What’s the longest you have driven in one go? How about in an electric car? Our team hit their record distance returning from the Balkan experience during our annual EV quest across Europe. Not that
they planned it that way, but in the end, it was a thrilling adventure. We left off when the Kona Electric arrived in Dubrovnik, the Croatian jewel with its magnificent city walls .Our fully charged and energetic Kona headed north. After about an hour drive, we came to a lovely small town — Ston, with impressive medieval defensive walls guarding … an empty hill. As absurd as it looks, it probably helped the walls survive almost intact until today, since nobody was interested in scaling them.
A second and upsetting conclusion is that Poland is lagging behind all other EU countries in terms of charging infrastructure. When it comes to both the quantity of stations and their charging power, all other countries look better off, including poorer states such as Romania and Bulgaria. I shudder to think how bad it would have been had we not been rescued by GreenWay, the largest Polish operator from Slovakia .
The final note is on charging costs. No kidding here — it has gotten more expensive following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the energy crisis it triggered. Although energy prices have stabilized now and are coming down, the earlier spikes are now seen in charging rates across Europe. In some places in the south of Europe, the rate per kWh could reach as much as €0.61/kWh, and the record-breaking hotel in Albania where the rate per kWh reached €0.82/kWh.