV charging is still sort of a mess even in places where it’s better adopted than the US.

But… that was more of a hiccup and I could have likely avoided it altogether if I had done more research. If I were doing a longer EV roadtrip in the EU I think I’d bring a backup phone set to the EU region just to get charging apps.

Anyone want to share stories of their own out-of-home-country evs, or just tips that might be helpful?

TLDR: rented an ev In Germany and it went fine, after a little hiccup with charging payment.

I’m in California and rented a Kia EV6 and I’m shocked at how bad the CCS charging network is. The amount of effort required to find a working charger is ridiculous. I had to call EV Connect for a charger and they wasted 45 minutes of my time and still didn’t get it working.

Wondering if anyone has any solutions to planing trips for roads that are seasonally closed.

It would be cool if there was an override on ABRP or another software so when I want to map my summer camping trip during the winter while the road is closed, I can override the planning software to plan for the road to be open. IE Tioga pass in Yosemite.

Anyone got any ideas?

We just got a 2022 Audi E Tron and none of the Electrify America charging station cables will plug in all the way at multiple locations accept 1 cable which of course has malfunctioned and is not in service, taking in today to get service