The Perils of Renting an EV Abroad.

[PlayBookUserMT]

This past fall I took a Scandinavian vacation.

I met up with a buddy in Copenhagen, and we wanted to go explore some of Denmark and Sweden.

Looking at our options, we opted to rent an EV SUV. It seemed like an environmentally friendly, technology packed option that would be cheaper than filling up on gas with the current prices.

First problem we ran into: the rental company didn't plug the SUV in properly so we started with half a battery.

Now, neither of us have used an EV before so we thought it was a great opportunity to try one out.

The second problem arose when we left Copenhagen, and we were 2 hours away in Sweden. We started running low on charge so we headed towards the nearest charge station. Thankfully these are all clearly marked on the gps, with charge speeds and everything!

This is when we discovered that you can't just pay at a charge station with your credit card. No, that would have been too simple in this day and age!

The solution? Download an app, sign up and pay through the app. Seems simple enough, no problem there...right?

App #1 requires a European address to sign up for their services, no international support whatsoever.

Okay, down the road we go to the next charge station. This one has a pin pad and an nfc card reader. Sweet, my credit card should work! No dice, this is when we ask the guy next to us what the deal is. Turns out you need to sign up for a subscription card. All the terminals work on subscription services like cell phone plans. Just sign up and they will mail you your card. This would be fine if we lived there, or had we been able to pick up a card at a physical store.

Thankfully we were pointed towards another station that might work. 1.5 hours later and full of frustration, plus 6 charge station apps later, we finally found an app that didn't require an European address or EU phone number to sign up.

Finally we were in action and able to get on our way! Except the only charge stations we found to work are few and far between.

What would have been a simple carefree trip turned into a bit of a tech nightmare.

What are your tips for traveling with an EV in foreign countries? Have any horror stories of your own?

 

[Yamahammer]

This is a great point to bring up!

First, if you are looking for your first introduction to an EV and in a foreign country it might be a good idea to do so homework. Does every country in the world accept my usual payment methods? Check first.

Second, rental company does not supply you with an agreed upon arrangement i.e. a fully charged battery then the onus is on the renter to investigate further. Question, when returning the rental were you told that the vehicle had to be returned with a fully charged battery? Please advise.

Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with your credit, but how did the vehicle perform?

This past fall I took a Scandinavian vacation.

I met up with a buddy in Copenhagen, and we wanted to go explore some of Denmark and Sweden.

Looking at our options, we opted to rent an EV SUV. It seemed like an environmentally friendly, technology packed option that would be cheaper than filling up on gas with the current prices.

First problem we ran into: the rental company didn't plug the SUV in properly so we started with half a battery.

Now, neither of us have used an EV before so we thought it was a great opportunity to try one out.

The second problem arose when we left Copenhagen, and we were 2 hours away in Sweden. We started running low on charge so we headed towards the nearest charge station. Thankfully these are all clearly marked on the gps, with charge speeds and everything!

This is when we discovered that you can't just pay at a charge station with your credit card. No, that would have been too simple in this day and age!

The solution? Download an app, sign up and pay through the app. Seems simple enough, no problem there...right?

App #1 requires a European address to sign up for their services, no international support whatsoever.

Okay, down the road we go to the next charge station. This one has a pin pad and an nfc card reader. Sweet, my credit card should work! No dice, this is when we ask the guy next to us what the deal is. Turns out you need to sign up for a subscription card. All the terminals work on subscription services like cell phone plans. Just sign up and they will mail you your card. This would be fine if we lived there, or had we been able to pick up a card at a physical store.

Thankfully we were pointed towards another station that might work. 1.5 hours later and full of frustration, plus 6 charge station apps later, we finally found an app that didn't require an European address or EU phone number to sign up.

Finally we were in action and able to get on our way! Except the only charge stations we found to work are few and far between.

What would have been a simple carefree trip turned into a bit of a tech nightmare.

What are your tips for traveling with an EV in foreign countries? Have any horror stories of your own?

 

[SteinwayTransitCorp]

This past fall I took a Scandinavian vacation.

I met up with a buddy in Copenhagen, and we wanted to go explore some of Denmark and Sweden.

Looking at our options, we opted to rent an EV SUV. It seemed like an environmentally friendly, technology packed option that would be cheaper than filling up on gas with the current prices.

First problem we ran into: the rental company didn't plug the SUV in properly so we started with half a battery.

Now, neither of us have used an EV before so we thought it was a great opportunity to try one out.

The second problem arose when we left Copenhagen, and we were 2 hours away in Sweden. We started running low on charge so we headed towards the nearest charge station. Thankfully these are all clearly marked on the gps, with charge speeds and everything!

This is when we discovered that you can't just pay at a charge station with your credit card. No, that would have been too simple in this day and age!

The solution? Download an app, sign up and pay through the app. Seems simple enough, no problem there...right?

App #1 requires a European address to sign up for their services, no international support whatsoever.

Okay, down the road we go to the next charge station. This one has a pin pad and an nfc card reader. Sweet, my credit card should work! No dice, this is when we ask the guy next to us what the deal is. Turns out you need to sign up for a subscription card. All the terminals work on subscription services like cell phone plans. Just sign up and they will mail you your card. This would be fine if we lived there, or had we been able to pick up a card at a physical store.

Thankfully we were pointed towards another station that might work. 1.5 hours later and full of frustration, plus 6 charge station apps later, we finally found an app that didn't require an European address or EU phone number to sign up.

Finally we were in action and able to get on our way! Except the only charge stations we found to work are few and far between.

What would have been a simple carefree trip turned into a bit of a tech nightmare.

What are your tips for traveling with an EV in foreign countries? Have any horror stories of your own?

When going abroad, it is always good to check everything ahead of time whether you were driving an electric vehicle or gasoline powered things are quite different in different countries.

 

[Ph1llip]

This past fall I took a Scandinavian vacation.

I met up with a buddy in Copenhagen, and we wanted to go explore some of Denmark and Sweden.

Looking at our options, we opted to rent an EV SUV. It seemed like an environmentally friendly, technology packed option that would be cheaper than filling up on gas with the current prices.

First problem we ran into: the rental company didn't plug the SUV in properly so we started with half a battery.

Now, neither of us have used an EV before so we thought it was a great opportunity to try one out.

The second problem arose when we left Copenhagen, and we were 2 hours away in Sweden. We started running low on charge so we headed towards the nearest charge station. Thankfully these are all clearly marked on the gps, with charge speeds and everything!

This is when we discovered that you can't just pay at a charge station with your credit card. No, that would have been too simple in this day and age!

The solution? Download an app, sign up and pay through the app. Seems simple enough, no problem there...right?

App #1 requires a European address to sign up for their services, no international support whatsoever.

Okay, down the road we go to the next charge station. This one has a pin pad and an nfc card reader. Sweet, my credit card should work! No dice, this is when we ask the guy next to us what the deal is. Turns out you need to sign up for a subscription card. All the terminals work on subscription services like cell phone plans. Just sign up and they will mail you your card. This would be fine if we lived there, or had we been able to pick up a card at a physical store.

Thankfully we were pointed towards another station that might work. 1.5 hours later and full of frustration, plus 6 charge station apps later, we finally found an app that didn't require an European address or EU phone number to sign up.

Finally we were in action and able to get on our way! Except the only charge stations we found to work are few and far between.

What would have been a simple carefree trip turned into a bit of a tech nightmare.

What are your tips for traveling with an EV in foreign countries? Have any horror stories of your own?

I don't recommend hiring an EV unless it's in North America. Everywhere else is fraught with logistical uncertainties as you've found out.

Sweden is a bit of a special case though, it's the world poster country for EV Nazism. Not to mention every other road rule. Did you manage to find a stretch of road where you could drive more than 37mph?

If you hire an EV in Great Britain or Australia, it's more closer to the US experience, as in, pay with a card, etc. But you still won't get the same charger density as a normal US metropolitan area.

May I say that the rental company you used did a very poor job if they didn't explain this all to you upfront, let alone give you a half-charged vehicle. I wouldn't use them again.

 

[PlayBookUserMT]

Hello everyone,

So a little more detail, my buddy is actually the one who rented the car and wanted it to be a surprise. For this reason I didn't research anything ahead of time regarding EV infrastructure.

The car was a Skoda. It drove beautifully, the adaptive headlights were really neat. I haven't seen those before. Certain parts dim depending where oncoming traffic is.

The interior was quite nice, great sound, and lots of features. The vehicle was perfectly fine. It was just the 'refuelling' situation that was problematic.

I do think the rental company should have been more aware of these restrictions or provided a card that we could reload, or charge to the rental itself.

Lessons have been learned. We have rented plenty of vehicles across Europe, just never an EV.

And yes, we were able to find a stretch of road where we could floor it for a little while and test out that famous EV acceleration!

 

[Yamahammer]

I still use my Playbook too...

It's funny to see how people think differently about the use of EV's. In my thinking the use of an EV is best achieved in urban everyday settings. If anything right now at this juncture in time it makes sense for to rent an ICE vehicle for extended trips of let's say 3000 miles round trip. How often would I need to rent one for such a trip? Every 5 years, 10 years? Who knows right now what the charging infrastructure is going to look like in 10 years? I base my whole view of the adoption of EV's based upon my driving being less than the average 15,000 km a year that Canadians drive as an average and also 80% of North Americans live in urban areas so it's certainly a viable option.

Glad to hear that your experience was a little bit better than you made it sound at first go, but yes being in a strange land doing things you haven't done before can certainly be a frustrating process if things do go south! The only we ever see Skoda's in Canada is at the arenas in Sweden when the Canucks play in the Hockey World Cup...

 

[SteinwayTransitCorp]

When I would travel abroad, I would contact AMEX travel. I would also contact Mobil/Exxon and they would issue a new card for Europe Esso.