tigerbalm
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Damien
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2020
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- Location
- Ireland
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- Taycan Turbo S, Fiat 500 EV
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- #106
Day 16: Freiburg (Germany) -> Paris (France)
After getting a destination charge overnight, we left our hotel – Dorint Thermenhotel Freiburg – with 100% battery heading for our pitstop – a hotel at Charles De Gaulle (CDG) airpot on our way to catch the ferry back home to Ireland.
We headed back north in the direction of Karlsruhe – along the autobahn before crossing over into France near Strasbourg.
With the PCM showing country info – as usual – when crossing international borders.
Our first charging stop was at IONITY Hauconcourt (on the outskirts of Metz). This was one of the only IONITY stations we used on this trip that was at a shopping centre – instead of a motorway service station. And it was busy – the first IONITY station that had all charging stations in use and a queue waiting.
Cars rotated through the stations reasonably quickly – but you can tell the cars that charge fast and those that don't. The informal queuing system is a little fraught – there seemed to be a risk of queue jumping or people just not being sure. This is one station where IONITY need to add more stations – the four are way too busy – and a nearby Tesla supercharging station had at least 12 charging stalls.
We grabbed a charge when it was our turn on the queue – and we only put in the amount we needed to reach our next stop – so as not to hog the valuable charging slots for too long.
We decided to make a relatively short – 50km each way – detour to have lunch in Luxembourg.
The PCM found us an underground parking centre easily – as it had a live feed of free spaces in each location.
Luckily it was near the main pedestrian area.
And we quickly found a lot of choices of places to eat.
Afterwards as it was getting late – we had to head back down to Metz and head west to Paris against the setting sun.
Picking up our final charge before Paris at IONITY Gueux – outside Reims.
As it got dark – the matrix lights, the night vision, the lane change assist and the sensor fusion all start come-to-life and provide real-world driver assistance without ever being distracting.
We arrived at our pitstop hotel – INNSiDE by Melià Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport - late in the evening at around 21:30 – tired after the 700km trip.
The underground car park at the hotel was too small – and thus very busy. Unfortunately the hotels two destination chargers were blocked by non EV's.
There wasn't much we could do – and the charging spots themselves had no "EV only" or other signage – so can't really blame the other vehicle owners. In all the places we stay – we have a backup plan – if a destination charge doesn't work out. In this case it was a nearby 175kW chargers that were on ChargeMap.
We left the car park and headed the 5km to the fast chargers – which are located outside of an Audi Dealer. However, when we reached the charges – disaster. One was "dead" and the other that had electricity/screen working refused to start with any of our charging cards – Porsche/ChargeMap/Shell. There was no obvious instructions on what service or app that could be used to start the charger directly. The area around the chargers was also disgusting – with widespread dumping, half eaten pizza boxes and trash thrown everywhere. The "working" charger also had a serious spider infestation.
At this stage it was nearing 23.30 at night – after a long drive. This was a problem because of the IONITY network tomorrow.
The arrow shows the rough direction we are travelling to catch our boat back to Ireland. However, all the IONITY pins in white are still in build stage – they don't yet exist. Therefore, we'd have to route more northerly to the chargers near Le Havre – however, we didn't have enough to reach there. Normally, we'd handle this the next day – but this was the one day we'd a strict deadline – we had to meet the boat at 15.00 at the latest to board.
We decided to grab a 50kW charge to top up our battery enough to reach IONITY tomorrow. We found one in a motorway station a further 15 minutes away – and took in a charge there for 40 minutes – before heading back to the hotel.
By now it was 01.30 on Sunday morning and we were both well tired. When we arrived back at our hotel – the underground car park was full! So we had to find a nearby airport surface car park, de-camp and walk back to our hotel. Eventually getting to bed at 02.00 – with a departure time of 08.15 the next morning.
This was our most challenging/frustrating charging experience on the trip – due to:
In the end though – we did what was necessary and was prepared (and tired) for the next and final day of our trip.
The days charging stats:
Today we did 740 km over 12:08 hours, with an average speed of 62m/h, consuming 21.3 kWh/100km.
After getting a destination charge overnight, we left our hotel – Dorint Thermenhotel Freiburg – with 100% battery heading for our pitstop – a hotel at Charles De Gaulle (CDG) airpot on our way to catch the ferry back home to Ireland.
We headed back north in the direction of Karlsruhe – along the autobahn before crossing over into France near Strasbourg.
With the PCM showing country info – as usual – when crossing international borders.
Our first charging stop was at IONITY Hauconcourt (on the outskirts of Metz). This was one of the only IONITY stations we used on this trip that was at a shopping centre – instead of a motorway service station. And it was busy – the first IONITY station that had all charging stations in use and a queue waiting.
Cars rotated through the stations reasonably quickly – but you can tell the cars that charge fast and those that don't. The informal queuing system is a little fraught – there seemed to be a risk of queue jumping or people just not being sure. This is one station where IONITY need to add more stations – the four are way too busy – and a nearby Tesla supercharging station had at least 12 charging stalls.
We grabbed a charge when it was our turn on the queue – and we only put in the amount we needed to reach our next stop – so as not to hog the valuable charging slots for too long.
We decided to make a relatively short – 50km each way – detour to have lunch in Luxembourg.
The PCM found us an underground parking centre easily – as it had a live feed of free spaces in each location.
Luckily it was near the main pedestrian area.
And we quickly found a lot of choices of places to eat.
Afterwards as it was getting late – we had to head back down to Metz and head west to Paris against the setting sun.
Picking up our final charge before Paris at IONITY Gueux – outside Reims.
As it got dark – the matrix lights, the night vision, the lane change assist and the sensor fusion all start come-to-life and provide real-world driver assistance without ever being distracting.
We arrived at our pitstop hotel – INNSiDE by Melià Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport - late in the evening at around 21:30 – tired after the 700km trip.
The underground car park at the hotel was too small – and thus very busy. Unfortunately the hotels two destination chargers were blocked by non EV's.
There wasn't much we could do – and the charging spots themselves had no "EV only" or other signage – so can't really blame the other vehicle owners. In all the places we stay – we have a backup plan – if a destination charge doesn't work out. In this case it was a nearby 175kW chargers that were on ChargeMap.
We left the car park and headed the 5km to the fast chargers – which are located outside of an Audi Dealer. However, when we reached the charges – disaster. One was "dead" and the other that had electricity/screen working refused to start with any of our charging cards – Porsche/ChargeMap/Shell. There was no obvious instructions on what service or app that could be used to start the charger directly. The area around the chargers was also disgusting – with widespread dumping, half eaten pizza boxes and trash thrown everywhere. The "working" charger also had a serious spider infestation.
At this stage it was nearing 23.30 at night – after a long drive. This was a problem because of the IONITY network tomorrow.
The arrow shows the rough direction we are travelling to catch our boat back to Ireland. However, all the IONITY pins in white are still in build stage – they don't yet exist. Therefore, we'd have to route more northerly to the chargers near Le Havre – however, we didn't have enough to reach there. Normally, we'd handle this the next day – but this was the one day we'd a strict deadline – we had to meet the boat at 15.00 at the latest to board.
We decided to grab a 50kW charge to top up our battery enough to reach IONITY tomorrow. We found one in a motorway station a further 15 minutes away – and took in a charge there for 40 minutes – before heading back to the hotel.
By now it was 01.30 on Sunday morning and we were both well tired. When we arrived back at our hotel – the underground car park was full! So we had to find a nearby airport surface car park, de-camp and walk back to our hotel. Eventually getting to bed at 02.00 – with a departure time of 08.15 the next morning.
This was our most challenging/frustrating charging experience on the trip – due to:
- Destination chargers blocked
- Nearby 175kW chargers not working/not maintained
- Hotel car park full when 50kW charge completed
- IONITY network still being built in area we were travelling
- We had a strict deadline to meet the next day.
In the end though – we did what was necessary and was prepared (and tired) for the next and final day of our trip.
The days charging stats:
Location | Start SOC % | End SOC % | kWh added | Cost | Duration | Ambient Temp | Battery Temp | Charger Type | Network |
Hauconcourt, France | 34% | 85% | 57.76 | €19.06 | 36 minutes | 24.0 | 36 | DC 300kW | Porsche Charging Service |
Gueux, France | 25% | 95% | 66.72 | €22.02 | 36 minutes | 21.0 | 35 | DC 300kW | Porsche Charging Service |
Vémars, France | 52% | 87% | 35.42 | €23.90 | 46 minutes | 21.0 | 32 | DC 50kW | Porsche Charging Service |
Today we did 740 km over 12:08 hours, with an average speed of 62m/h, consuming 21.3 kWh/100km.
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