In 1982, as editor of the trade magazine "IDEE - the magazine for engineers", I was allowed to test drive an e-Golf, the Citystromer. This first roadworthy electric car was built in 1976 in a small series of 20 in collaboration with the then electricity company RWE and Varta. In the production Golf at the time, the 75 hp gasoline engine was replaced by a direct current motor with 15 kW of power and the Golf thus put 16 hp on the road. Its energy was stored in the trunk, available from lead batteries with sulfuric acid. This meant that it could travel 50 km and reach 80 km/h... but not in a society where the slogan of the time: "Without exhaust gases - simply electric" was found at best original.
Today the technical data of current electric cars look completely different. The range and charging speed of all current models have increased significantly in recent years and there is a suitable electric model for almost every application - whether for short or long distances.
But despite all the technical advances, range anxiety and the worries about not being able to find a charging station on longer journeys and, if so, having to reckon with long charging times, are still issues that affect the switch from combustion engines to electric models.
We have been driving electric for over six years now. Initially we had a Renault Zoe as a second car and at the beginning of 2022 our diesel engine was replaced by a long-distance model, the Ford Mustang Mach-E.
We tested its long-distance suitability as travel photographers in 2022/2023 and drove around 55,000 km through 18 European countries - from Germany to the North Cape and from Gibraltar to Estonia.
We have documented these tours in the German Mach-E forum and have also shown the respective costs and consumption here. In the current final report in the Mach-E Forum of the tour reports Grand Tour 1 to 4, we show in detail how charging works in the different countries, which "charging RFID cards" you need, for example, what the costs are and... . some results of our photo projects in the individual countries.
In this article we will content ourselves with showing photos of the different charging options. These range from charging parks like in Norway, where we saw around 50 well-used charging stations at one location, to charging at the houses and cabins we rented, where we often use the charger we brought with us to plug into the 230 V sockets provided could download for free.
(Open photo edited with Adobe Photoshop)
