MG ZS EV 2021 – Road trip report: UK to Greece

Nick drove from the UK to Greece in his MG ZS EV 2021.

Introducing your road trip

As we did the previous year, we drove from the UK to Greece, taking the ferry from Brindisi in the south of Italy to Greece. We travelled through France, Switzerland and Italy but returned via Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria!

Planning & preparation

Much of our planning was researching charging opportunities. We knew that we’d be OK in France, Switzerland and Italy, and more or less OK in Greece, having travelled in those places before. The Balkans was a bit more of a mystery. We have RFID cards for Electroverse and Chargemap and knew they would cover most countries, but Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia were a bit of a worry. The PluSshare app showed some (but not all) chargers in those countries. For Albania, we opened an account with the Albanian site iCharge which looked useful.

Charging

We took out a month’s subscription to IONITY, which cost about £10 but made IONITY charging much cheaper. We used IONITY in France, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia and Austria and never had a problem with charging. At one venue in Croatia we had to wait ten minutes for a free charger. In Greece, we used PPC blue chargers which we’ve used before. We had an account with them but you can also use the Chargemap RFID card (which costs a little more).

In Albania we used iCharge. The app was a bit clunky and we had to preload it with 3,000 lek (about £26) most of which we used up. I think however, that in iCharge locations (which are mostly in Gega Oil petrol stations) the staff have their own RFID card which they can use for you. I believe there are other chains which use the same system. The petrol stations themselves were modern, clean, had cafes, and were generally welcoming.

Montenegro was a bit of a mixed bag. There are quite a few free charging stations, but they are mostly old and don’t work. We only needed to charge once and we did so successfully in Cetinje. The charge was free, but we used one of our RFID cards to initialize it. We didn’t need to charge in Bosnia, and once we were in Croatia we were able to use IONITY. Our car has an official range of 272 miles but we managed a lot more than that in the Balkans because we weren’t driving fast.

Did you encounter any great driving roads on your road trip? If so, where were they and why were they great?

We saw a great variety of roads. The Flüela Pass in Switzerland was spectacular, as was the Pass between Cetinje and Kotor in Montenegro, not for the fainthearted! Note that the charge goes down very quickly when you climb up passes, but then recharges as you descend. Also, Greek motorways are generally excellent.

MG ZS EV

We only had one problem. We left the car for a week in a car park in Greece and when we returned the 12v battery was flat. We used a jump starter and got the car going. It’s not the first time we’ve had this problem, which I think happens more in the heat; best to have a jump starter under your seat.

Road trip conclusion

We would certainly do this again. One of the great things about an EV is that it forces you to stop and charge, and you often discover interesting places when you do!