As I announced earlier today @RezzaBuh and I are going on an #evtrip. Goal: pick up an Audi Q4 e-tron 35 I've purchased in Bavaria. We're staying in an B&B near the border over night. We use an EV on the way there, too. The only charging stop is in 311km. Once we get there, the car should have 19% of battery left.

(if you don't want to follow this thread, just mute #evtrip)

We arrived at the supercharger in Pilsen with 24% of battery left. We were speeding 130km/h where we could and the average consumption was still 17.4 kWh/100km. Now we need to charge it for 10 minutes to reach Rozvadov, but we'll probably stay a bit longer to have extra energy for tomorrow.

The downside is that the supercharger in Pilsen is on a hotel parking lot 7km off the highway with no services around, just the hotel.
#evtrip

@sesivany

I'd love to see battery-swap cars catch on world-wide.

@mattdm @sesivany I'd love to see public transport become so good and so prevalent worldwide that this is never required.

We stayed roughly 25 minutes and are leaving with 80%. #evtrip

@sesivany Tož napište, jak se vám s tím Juniperem jezdí.

Můj je už taky ve výrobě 🤞

@jachym @sesivany Zrovna jsem se chtěl zeptat, jak si @RezzaBuh ospravedlňuje pořízení nové Tesly a ono je vás tu hned víc?

@mattb @mattdm @sesivany

In Czechia usually works well in cities, but it is much worse in the countryside.

@sesivany we would have reached Rozvadov without charging. I set charge at destination to 30 % at destination. So ten minutes wasn't to reach but to reach with 30 %. And the consumption is surprisingly nice. This is my first drive with the (semi)new Model Y (with less than around 700 km driven - registered only on Monday) and it's about 15 percent more efficient than my old Model Y. However, it's on beautiful but inefficient 20" Induction wheels.

@ondra @jachym @sesivany starou mi zabavila žena, tak jsem si musel koupit vlastní. Nejdřív jsem chtěl jen nějaké malé levné EV do města, ale doiteroval jsem k velké drahé Y zase. To auto mi sedlo jak prdel na hrnec 😉.

@jachym @sesivany je to velký skok. D5 v mojí staré byla o zuby. V nové pohodová plavba. Odhlučnění výrazně lepší. Jen mé čínské sedáky mi chybí. To byl gauč. Berlínské jsou tvrdší a hlavně výrazně užší kvůli většímu bočnímu vedení.

@mattdm @sesivany NIO has battery swapping stations but unless you travel really loomg distances, it's not that better. The advantage is that you can rent your battery. So you pay less for the car and you can swap to bigger battery when needed, smaller for the rest of the time. Also you don't have to care about degradation. But in the end as with every "as a service", you will overpay.

And we've arrived to Svata Katerina, the last settlement before the border. Here the day ends for us. There will definitely be more fun tomorrow. We will have to deal with the German authorities and none of us speaks German. And E-tron 35 has a considerably shorter range than today's car and I won't use the built-in navigation, so the trip back home will be a bit of an adventure. #evtrip

@RezzaBuh @sesivany

Change batteries in minutes instead of camping in the wasteland sounds great to me, and:

1. Makes EVs more obtainable since batteries are a big part of the up-front cost

2. Keeps value from dropping because battery capacity loss not a problem

3. Your car's can even go up as battery tech improves

But single-vendor is a risk. What if it were an open standard?

We're on the way again. 150km to Roth. We've got more than enough energy to reach the destination, but we'll make a quick charging stop to have breakfast. #evtrip

We charged the car to 82% while having breakfast in McDonald's. There is a visible difference in charging station availability between 🇨🇿 and 🇩🇪. At the location where we stopped were like 3 different vendors with a plenty of chargers.
The next stop is the Audi dealer in Roth. #evtrip

@mattb @mattdm @sesivany let's not be delusional (like soooo many people here): there always be certain use cases for cars, especially ones with longer range.

@mkyral @mattb @mattdm Our public transport in countryside is still superb compared to public transport in rulal areas of the US. I lived in a town of 5k in Pennsylvania and the only public connection with the rest of the world was a long-distance bus to NYC 5 times a week.

@sesivany @mattb @mattdm

US is a complete different story. It starts with city planning - schools, shops, restaurants outside residential area - you need a car to buy grocery.

The paper work with the Audi dealership is done, it was quick. I've got the keys, but the car doesn't have original plates, so we have to go to the authorities without it and return for it with transport plates. #evtrip

@sesivany our goal was to spend as much battery as possible to have time for breakfast. German autobahns are great when you have such a goal 😉. On the other hand we had a lot of time to get to the destination on time. Hence from almost fastest car (overtaking police car driving 160 kmh would cause me a lot of troubles at home) to still not the slowest. Even thought there was no limit, almost everyone drove the same at around 115 kmh.

Now the drill is:
1) go to the insurance company to get temporary insurance (€89, done),
2) go to the transport authority to re-register the car and get transport plates,
3) go back to the insurance place to get the plates physically done.
4) go back to the authority to stamp the plates.

Fortunately the insurance company is just next door.
#evtrip

@sesivany Führer tady sídlí!

And... it's done! That was quick. All the paperwork with the authorities done in less than an hour.
Let's go back for the car. #evtrip

@sesivany How those plates work? Do you have to return them when you get home?

@bycx yep, you return them when you register the car in CZ and pick up Czech plates. They are valid for one month max, I picked an insurance for 2 weeks, so only for 2 weeks for me. Before expiration I have to register it home.

@sesivany That's cool. Can you use the car normally for this one month? Or is it limited just for registration like in CZ?

@bycx you can use it normally AFAIK.

We're on our way back. The initial range was 267 km at 98% of the battery. We stopped after 100km for lunch. 170km/62% left. I am positively surprised by the consumption. With speeding 110-115km/h it was around 17 kWh/h. #evtrip

The infotainment was a bit of a letdown. We couldn't quite get Android Auto working. Not sure if it isn't included in the package or what. Setting up MyAudi was also quite confusing. I'll have to look into it once I have time home. For this trip I'm using Sygic for EV navigation.
Charging power at the supercharger was only 35 kW. Not sure if it was because the battery was at 60% or there is some compatibility issue.
Next stop: Ionity Beroun, 170km
#evtrip

@sesivany 267 🥴

@ilias it's the model with the smallest battery. I'm buying it as a city car. 270km is on highway, 350km in the city, more than we need.

@sesivany I am surprised an open source guy like you would be not more annoyed by such a cloud/proprietary software stack... Wish there was a more ecological software option for cars.

Arrived to Ionity Beroun, another 170 km, the battery down from 80 to 20%, let's get back to 80% and continue. The biggest problem at the moment are several traffic jams along the way.

Ioinity started charging 105 kW which is close to the car maximum. Also the biggest price: 21 CZK (€0.8)/kWh if you don't have a plan. This ride will be more expensive than with gasoline. #evtrip

From 20 to 80% in 30 minutes. Let's continue to Vystrkov. #evtrip

@sesivany It reminds me of the good old days when I had a Nokia N900, which reported my location with village-level precision to my XMPP status all the time

@sesivany traffic jams... Two hours. Charging at Vestec. No Světozor for me today. I'd be too late. Hope to catch you at Vystrkov or later!

The last charging stop. The most powerful charger so far: 400 kW. The price is a bit lower: 17.80 CZK/kWh.
So far the biggest problem has not been charging, but traffic which is just terrible before the Easter. #evtrip

@sesivany bruh, you are the traffic

Interesting thread. I also picked a car from Bavaria, 10 years ago. In Finland we have awful car prices due tax. Is it due such or just the amount of choice that made you get it from there?

@sesivany @RezzaBuh

And now it's being charged from our roof top solar system (through house batteries now). We've been selling power surpluses for 1.25 CZK/kWh. If we charge the car with it instead, we'll drive for 20 CZK (€0.8)/100km. #evtrip

@sesivany yup, prices for non registered are little bit crazy ... I am the crazy one and waiting for my EV and have alll the cards already :D

@Cooba13 the original plan was that I would use @RezzaBuh's accounts, but after the first stop we split. I will register at least EON, but we will rarely use public chargers.

@sesivany @Cooba13 I grabbed my chips with me and forgot to give them to you when we split 😞.

@ikkeT @RezzaBuh not because of tax reasons, prices are better and selection is also better. Germany is definitely ahead of us in electromoblity and the used EV market is much larger.

@lkundrak I know, I know. It was my longest ride in years. Now I'll hand it over to my wife and happily switch back to a bike. :)

@sesivany and the final result! We overcharged a bit with the ABC rule in mind - always be charging! But I had to recharge before my car asked for more juice.

This explains why we couldn't get Android Auto to work. It's extra and not particularly cheap. Well, it's the VW concern after all, everything is extra in their cars. 😅 #evtrip

@sesivany Hádám, že je to dražší než jet na benzín... nebo ne?

@JamesHeather To je. S touto cenou a průměrnou spotřebou na dálnici vychází 100 km na 310 Kč. U benzínu by mě to samé stálo cca 250 Kč. Je to ale cena extrémní, kdy člověk dojede k výkonné nabíječce bez předchozí registrace. S ní je ta cena někde na 12 Kč. Doma ze sítě člověk nabíjí za 5 Kč a u elektřiny ze solárů mě vychází kWh v nákladech ušlé příležitosti 1,25 Kč. Počítám, že z 95 % budeme nabíjet doma, takže průměrná cena pro nás bude hluboko pod 100 Kč na 100 km.

@sesivany not only Android Auto but also no satellite navigation! They probably think there's no need as EVs can't be used for longer distances 😉. Or what. A proper navigation with a range estimation is an essential feature of an EV...

@sesivany meanwhile in Estonia, paid 100 eur to dealer => received car with license plates. On the minute of receiving car, go to insurance company web (or mobile app) login by ID -> new 3rd party liability insurance -> pay by card and done in 2 minutes. Next the same is done with Casco insurance. Get keys, drive home.

@sesivany yep the fact when you charge on supercharged price per distance is very similar with petrol is well known. You get cheaper only when slow charging at home. Experimentally tested in Estonia (by me, borrowed car) and Estonia -> Slovakia trip by my colleague (his Škoda Enyaq)