Miguel Ángel González never considered an electric car an obstacle to long-distance travel. This August, he set off from Huércal de Almería with his wife and daughters in a Mercedes EQS SUV for a 19-day journey covering 6,071 kilometres and more than 15 cities.
The trip was planned around his middle daughter’s intended Interrail route through Central Europe. Instead of travelling separately, the family followed a similar itinerary by car, turning the journey into a shared experience.
Their route began in Spain with stops in Burgos, Bilbao and San Sebastián before crossing the Pyrenees. They then visited Paris and Bruges, followed by Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Edam in the Netherlands. In Germany, the main stops were Berlin and Dresden, before the family continued south through Prague and Vienna.
The journey ended in Italy, with visits to Venice, Florence, Pisa and Genoa. From Genoa, they took a ferry to Barcelona and drove back to Almería. The route required regular charging stops, which the family planned using an application that accounted for available chargers and terrain, an important factor in the vehicle’s range.
González said the car covered around 300 kilometres between stops in Spain and between 350 and 400 kilometres on flatter sections of Europe. Charging sessions generally lasted between 30 and 40 minutes, often coinciding with breaks during the journey. In his view, travelling long distances in an Electric vehicle is perfectly feasible when the route and charging points are planned in advance.
The family also considered operating costs. González, who spends much of his professional life on the road, believes the trip was cheaper than it would have been in a Petrol car, particularly given fuel prices that approached 2.35 euros per litre in France and Germany.
The trip was not entirely trouble-free. Shortly after leaving Huércal, a warning light led them to an official Mercedes workshop in Madrid. The issue was resolved and, according to González, became an anecdote rather than a serious setback. In Amsterdam, roadworks and repeated diversions caused longer delays than expected.
During the journey, the family took part in 13 guided visits, including tours focused on major cities and darker episodes of European history, such as the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
After returning to Almería, González’s verdict was unequivocal: he would repeat the experience. For the family, the journey combined long distances and charging logistics with shared time, new discoveries and memories that, in his view, would have been just as possible with a petrol car.
Sources: Motorpasión.