From charger to charger: How I took my EV across a continent using the Electroverse app

I’m Charlie, and I’ve done some silly things with electric cars:

• I owned the first personal Renault Twizy in Scotland in ‘13
• Took four cars to the Arctic Circle in that blazing hot summer of ‘18
• In 2019 Nick Raimo and I drove a Jaguar I-PACE to the Frankfurt Auto Show
• I raced electric Fiat 500s in British RallyCross in ‘21
• I took 10 EVs across the desert in the Middle East, opening the first chargers in Oman

On the 2018 Arctic trip in particular, we had to beg, borrow, and steal to get where we needed to - even taking locals out for dinner in exchange for charging on their plug socket overnight.

To say that I enjoy the challenge is an understatement. And, in the hope of rekindling some of that explorer, swashbuckling fun, this summer I planned a trip to Sicily to drive the Targa Florio in my electric BMW i4 M50.

I was sorely disappointed - purely because It was just too easy. I never had to wait for a charger, and I could plan out the entire trip on the Electroverse app. So my 3,614 mile trip was one of the easiest I’d ever undertaken.

While this blog isn’t just about how my car handled the trip, it was an absolute dream soaking up the miles, cruising through Europe at 130kmh/80mph. I can’t fault it, Stepping out of the car at the end of a long day didn’t feel like we’d done the distance we’d driven. And once we got to the twisty stuff in Sicily, it was an utter joy, as were the Furka and Gotthard pass - it was playful, fun, and aggressive.

But enough about how much I enjoyed the drive. Let’s talk about how we actually managed to drive 3500+ miles in an EV. You might think it meant hours and hours of googling where the next charger is, or begging for use of people’s home charge points (like in the Arctic). But actually, it was way easier. Thanks to the Electroverse app.

Each morning, I’d wake up, sit in the car, and tell Electroverse how much charge I had (if the hotel had had a charger we were quids in). Then I’d tell Electroverse where I was going to and it’d just plan the route for me. Once the route was planned, I’d transfer it to Apple Maps and my dashboard would show me exactly where to go.

Day three was a big one, from just outside Modena all the way down to Matera, over 450 miles, it’s probably the best example of how I used the Electroverse to plan my journeys.

We charged slowly overnight on the hotel charger and woke up with 85%. The first stop was for me to see the Imola race circuit and the Ayrton Senna monument. His crash at Tamburello in 1994 is the reason we have EuroNCAP now.

The next stop was for a loo break and a quick Italian coffee - this gave us an extra 100 miles in for just 12 or so minutes of charge. That’s over 300 miles charged, all before lunch. We continued on until lunch, where, we stopped just off the Autostrada and plugged into an Ionity charger. This charger was next to a Supermarket, so I dropped in, collected ciabatta, salami, and cheese and made us a sandwich.

The weather was good so I took the opportunity to dry our swimming costumes that were still a little damp from taking a dip in a Swiss river the day before. Who knew that an EV charging cable could double up as an effective washing line?

After 28 mins, the car was back up at 80%, food was put away, cold drinks came out of the cool box and the last thing (always the last thing you do) was to unplug the car and hit the road again. 200 miles to go, but I had told Electroverse, that I wanted to arrive in Matera with 40% because I didn’t know much about the charging there, so one more early evening stop was needed. That’s the great thing about Electroverse, you can tell it how much charge you want to be at when you arrive at your destination, and it figures everything out for you.

A few miles south of Foggia, we had a 10-minute gelato break. Topped the car up and noticed some smoke in the sky. Once we set off again we saw why - wildfires all across Puglia. We actually had to drive through a few.  It highlighted to me just how important teaching people about EVs and their capabilities was. Because, if these fires highlight anything, it’s that we need to stop burning fossil fuel.

We pulled into Matera at about 6:30pm, having left Modena at about 8am. The charging time really only added another 45 mins. This was the general blueprint of how I planned the whole trip. Not before leaving, not while at home, but on the road, with nothing more than my phone and the Electroverse app.

Once I was in Matera, the hotel had a car park, but no charger. However, the next morning while we explored the ancient city, Electroverse found me an 11kwh charger. In the time it took us to look round the city we had around 80% charge.

On the first day, we achieved 700 miles using Electroverse, leaving home at 5am, hitting up the channel tunnel, and arriving in Thun before 7pm. If I’d wanted to miss out on the fun driving I wrote about above, and I didn’t want to visit Matera, I could’ve made it to Messina in Sicily in 2 days. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a petrol car or an EV, you wouldn’t be able to safely get there any faster. But you’re not burning any fossil fuels, or releasing fumes in an EV.

Never once did we worry about running out on the entire trip. Or where the charging stations were.