Driving an electric car in the UK is no longer the challenge that it once was, with cars including the Kia e-Niro and EV6 capable of 282-miles and 328-miles of range respectively. The UK is blessed with small distances and a comparatively large number of charge points from various operators.
However, because of the variety of chargers available, this used to entail signing up to half a dozen different networks, just to be able to plug in when travelling around the country. Kia Charge puts an end to this, offering a single subscription that enables access to more than 19,000 charge point connectors across the UK. In addition, it offers access to around 300,000 charge point connectors across Europe.
Whatever trip you’re going to take and no matter what vehicle you’re taking, it’s worth planning your trip. For example, you might wish to see a point of interest along the route, or just coincide your stops (and charging) with rests you’d be taking anyway, such as for food. There are some great online tools to do this for electric cars, e.g. A Better Route Planner, which offers accurate route planning based on your actual electric car’s efficiency, topographic changes, live-traffic, your preferred charging networks etc. https://abetterrouteplanner.com/
France has several main charging networks, with many accessible using the Kia Charge app and card. Just take a look at the map on: https://kiacharge.com/web/kia-gb/map to start planning your journey.
We decided to put travelling abroad in an electric car to the test by taking our annual family trip to the Alps in a Kia EV6 ‘GT Line’ AWD, carrying five passengers and a boot-load of luggage.
The EV6 is a revolutionary electric car from Kia, which has picked up a tonne of major awards since it was introduced last year. These include 2022 Car of the Year, as judged by a team of international motoring specialists; What Car? Car of the Year; TopGear.com Crossover of the Year; and Irish Car of the Year, to name but a few. It’s available from £40,945 and comes with a choice of four highly equipped trim grades and of course Kia’s seven-year warranty as standard. Every EV6 also comes with next-generation 800V charging capabilities, allowing a 10-80% charge in as little as 18 minutes.
Our trip started in Kidwelly, Wales, and with a full charge and a pre-heated cabin, thanks to the Kia Connect app that offers access to remote climate and charging controls for the car. A balmy 21 degrees and a pre-heated steering wheel welcomed us to the car in the early hours, a stark contrast to having to get up extra-early to de-ice the car and wait until it warms up! The other great thing here is starting the journey with a full charge meant that we didn’t have to remember to fill up the car the night before and could concentrate instead on remembering our passports (one of which only arrived with a few hours to spare)!
The trip to the Channel Tunnel is mostly motorway and about 274 miles, so just within range of a single charge of the car, but of course it’s best to recharge before crossing over to France. We charged up at Cobham Services, where there’s a bank of six IONITY charge points and some great breakfast options nearby. We started our charge using our Kia Charge card, and it had completed before we’d finished our breakfast! A handy mobile notification is sent to your smartphone to let you know it’s complete too, so there’s no standing about in the cold.
More IONITY chargers are available closer to Folkestone too, at Channel Gateway services, should you fancy a quick top up before venturing into the Channel Tunnel terminal. There are chargers at the terminal as well, which can also be used with Kia Charge.
With a full belly and a full charge, we ventured into France with 260 miles remaining range – more than enough to travel to our next chosen charging stop at IONITY Champfleury, near the capital of Champagne, Reims, by which time we certainly needed a comfort break and a chance to stretch our legs.
We stopped at IONITY Aire-de-Jura a further 250 miles away and then carried on to the Alps with a final stop at IONITY Bonneville, so that we had enough range to use the car once we’d arrived at the resort of Samoëns in the Haute-Savoie.
From Kidwelly in Wales all the way to Samoëns in the Alps required just four charges, all of which coincided with useful times of day, such as breakfast and lunch. In fact, the car was capable of covering far more mileage than its passengers between stops!
One of the questions that often comes up when travelling abroad in an EV is destination charging, and while we didn’t have anywhere to charge where we were staying, there was a handy nearby 22kW chargers that was also accessible using Kia Charge. However, once you’ve experience the full-fat 200kW ultra-fast charge capabilities of the EV6, it was hard to justify using it at all. Plus, we had plenty of range remaining and could actually top up the car a little when journeying back down the mountain thanks to regenerative braking.
Driving an electric car abroad also gives the unexpected opportunity to meet like-minded people, driving all sorts of plug-in vehicles, from Porsche Taycan, Volvo Recharge and Hyundai IONIQ 5 drivers to all sorts of other makes and models. It helps make the journey pass by quicker and there’s a real community feel when charging.
Travelling abroad in a Kia electric car proved simple and intuitive for us. We didn’t need to worry about the car’s range, which was always convincingly accurate and there are more charging opportunities than we realised, which offers peace of mind even if you don’t need to use them.
Ultimately, the best thing to do is plan a little and enjoy the car. There’s nothing quite like cruising in an electric car, which is silent and effortless and makes you feel closer to the country you’re visiting.