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Thomas Geiger
From Munich to Zagreb it is around 550 kilometers, according to Google Maps, the journey time is around five hours.
Many business people cover such distances with their diesels in one go.
But because the future of the car is supposed to be electric and manufacturers are increasingly praising battery models as being suitable for long journeys, I - as an avowed electric car skeptic - dare to take my first long, purely electricity-driven journey.
The car for the trip is a Porsche Taycan.
It is pretty much the best that the German automotive industry has to oppose the Tesla Model S, together with the closely related Audi e-tron GT and soon the Mercedes EQS.
The car costs at least 83,520 euros.
The test car has 476 hp and can go up to 230 km / h.
Even more important for long journeys: no electric car from Germany has a larger battery and none charges faster.
In theory, the 83.7 kWh battery (net) in the Taycan fills up from 5 to 80 percent in 22.5 minutes and is full to the brim in a good half an hour.
This should be made possible by a charging capacity of 270 kW.
The official range in the WLTP cycle is up to 484 kilometers.
Sounds like mileage guzzlers like the Mercedes E-Class or BMW five-car competition.
But after a few brisk kilometers the day before and a cold night, the on-board computer calculates an action radius of just 338 kilometers with an almost full battery before leaving for Croatia.
That's why he's planning two charging stops on the way to Zagreb.
Google's five hours before the start turn into more than six hours to the finish line.
The day before it became clear that this business trip requires a certain amount of planning.
Where can you fill up the battery in Munich?
Even if the host had a wallbox in the garage, the night would not be enough to completely fill the battery - because in the early morning there is still a corona test before the trip abroad.
So in the evening it goes to a reasonably fast charging station - 15 kilometers there, 15 kilometers back, with 90 minutes of charging in between.
Because a fine is due at the station after four hours at the latest, I can't even leave the car overnight, but have to take it home again.
A combustion engine would be full in five minutes on the way, so I lose a large part of the evening.
After all, the morning is headed south-east with a fully charged battery, negative test and positive mood.
The route suits the electric car.
Only on the short stretch in Germany are there a few free sections on which the Taycan drives a little faster.
150, 160, even 190 km / h - that is relaxed gliding for frequent drivers.
And which Porsche driver is satisfied with 120 things?
As soon as the national border is behind us, we continue more leisurely and with active cruise control.
In Austria, the right foot has finished work.
You can hardly drive an electric car much more evenly and thus more efficiently.
No wonder that consumption will soon level off at the standard value of 25.4 kWh per 100 kilometers.
Nevertheless, the battery went down on its knees after the sometimes very fast journey.
And because the hypercharger is by no means at every exit, let alone at every rest stop, the navigation system asks you to stop charging shortly after Salzburg.
Because it is occupied, it continues to Eben im Pongau.
There, electromobility teaches two more lessons: First, that a free column is of no use if it cannot be activated.
And just because the Porsche sat nav knows it doesn't mean that the “Porsche Charging” card also works there.
As Porsche later revealed, individual charging stations use an outdated security profile and can only be operated via the app.
Unaware of this fact, I download various apps from energy providers onto the phone until a suitable provider is there.
This is how a column can be activated in this parking lot.
Then we learn a second lesson: Actually, there never flows as much electricity as promised, the 160 kW promised by the navigation system cannot be obtained.
Already at the beginning of the pit stop it is barely 100 kW and it gets less from minute to minute.
At the beginning, every minute brought energy for 7.4 kilometers, after a quarter of an hour the display shows only 3.2 kilometers / minute - and the trend is rapidly falling.
Porsche later explained that other pillars in the parking lot might have been faster, but for us they had completely failed.
Excruciatingly slow loading - the experience repeats itself at every other stop like this or a similar one.
The lesson: If you are in a hurry, you prefer to charge more often and never fully - even if you therefore have to go to the next column soon.
The alpine panorama cannot be enjoyed like this
Porsche later explains that the battery can absorb a particularly large amount of electricity if it is largely empty and the temperature is around 30-35 degrees.
The vehicle software optimizes the route and the battery so that these conditions are given "in as many situations as possible".
Porsche is not one of the best manufacturers in this discipline, says electric car expert Stefan Moeller from nextmove vehicle rental.
An update should actually bring improvement.
The driver can hardly predict whether everything will take place quickly - especially since the charging station has to deliver the promised performance.
Little by little, e-car drivers will probably be able to cope better with such imponderables.
And yet refueling remains an essential difference to the combustion engine.
In a battery-powered car, I have to think more about this; I can only use the fast charger properly with the right charging strategy.
The calculation with so many unknowns makes the trip to Croatia an annoying electric car scavenger hunt.
The alpine panorama?
Who the snow-covered streets?
Early spring in Slovenia?
The local rules for lockdown?
Such questions are displaced by the uncertainty of when and where we should charge for how long.
A sympathetic side of electromobility
At the stops, however, there is also a sympathetic side of electromobility: Because electricity is less available than fuel and you don't go to a till, people are generous with it.
Sometimes we fill up for free on this trip.
»Your card is not working?
Take mine, ”says the VW dealer in Villach, where the Porsche Fast Charging Network does not yet automatically settle accounts, according to the company.
I didn't tell him that I was on a test drive.
The porter at the hotel in Zagreb also helps out with his card in the evening.
Not to imagine that this would happen to you at the gas pump.
more on the subject
Range, charging, costs: what you should know before buying an electric carBy Michael Specht
E-offensive from VW, Daimler and BMW: Suddenly the car dinosaurs have another chance by Simon Hage and Martin Hesse
Electric cars: "I don't know where the lithium for all battery cells should come from" An interview by Michael Freitag, manager magazin
Manufacturers are working on a new automotive standard: electric beats combustion by Martin Wittler and Jürgen Pander
Letter to the EU: Several countries are demanding an exit date for the sale of combustion engines
More and more electric cars, hardly any charging options: Finally the Tesla is in the garage, and then the socket fails.By Philip Bethge
The “fuel” of the Stromer is anything but cheap: at the fast charging station in Villach, the kilowatt hour costs 49 cents, so that we get around 30 euros for the last 250 kilometers.
In return, normal company car drivers get a few sandwiches with their petrol even at the motorway service station.
In lockdown, the waiting times are probably particularly uncomfortable.
I spend time in the car that I could have passed by eating or shopping.
Many fast charging stations are not located in the city, where a stroll would be an option, but in the best case in commercial areas.
The journey ends in the late evening.
Contrary to what Google (4 p.m.) and Porsche-Navi (5 p.m.) had predicted, we didn't arrive in Zagreb until shortly before 8 p.m.
That's almost nine hours for less than 600 kilometers.
There is no joy, especially since it goes back the next day - and the scavenger hunt starts all over again.
