Our host/cousin, Sandra, took us for an afternoon drive in her electric Fiat 500, out to…

…a nature reserve where we came across a few deer, a burnt orange wrapped Tesla Model 3, some automated weed grabber (to clear the lake), and a pancake house.

I am learning to use Google Translate to look at signs to automatically translate the text. Clever app.

Sandra bought her Fiat 500 EV second hand a month ago. She loves it. It’s a compact two door that still managed to leave a Porsche for dead at the traffic lights.

Charging:

She charges it at their house boat, using just the standard household supply rate of about 3.8kW (240V x 16A). That would normally be more than enough for everyday use, except they neglected to plug it in after the last long drive.

So, on our journey today, we stopped at a “FastNed” charging station. They are everywhere here, often next to petrol stations along the highways. A neat setup, with drive through bays and solar panels. I chatted briefly with one guy in an EV towing a caravan, which works well at this site.

It was weird for us to deliberately stop just to charge, like we used to do at a petrol station. But it didn’t take too long to have more than enough charge for our journey.