Spain Holland 1900 km with an all electric Mercedes

Dear Readers,

I just got back from Spain after a 1900 km drive in an electric vehicle.
The car is my friend's where I volunteered to join him after he and his wife visited us in the costa blanca.

While the wives flew back we did the car-ride with some overnight stops and extra days.

The above model is similar to what we drove, the EQ... (forgot to ask)

As I was a novice below are my impressions and lessons learned:

• the car inside is very silent (++) ;

• the dashboard requires swiping (--) which is a pain in the ass (takes to much attention from the road and you easily swipe another function)

• when you drive cruise control and hit the side stripes a few times due to road traffic (small lanes) the car signals an emergency stop!! (I freaked out as did my friend)

• the charge card my friend has does not work in Spains smaller cities !
  you really need the Iberdrola app ; Iberdrola the main Spanish electric company ; or a card called RFIP if I remember correctly

• the fast chargers only charge to 80% (never knew this)

• small chargers can do 100%; in France some small ones are free (but slow)

• effective range is the maximum of the car times 60% as you stay between 20 and 80% (for us this was some 300 KM)

• going down is fun as the battery charges back while driving!

In France and up North the number of fast chargers is more than enough and they were free most of the time. 6 out of 8 were free for example.
But in France they are not on the highway but near malls or small industrial sites. Often no coffee near it!

Am I now a full EV fan?

Yes ! I am a fan nwo but I would defintely first make a good ride to see if the dashboard is well designed. This Mercedes would fail that test.

Hasta luego
Goldrooster