Taylife
New Member
- First Name
- Gez
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2024
- Threads
- 2
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 21
- Location
- Belgium
- Vehicles
- Taycan 4S 2021
- Thread starter
- #1
Hey guys, last summer I took a trip of 3,000m from Belgium to Turkey, as many diaspora Turks do in the summer holidays. It was my first travel to Turkey this way, as I usually take the plane, however seeing the plane tickets skyrocket last year, I wondered whether it was feasible to go there by car instead. As it's an EV with limited range, I didn't wanna strand along the way far from home. After doing some homework regarding the costs and mapping the charging stations, I figured it was feasible. Porsche assistance was also there to assure me in case something happened, they would bring me and my car back home.
To guide me on this first long distance car trip, with an EV, I used Abetterrouteplanner, Chargemap and youtube videos from diaspora Turks who did a similar trip9 with other brand of EV's.
Apps and charge cards I used:
In total, I had to charge about 12-13 times across these countries:
Up until Austria, I used IONITY stations with my Porsche card, i stopped once at a Porsche center in Cologne. In Hungary I had to charge only once in the whole country, going through it on a single charge up until the border town of Szeged, where I stopped at a Tesla Supercharger in a Auchan.
Once passed Hungary, my real and only difficulty was in Serbia. My charge was gonna be around the capital Belgrade, and here I tried 2 different fast chargers and neither location worked. After seeing my range drop to about 30km I slowly started to accept my fate... until I finally arrived the 3rd location, where there was a row of superchargers (over 10!), which are activated by a worker there, kinda like how in some countries they fill gas in your car. This location was nice and even seemed to have a hotel.
My last stop in Serbia before going to Bulgaria was in the town of Nis, where I found 2 superchargers in the parking lot of a mall (be aware this mall has opening hours so the chargers won't be available in the night).
In Bulgaria: 2 charge stops. My Nis stop took me until a resting station in Ihtiman, nice fast chargers here available, fuel station, restaurants, a super market and hotel all in one. Seems to be a popular stopping place for Turks.
The 2nd stop in Bulgaria was in an abandoned area, like literally Soviet type abandoned. So much so I questioned whether Chargemap and ABRP were guiding me to the right location. But this abandoned place housed 4 high quality fast chargers hidden away... I was amazed at the infrastructure.
I finally crossed the border to Turkey through Hamzabeyli border crossing, which is a border crossing to the north as the main gate through Kapikule was way too crowed, with waiting times nearing 7-8 hours. Yeah, in summer this border crossing is probably the longest you'll have to wait in your car anywhere on the planet.
My first stop in Turkey was in the town of Edire, Tesla Superchargers are located in a freely available parking lot of a nice hotel here. Once charged up to 100%, I could drive all the way to the heart of Istanbul to my own hotel.
in Istanbul, there are a lot of fast chargers, no problem whatsover. Biggest known names are from ZES and Esarj, Turkey's own EV brand Togg also has more and more stations popping up.
I went further than Istanbul deep into the heartland of Turkey in the Asian side, and I found great fast chargers everywhere. I even stopped at a concrete plant...
The charging infrastructure in Turkey (and other Eastern European nations) is great, DC fast chargers give me over 150-200kw, while in Belgium and Netherlands, I'm stuck at 70-80kw at fast charge locations (mostly Fastned).
I abused my Taycan 4S a LOT:
It passed all the stress tests and didn't let me down.
I must say I took some risks undertaking this adventure as my first long distance road trip, being the only driver (no back up), with a car I basically owned for a few months yet, abusing it the way I did, trusting the apps telling me all the stations along the way are working...
Nevertheless in that summer, I clocked over 8,000km, with the trip back and forth totalling 6,000km, on the way back, I used the same charging stations in each country.
Would I do it again? Absolutely, planning on doing it again this summer!
Here are some pictures of the trip:
In a concrete plant in central Turkey
To guide me on this first long distance car trip, with an EV, I used Abetterrouteplanner, Chargemap and youtube videos from diaspora Turks who did a similar trip9 with other brand of EV's.
Apps and charge cards I used:
- ABRP
- Chargemap
- Silayolu group (Turkish group to help you navigate through routes and border crossings, notifying you of troubles or traffic ahead)
- Tesla app
- Orion; Serbian charge network app
- Fines; Bulgarian charge network app
- Porsche charge card
In total, I had to charge about 12-13 times across these countries:
- Belgium
- Germany
- Austria
- Hungary
- Serbia
- Bulgaria
- Turkey
Up until Austria, I used IONITY stations with my Porsche card, i stopped once at a Porsche center in Cologne. In Hungary I had to charge only once in the whole country, going through it on a single charge up until the border town of Szeged, where I stopped at a Tesla Supercharger in a Auchan.
Once passed Hungary, my real and only difficulty was in Serbia. My charge was gonna be around the capital Belgrade, and here I tried 2 different fast chargers and neither location worked. After seeing my range drop to about 30km I slowly started to accept my fate... until I finally arrived the 3rd location, where there was a row of superchargers (over 10!), which are activated by a worker there, kinda like how in some countries they fill gas in your car. This location was nice and even seemed to have a hotel.
My last stop in Serbia before going to Bulgaria was in the town of Nis, where I found 2 superchargers in the parking lot of a mall (be aware this mall has opening hours so the chargers won't be available in the night).
In Bulgaria: 2 charge stops. My Nis stop took me until a resting station in Ihtiman, nice fast chargers here available, fuel station, restaurants, a super market and hotel all in one. Seems to be a popular stopping place for Turks.
The 2nd stop in Bulgaria was in an abandoned area, like literally Soviet type abandoned. So much so I questioned whether Chargemap and ABRP were guiding me to the right location. But this abandoned place housed 4 high quality fast chargers hidden away... I was amazed at the infrastructure.
I finally crossed the border to Turkey through Hamzabeyli border crossing, which is a border crossing to the north as the main gate through Kapikule was way too crowed, with waiting times nearing 7-8 hours. Yeah, in summer this border crossing is probably the longest you'll have to wait in your car anywhere on the planet.
My first stop in Turkey was in the town of Edire, Tesla Superchargers are located in a freely available parking lot of a nice hotel here. Once charged up to 100%, I could drive all the way to the heart of Istanbul to my own hotel.
in Istanbul, there are a lot of fast chargers, no problem whatsover. Biggest known names are from ZES and Esarj, Turkey's own EV brand Togg also has more and more stations popping up.
I went further than Istanbul deep into the heartland of Turkey in the Asian side, and I found great fast chargers everywhere. I even stopped at a concrete plant...
The charging infrastructure in Turkey (and other Eastern European nations) is great, DC fast chargers give me over 150-200kw, while in Belgium and Netherlands, I'm stuck at 70-80kw at fast charge locations (mostly Fastned).
I abused my Taycan 4S a LOT:
- On the German autobahn I was regularly going over 200km/h (fastest was nearly 260km)
- During this entire 8,000km trip, I was solely using fast charging
- In Istanbul, famous for its hills, I drove it up on nearly all the hills in the city
- It was peak summer through south eastern Europe, I was continuously driving through heat waves of 40 degrees C
- The batttery shield below definitely got hit a few times here and there
It passed all the stress tests and didn't let me down.
I must say I took some risks undertaking this adventure as my first long distance road trip, being the only driver (no back up), with a car I basically owned for a few months yet, abusing it the way I did, trusting the apps telling me all the stations along the way are working...
Nevertheless in that summer, I clocked over 8,000km, with the trip back and forth totalling 6,000km, on the way back, I used the same charging stations in each country.
Would I do it again? Absolutely, planning on doing it again this summer!
Here are some pictures of the trip:
In a concrete plant in central Turkey
Sponsored
