The Zeemcoin Road Trip continues, with the help of Miguel Zarzuela we are making a trip in an electric car (Opel Corsa 100% electric) of more than 2200 km, where we are evaluating the public fast charging network in Spain and Portugal.
In the first and second article about this trip we have told you about the first 4 stages of the trip, starting from Zaragoza we have passed through Madrid, Plasencia, Lisbon and the surroundings of the Portuguese capital, where we have been evaluating the quality of the public fast charging network as well as commenting on the anecdotes of the trip and the good and bad things of each stage.
In this article we are going to tell you about Miguel’s travel experience in his next 2 stages, where we leave Lisbon on our way to Albufeira (Algarve) and arrive in Huelva to take a ferry to the Canary Islands.
Stage 5: Lisbon – Albufeira
In this stage the total distance traveled by road is 260 km. According to Miguel, this stage is very easy to do in an electric car, as it is a relatively short stage and most of it is done by highway. Little by little we are reinforcing the theory that traveling by electric car is becoming easier and easier and the fear of buying an electric car because of its added difficulty to travel should be lost. Of course there is still a lot to improve but you can make trips without any problem and even more if you make use of an application like Zeemcoin App.
Four chargers have been evaluated during the course of this stage, they are the following:
Of which the best was undoubtedly the EDP one at the exit of Lisbon, in addition to having a 160 kW double charger and a 50 kW charger, it was the only PDR of the trip that had a canopy, which in an area with so much rain is to be appreciated. And the worst in this case was in Ourique, it was in a parking lot on the street in a central square and the screen did not work. Despite this, the charger worked. Fortunately, almost the same type of chargers are used throughout the network. When swiping the card you have to select the CCS socket via a push button, and doing this step without seeing it on the screen made the charger start up without any problems.
Even so, apart from the failure on the EVCE charger screen, all the chargers worked correctly, although if we had not had prior knowledge of the charging start procedure in that charger, we would not have been able to start charging.
As for safety, Miguel tells us that he felt safe at all times during this stage of the trip. As for the accessibility and location of the chargers, the EVCE charging point in Ourique was poorly geolocated, the GPS put Miguel inside a school under construction, but then looking for it was not much further away. The rest of the chargers were well geolocated and the accessibility was quite good.
In any case, Miguel is delighted with the Portuguese public charging network, especially when traveling on Portuguese highways, where it is a marvel to not even have to look where the charging points are. It is indicated whether a rest area has a recharging point or not, and also tells you how far away the next one is. This simple indication makes traveling much easier.
Stage 6: Albufeira – Huelva
In this stage the total distance of road travel is 135 km if it were done in a direct way, however Miguel took advantage and instead of leaving directly to Huelva, at the beginning of the stage he went west to visit the caves carved naturally on the coast of the Algarve.
Four chargers have been evaluated during the course of this stage, they are the following:
Of which the best has been the PowerDot in the Alcantariha shopping center as it had 4 CCS of 100 kW next to the restaurant area, so should be all the charging points today. He liked the design of the hoses hanging from above and almost weightless. The worst one in this case has been the Endesa X in Punta Umbria, it did not pass the initial checks of the CCS and could not load after 3 attempts with APP and physical card.
As in all previous stages, Miguel tells us that he has felt safe at all times while performing this stage of the trip, so it seems that for the moment the fast charging points where he is charging the car are well located in safe places. As for accessibility, he tells us that in Portugal the location of the chargers is usually close to the main roads, however when he entered Spanish territory, the chargers were not so accessible, and it was necessary to deviate from the highways to reach them.
At this stage, there are many chargers on the route, however when passing the border it is true that there are none on the A49 freeway. On the other hand there are many good and different options to eat on both sides of the border.
As an anecdote Miguel was able to change the electric car for another means of sustainable transport, a kayak with which he toured for an hour and a half the caves of Benagil in a wonderful experience. The sea was a bit rough, but he was still able to see several of the caves of this rugged coastline from the inside.
The trip is being a success, although there have been some incidents when recharging at some stations, we are demonstrating that you can make long trips with our electric car and if you use applications like Zeemcoin App, these incidents will disappear. In addition, thanks to evaluate the chargers in our Zeemcoin App, you will accumulate Zeemcoin tokens with which you can get different products, services and discounts in sector of electric mobility. Let’s see what Miguel tells us in his next steps, remember that we will be following this journey through the Zeemcoin Blog.
Stay tunned!
Download Zeemcoin app at:
