this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2026
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We just had our first 1000 km round trip with our EV. We spent about 40€ on fast charging, and home charging was mostly free because it was from our solar panels, but would be equivalent to about 8€ for a full charge if we had to pay the night rate.
Then we topped the car while visiting, but that was with only a 6A cable, so not much was charged, let's say about 3€.
So all in all about €51, despite fast chargers are a bit expensive compared to home charging. Also we arrived home with enough charge for more than 100km left on the battery.
With our old ICE car that would have been 155 € in gas/petrol.
So even using the "expensive" fast chargers our EV allowed us to drive at a third the cost of gas/petrol. But in everyday driving the savings are way bigger, even if we had to pay normal prices and didn't have our solar panels. The savings are at least twice of using fast chargers.
But gas/petrol is also almost 50% more expensive here than the price they list for Australia.
Every worry I've heard about EVs was debunked within a couple of months of owning one. I will NEVER go back to owning an ice car.
So much more efficient, so much easier, no more gas stations, and I use it for road trips. All the worry about them has obviously been fed by oil/gas companies because they don't want people figuring out how much nicer EVs are.
I must admit I was a bit worried about the extra time for the trip because of charging, but after this trip, although the trip was maybe about ½ an hour extra each way, I found that it doesn't really matter, the silence of the electric makes it much more relaxing than any ICE car I've ever owned. So much that the family we visited could tell we were less tired from the trip than usual. We usually have about 10 minutes break midway, to get a sandwich and switch driver. I think the charging made it so we weren't so much in a hurry to finish the break. All in all way more relaxing way to drive, we also used to drive 140 km/h in the ICE car, but with the EV we limited it to 120 km/h, because we figured the higher speed would just mean more charging time.
So in short I agree, that all my fears regarding longer trips have evaporated. Also I can see the point some reviewers make, that with faster charging a bigger battery isn't as important as it used to be. Our car has a 77 kWh battery, and can charge at 125 kWh. but the real charging peaked at 113 kWh, and we broke it off at about 65% because the rate begins to drop to around 70 kWh at that point. So we typically charged from 15-20% to 60-70% using 2 stops. This was at temperatures around 5° C out and 8° C home, There was also strong wind out, so we charged 2 times both ways. Out because of unfavorable weather, and home because we started with only a 70% charge.
On the way out the efficiency was 20% worse than back home, so the poor weather with strong head wind and lower temperature was a major influence.
But I think to drive the car close to or even below 10% requires that you know your car in such situations, and are confident you can find a charger in time.
This was our first such trip, I bet we can do better next time. 😀
The car is a VW iD.4 Pro Performance Tech 2021 for anybody curious. Battery state 90%.