No Plan B!

I had planned the 750km route for my BMW EV meticulously, allowing for four charging sessions. My car has a comparatively small 64kWh battery but three chargers would be quite adequate. However I wanted to fill up at the last charging point before the village we were staying in, as there appeared to be practically nowhere to charge & I couldn't make it if would be possible to charge from a normal household plug there.

The day was to turn into a nightmare, not because of the car, battery, chargers or anything similar, but because if my mobile telephone contract! If I hadn't made any plan and simply rocked up at charging stations the car automatically points you to at the appropriate time, there would have been no problem.

But my one and only Plan A was based on a one month subscription to Tesla Superchargers, probably the most reliable charging operator, which gives one about 50% discount on the charges. I could have chosen Ionity another pan-European charging network but simply wanted to try out Tesla (at the time not realising I was helping a fascist).

The Tesla as well as Ionity networks both run only on mobile phone Apps, the don't supply an RFID card. In fact Tesla chargers don't have a display at all, the whole procedure is only shown on the App.

So set off this morning, without breakfast, to 30km distant nearest Tesla SC. The next planned Tesla SC was some 250km away, the other side of the 2,000 metre high San Bernardino Pass which together with Friday holiday traffic, scorching full blast air conditioning weather,  could rise to a bit of range-angst, even if the drop down towards Italy would regenerate a lot.

So arrived at the charger, plugged in, opened App and ......nothing, zilch, niente, nichts! What is going on? No display to see if out of order & no other cars charging and a very isolated place. Luckily if strangely,  there was another Tesla SC just 10 minutes away at a fashion outlet store on the edge of a town.

Got there, busier but could plug in without a wait, and.....? Yep, nothing. By this time I was beginning to get worried but above all angry as it was delaying our tight schedule. Instead of doing the sensible thing and find any old charger regardless of cost, I went into ultra stubborn, stupid mode. I was beginning to realise there must be a problem with my phone. At ladt place there was no free WiFi, nor at this one, at least at the chargers. But I walked 50m to the shops & railway station and found Swiss Rail had a free WiFi. So went through all the hassle of registration & Bob's your uncle, Tesla App worked. Now problem wad you need to know the reference number of your charger to start the process. Go back to car but lose WiFi connection.  Note charger number, go back to the station, enter number in App, then run like crazy to put the charger plug in. Phew, it worked! 15 minutes neededvto charge wasn't enough time to get breakfast (we had thermos of coffee & cold drinks)and headed off up the pass. Very slow 250km in nearly 5 hours, single lane in each direction for most of it and increasingly hungry. 

Next Tesla SC like most, was a short drive off the motorway and was on the opposite side of a mid size town. There was however a McD's as we entered town, so made a stop even if couldn't charge - golden ABC rule of EVs - Always Be Charging. So decided on a takeaway as Tesla SC just 5 minutes away. 5 minutes but not on  a July Friday afternoon. At least 320 minutes later got there, plugged in, started App and....? Yep, nothing. Almost middle of nowhere but free WiFi from a nearby garden furniture outlet store just worked if I walked a few metres. So charged up in 20 minutes & ate the now less than Luke warm burger & crinkle chips. Still very annoyed with sll the delays and why my phone had broken just when I was on holiday & couldn't easily fix it.

Drive on down past lovely Lake Como, acceptable smallish delay at border, not stopped but cars had to go past slowly. Then down to & around Milan.

The Milan ring road was jam packed & exactly then the BMW navigation system got me totally confused - I had probably forgotten to correct a setting which made the system think I wanted a minimum of 50% charge & was therfore trying to force me to charge. My copilot got out their UK Apple mobile phones map App & asked 'Ichabod' (nickname( for a route to the apartment. With all the embarrassing events so far, I accepted following the Englishman. Turned out instead of my pan to go East then South, Ichabod wanted South then East. Was a disaster, sending us on main Riviera motorway to Genoa & also mixed up my Tesla charging plan. Stepped at next one, at a massive shopping centre, praying they had free WiFi.  Chargers were packed, with only one bay free. Because older Tesla chargers are designed only for Teslas with plug on rear left, those with plugs on the right have a big problem. As can be seen on the big collage photo, I had to block the pavement! Plugged in and ....? What on earth is happening,  it worked perfectly without WiFi!!! Brilliant but why? Anyway good charge up to 90% in 35 minutes - exactly time it took for finding loo & a bit of looking at shops.

Then back onto packed motorway & a traffic jam reaching all way down to the coast. During this time, the owner of the apartment phoned to ask where we were to collect keys. Only spoke Italian. Chaos ensued but luckily son with a bit of English managed to calm the situation. We were still hours away!

Once past Genoa & heading east along the coast, we got to Pisa & the final charge to get as much as possible as no Teslas anywhere near the apartment in Bolgheri. Charging process, no problems again! Why!!!!

Eventually got there, phoned the owners and they came along to give us the keys & a quick tour. Owner & her son were lovely despite us being way past last arrival time.

Well, turned out all the charging problems were due to my mobile phone contract that like all includes EU Roaming. Unbelievably the UK, Norway & a few other non EU countries are included BUT NOT Switzerland! Therefore no data while in Switzerland.  For the return simply need to book day package for €5. I have for my personal record, included all the charging stop info's as screen shots in extra photos, including the 1st Zero failed attempt! Note the % battery charger when plugging in and the time taken. Should confirm never a range problem & time one would need to go to the loo & grab a coffee. Not enough time for a meal.

Apart from that, the car performed perfectly, charged really well, not a minute of range Angst. The actual driving with all the assistance features makes it a doddle & very relaxing..I would never want to go back to a combustion engined car.