Monday, June 30, 2014

From The Netherlands to Tuscany by Tesla Model S

The first leg of our electric journey, from Leiden, The Netherlands, to Tuscany, Italy, via Savoie, is successfully completed. 

To get to Savoie, in the French Alps, we opt to drive through Germany, to make use of the Tesla Superchargers on the way.

We left from Leiden at 8 am. Battery fully charged. Easy drive to Zevenaar, for the first, quick charge. Since we haven't consumed much so far, just the time for a croissant and a cappuccino and off we go.

Second stop, at the Tesla Supercharger of Winsdorf, in Germany, just in time for lunch.
Tesla fully charged again, en route for Bad Rappenau, for another Supercharger. 
The weather is a bit miserable, but there is a snack bar where we have an ice cream. 
Back to the car, a group of curious guys entertain us with many questions on the Tesla :-)
So fare so good ! The Superchargers are a dream, so fast, so easy... 
At the level of Strasbourg, we take the direction of France. No Superchargers available, we stop in Colmar, where at the Cora mall there is a 22kW charger and... good news for the environment but bad news for us, a Zoe is charging at the Type 2 plug !
It's already 18:30, what shall we do... We also make an announcement at the supermarket speakers, but the Zoe owner doesn't turn up... Finally he comes, so we can plug the Tesla and go for some grocery at the market and a nice dinner at the restaurant nearby.

We're almost done. We get to Switzerland, to charge at the Supercharger in Lully. 
It's 22:55, we just need half an hour of charge, no more than that. Good opportunity for a power nap.

Last 2 hours of drive to get, finally, to Valmorel, in Savoie, after a D-tour, as in Switzerland they closed the motorway (yeah, thanks...).
It's 2:30 am, we are pretty tired, but so happy, so proud, we MADE IT !!  
We brought our Tesla to the Alps !

So overall, it took 18 hours to do 1300 km, of which about 5 hrs to recharge (the car and ourselves :-).

Next leg of the electric journey, in a couple of weeks: from Savoie to Tuscany.

5 comments:

  1. You look like a proud owner of Tesla! What about taking up the challenge of travelling to Isanbul all electric? :)

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  2. You look like a proud owner of Tesla! What about taking up the challenge of travelling to Isanbul all electric? :)

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  3. Congratulation! Well done! We made a similar journey but the other way around this year. We drove from Western Switzerland (close to Lully) to England :-)

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  4. Congratulations! I drove the same route two weeks ago. And now Tesla has added another Supercharger at Chambéry. If you find any more good chargers please add them to PlugShare - accessible on the Model S web browser at plugshare.com, and also as an app for Android and iOS.

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  5. Next time in Tuscany have a vacation at Paluffo: free recharge for Teslas

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