A two-week touring holiday in northern Spain: visiting 3 historic and beautiful cities with our EV car
Just over 950 km (600 miles) -Three time the distance between London and Manchester. One charge en route an 2 short charges at hotels (one free!). Zero CO2 emitted and zero global warming emissions from our car!
April 2023
By Ferry from Portsmouth to Santander
For some time we had wanted to visit the wonderful historic cities of Salamanca, Segovia and Ávila in western Spain and in 2023 we decided to make it happen by travelling first by ferry to Santander in northern Spain. We decided to check out Brittany Ferries new low emissions ship, Santoña (fuelled by LNG instead of dirty old marine diesel oil). It certainly was a much more pleasant experience as when on deck you didn’t get that smelly smoke in the downdraft depending on which way the wind was blowing. We then had the question of shall we take the car or shall we go by train to these cities?
Travelling in Spain by electric car or train?
It is certainly possible to travel by train, on the often new, electrified service. However I wanted to experiment in taking my electric car abroad. It’s a Kia Niro with a 64.8 kWh battery with a range of about 285 miles. Over the three years that I’ve had this car I’ve found that the manufacturer’s range prediction to be pretty accurate.
Having done some research on recharging stations, I was confident that we could make the journey despite the fact that the distances on the rural sections of our trip were sparsely populated with charging stations. My confidence was boosted by the relatively good range of our Kia Niro EV car as it was clear that whilst we may not find a charging station out in the countryside or going through the Picos de Europa mountains we would certainly find stations in the bigger towns. For day one of our journey in Spain I was fairly safe in the knowledge that we could call into the large city of Burgos to refuel before going on to Salamanca. The total distance between Santander where the ferry arrived and Salamanca is 265 Miles (426 km). I realised the range of my car would not cover this distance in one hop.
Charging your car abroad
The other question which arises is how do you charge your car abroad? It was clear one had to get a charging card from one or other suppliers. I didn’t want to get tied down to a supplier for only one country as this would be limiting on future visits to other European countries. After some brief research I found that taking up membership with Chargemap would give us access to a wide range of charging stations across Europe no matter who the local supplier was. You have to sign up for their card which costs €19.90 for a one-off purchase. Their app also provides you with a map of all compatible stations in the country you are driving through. I decided that it was worthwhile getting this card rather than relying upon the possibility of just using a credit card or using my European Shell Recharge card. Shell had lots of EV recharge stations in Europe but didn’t have any in Spain. On the other hand the Chargemap service seemed to have loads of stations on their map. This turned out to be correct as the main Spanish petrol and diesel fuel supplier, Iberdrola, also provided most of the intercity and motorway charging stations. It was clear that the Chargemap service was compatible with the Iberdrola stations.
At Portsmouth we recharged at the Instavolt fast charging station which is within the ferry port area. This was hugely convenient as we didn’t have to stop on the way to Portsmouth and we would be ready to go immediately on arrival in Spain.
Santander to Salamanca
After a very pleasant crossing we arrived at 8 am. We set off on the old main road south towards Salamanca. It was a lovely journey through the Picos de Europa and the road was relatively quiet as most of the traffic uses the autopista (motorway). Once though the mountain range we entered the high plains of the Castile and Leon province. We called into Burgos to recharge the car. We had looked for charging stations on the road down to Burgos but the few we saw were still in construction. It was a bit confusing in Burgos because my onboard map system didn’t make it clear where the charging stations were. I believe it was out of date, So we used the Chargemap map on my smartphone. This made things a little difficult because I was the driver and couldn’t look at the app and drive at the same time. After a number of stops we eventually found an Iberdrola co located with a fuel station.
We were pleasantly surprised when we got to our hotel in Salamanca (the NH hotel Palacio de Castellanos ) as it had two charging stations in the garage. The concierge helped me load down their own app so we were able to charge up ready for when we left Salamanca.
Salamanca is a beautiful ancient university city and is well worth a visit. The central part of the city is a UNESCO world heritage site because of its important historical and architectural heritage. It has many stunning buildings, pedestrianised streets and great restaurants.
Photos and videos:
Salamanca – Amazing buildings!
Salamanca – Semana Santa (Holy Week)
Mercado de Salamanca
Ávila
Our next stop was the ancient fortified town of Ávila. It was only just over 100 km away, well within the 400 + km range of our car. Again, we were pleasantly surprised when we got to our hotel, the Parador de Ávila, as this also had charging stations in the garage and this time they were free! Avila is absolutely worth visiting for its remarkably well-preserved mediaeval walls and historic architecture.
Here is a link to some photos:
Segovia
Our next stop was just 65 km east to Segovia. Our hotel was in the central plaza mayor and they operated valet parking so we were unable to charge. However we weren’t worried about this as we had over 350 km range remaining. Segovia is another world heritage city; a must see is the massive Aqueduct of Segovia. It is the defining historical feature of the city. It was built by the Romans in the first century AD to channel water from springs in the mountains 17 kilometres away. Another must see is the Alcázar (palace). It may have had Roman origins but certainly by being called ‘alcázar’ it was probably a Moorish palace prior to the ‘reconquista’. It has been much modified over the centuries and now resembles a German castle more suited to the banks of the Rhine in Bavaria with its tall towers overlooking the surrounding plains and countryside on the edge of the city. It was one of the favoured residences of the kings of Castile.
Here are links to some photos:
After a fantastic visit to these three beautiful ancient cities it was time for us to journey back to Santander to get the ferry home. The distance to Santander is just over 360 km (226 miles)so we didn’t need to charge on the way back to Santander.
Conclusion
Since the trip to Spain my car has been in for a service and the onboard map has been updated. I should have made sure it was updated at the previous service. However the Chargemap app was very good and using their mapping tool was accurate. You just have to plan things a bit more carefully to avoid having to keep on stopping to look at the app.
I was very impressed with two of the hotels we stayed at who had their own charging points. This made life a lot easier. As far as charging on the motorways are concerned I expect that those we saw under construction are now working and that should also make life a lot easier as driving around a city trying to find a charging point in a country you don’t know very well isn’t easy.
Map of our Journey: red is the outward journey and blue the return
Vic Ient 