Road tripping responsibly
My husband loves a road trip whilst I’m more of a trains person. However, I have to admit that some of the stuff we do - outdoor weekends away in more remote places, bike events and some of our holidays with a lot of camping gear would be a bit tricky without some kind of vehicle. I’ve been keen to reduce the impact of the journeys we make for years now but it’s only been in the last five or so years that it became practical.
Co-pilot Jess is an important element of the road-trip experience
Before then we’d have a conversation on every trip that went along the lines of ‘could we do this in an electric car’? The ‘this’ in questions would be a mountain bike race or a trip to a trail centre, a weekend in Snowdonia, the Lake District or Scotland. And the answer was almost invariably ‘no’ – given the cars that were then available. I did persuade Chipps to try out an electric van in 2015 for a trip into the Cairngorms. We took our bikes on a train to Aberdeen to pick it up so it wasn’t too long a drive (and even then we had a bit of range anxiety – the Nissan eNV200 had been conceived more as a city vehicle and the 80 mile range was a bit short for the kind of jaunt we had in mind so there were enforced pit stops to charge). I had to admit that it probably wouldn’t be completely practical for my partner’s job which involved bike events across the country. He had visions of getting to a muddy field and being stuck at the end of the weekend with an empty battery and without on-site charging (which at the time was a fairly reasonable fear). Cars with longer ranges than the little van were impractical for carrying bikes (we went to look at a BMW i3 with two bikes – which would have had to be completely taken apart to have any chance of fitting in). I was disappointed – my job as a transport consultant means I know the impact of petrol and diesel cars on health and on the environment and I don’t like to be part of the problem. Electric vehicles don’t solve everything but they do help.
The situation only changed in 2019 when Tesla starting offering towbars on the Model 3. A towbar means you can fit a bike rack. Whilst new car prices seemed eye watering there was a tax break for enterprises buying electric vehicles which meant it was just about manageable through my business and with a finance plan.
After a bit of wrangling, I collected the car at the end of September 2019 just in time for our annual holiday. We’d had the car a day before we drove it straight to France to see my brother and then continue to the Alsace. There was still a bit of novelty free charging available – and we even spent an afternoon sightseeing at the Vauban designed fort of Neufbrisach whilst the car was being fueled for free.
Mountain bike appropriate electric vehicle
After our previous trip in our old Doblo, crossing Europe by electric car seemed pretty easy. It’s quieter and less stressful to drive than any car I’ve driven. I don’t mind charging breaks as I’m not keen on sitting still and the opportunity to stretch my legs is welcome. Since then we’ve had to make a fair few long haul trips so we’ve become familiar with the charging network - which can be sited in rather eclectic places. Sometimes rows of chargers are found in hotel car parks, other times at motorway service stations, behind the bins in shopping centres or in glowing rows in business parks. We’ve learned through experience the places that have the best coffee, good walks for Jess (our canine companion can be a bit grumbly) and the opportunity to stock up on shopping or get some dinner. It’s not entirely consistent but the good ones make a fine break (and worth plotting the route more carefully for).
Dog surveillance with coffee
The down side of car travel is that it feels like a bit of a waste of time – motorways don’t have great views and there’s not much I can do (even as a passenger).
So we alternate between music and podcasts. The Rest is History is probably our go to journey accompaniment – it feels as though we’re expanding our horizons even when we’re in a traffic jam. The episodes work as a metric for dividing up the journey – ‘two episodes to the next charger’ is a thing.
Trying to eat well can be a bit hit and miss – I prefer to take at least some sandwiches and fruit so that we don’t end up eating junk but by the second day we’re dependent on foraging and it’s all too easy to end up on a pastry-based diet. I tend to keep cutlery in the car – just in case we get lucky and get a salad. Then there’s water - car air conditioning is a recipe for dehydration.. I always have refillable cups and water bottles in the car so that we’re not buying water in plastic bottles.
We’re also dab hands at the ‘book just ahead’ to break our journey at an appropriate point and get some sleep. Hotels with chargers and also ones with great bakeries are preferred. Arriving in the dark means that we’re never quite sure what kind of view we’ll wake up to. Usually a car park on a trading estate but occasionally more scenic and interesting. We’ve been lucky in finding out about a few French and German towns this way.
Bakery win at the charge point
It's not all bad though – I’ve run the calculations on our trips and the electric car has cut our carbon footprint considerably. I reckon on our CO2 equivalent emissions being just under 8g per km in France and about three times that in the UK (because the electricity mix is not yet as decarbonized as that in France). However, both compare well with petrol and diesel cars which are around 150g per km.
Still not as good as the train (particularly those in Germany which run entirely on renewable electricity) but I have to admit that for the two of us, our bikes and a dog those kind of trips are probably not an option at the moment.
Ferry terminal Fold+Rºll
