European road trip - Tesla rental advice/suggestions

[ladysbff]

Hi! Looking for advice and suggestions for renting and road-tripping with a Tesla in the EU.

Planning to fly into Paris in mid October then road trip to Madrid, Lucerne, and back. About 2 weeks of driving. Would love to do this in a Tesla instead of a regular ICE vehicle!

If you've done something similar before, I'd love to know:
-Who you rented from
-Where you picked up the car
-Daily/weekly cost
-Mileage allowance or limitations
-Any charging issues you ran into
-Any insurance issues you ran into

I speak a little French and will be traveling with my mom who is fluent in French, German, and Swiss German. Some Italian and basic Spanish too.

Thank you in advance!!

 

[Fossil Fool]

I'm trying to find an affordable Model 3 rental in Germany for next year, too. 100 Euros per day seems a bit high!

 

[ladysbff]

We need a private Tesla owners rental club

 

[PLUS EV]

I'm trying to find an affordable Model 3 rental in Germany for next year, too. 100 Euros per day seems a bit high!

I've been horribly procrastinating planning my trip to Germany (dates are somewhat flexible but must be there for the last weekend of this month!). I'm considering renting a Tesla and I probably would be willing to just bite the bullet and pay whatever exorbitant fee (worth it for the experience of driving a Tesla in Europe right? ). Anyways, I'm curious what you came up with in your research. Any links, email addresses, or leads would be appreciated. I haven't even bought my plane ticket yet, so I'm fairly flexible, but would prefer to rent at or near a major airport in northern Europe where they drive on the right side of the road

 

[ladysbff]

I've been horribly procrastinating planning my trip to Germany (dates are somewhat flexible but must be there for the last weekend of this month!). I'm considering renting a Tesla and I probably would be willing to just bite the bullet and pay whatever exorbitant fee (worth it for the experience of driving a Tesla in Europe right? ). Anyways, I'm curious what you came up with in your research. Any links, email addresses, or leads would be appreciated. I haven't even bought my plane ticket yet, so I'm fairly flexible, but would prefer to rent at or near a major airport in northern Europe where they drive on the right side of the road

Hi PLUS EV Have you looked at/used Turo?

https://turo.com/de/en-us/car-rental/berlin/tesla/model-s/604630
https://turo.com/de/en-us/car-rental/berlin/tesla/model-3/648174

I found a couple in Paris as well, but I've never used Turo before so not sure what to expect. Paris rates seemed high (€200+ per day, albeit with free Supercharging).

 

[PLUS EV]

Hi PLUS EV Have you looked at/used Turo?

https://turo.com/de/en-us/car-rental/berlin/tesla/model-s/604630
https://turo.com/de/en-us/car-rental/berlin/tesla/model-3/648174

I found a couple in Paris as well, but I've never used Turo before so not sure what to expect. Paris rates seemed high (€200+ per day, albeit with free Supercharging).

For some reason I thought Turo was only US and Canada! I've never used it, but this looks like it might be the way to go. Thanks!

 

[PLUS EV]

Another thing to worry about is toll roads. I believe Germany doesn't have them but France definitely does. I'm guessing by now some of them are automated with no option of paying cash (as they are in many places in the US now). I would imagine traditional rental car companies have something worked out for this, but it could be an issue with something like Turo.

 

[ladysbff]

I road tripped the Iberian peninsula last year and got a toll bill a full year later (with photos of me driving!) to my home address in the US I laughed pretty hard. Oddly, no penalty fees, just the original tolls and a small service charge. In Spain most if not all the tolls were manual and in Portugal they were automated.

 

[dutchneon]

Another thing to worry about is toll roads. I believe Germany doesn't have them but France definitely does. I'm guessing by now some of them are automated with no option of paying cash (as they are in many places in the US now). I would imagine traditional rental car companies have something worked out for this, but it could be an issue with something like Turo.

France toll roads are easy, its called peage and you can pay by card and cash. They also have a toll tag that you can register to automatically pass the gates but its hard to register as a foreigner

 

[PLUS EV]

France toll roads are easy, its called peage and you can pay by card and cash. They also have a toll tag that you can register to automatically pass the gates but its hard to register as a foreigner

Thanks. And if you could provide any information on tolling in the Benelux region, that would be much appreciated. I have googled and found some info, but it's hard to determine if you are allowed to pay cash or not, or if the toll roads are easy to avoid.

 

[dutchneon]

Thanks. And if you could provide any information on tolling in the Benelux region, that would be much appreciated. I have googled and found some info, but it's hard to determine if you are allowed to pay cash or not, or if the toll roads are easy to avoid.

Ah you are lucky.... Benelux is free
Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia all have toll roads. although Belgium and Holland have some toll tunnels...
but i have always paid by card.

 

[DarthPierce]

I've got a model 3 booked off Turo for a week in southern Germany (start/end Frankfurt). I'd been hoping to find advice about any charging networks I'd need to have apps for ahead of time, but I'm not seeing much advice online...

I guess I'll just report back in early November with how it went.

 

[PLUS EV]

I've got a model 3 booked off Turo for a week in southern Germany (start/end Frankfurt). I'd been hoping to find advice about any charging networks I'd need to have apps for ahead of time, but I'm not seeing much advice online...

I guess I'll just report back in early November with how it went.

There are lots of superchargers. Why not just use those?

 

[jbcarioca]

Ah you are lucky.... Benelux is free
Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia all have toll roads. although Belgium and Holland have some toll tunnels...
but i have always paid by card.

In Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, among others major highways require a ‘carnet’ which can be for various time periods prepaying for unlimited use. They can be bought at gasoline stations near borders, and several can be bought before you arrive. The precise system varies country by country but near all have a system for express payment. For France and Italy the system has credit card payment possible at unmanned kiosks and us very fast and simple, but not cheap. There are a handful of exceptions for these also.

Everywhere in Europe it is not difficult to figure these processes in advance. With an itinerary in mind several of us can help.

Tesla driving almost anywhere from Croatia to Norway, from Slovakia to Ireland there is plentiful Supercharging and Destination Chargers. When I drive in Europe I use the Tesla Destination Charger index, which has found a few truly memorable experiences.

There are Tesla and other EV rental specialists in Portugal, Estonia, Italy and Germany among others. If you look here for the various country Tesla Clubs they usually know the local specialists.

This link is for my most recent trip:

Tesla Road Trip: Renting in Italy

 

[PLUS EV]

I had always heard the term as "vignette" rather than "carnet," but who knows where either of those words came from. Austria and Switzerland both have them so @DarthPierce should be prepared if he decides to leave Germany. The Austrian vignette can be purchased for 10 days so isn't nearly as expensive. The Swiss one is purchased for the entire year so it's something like 40-50CHF. There are also a couple toll tunnels in Austria but you can just pay with cash (and I believe credit card) at the manned toll booths.

I found this website helpful for researching tolls and vignettes: Prices of Toll Roads in Europe | Sixt rent a car - Sixt Car rental

You can click on each country to get information specific to that country.

Perhaps more important for @DarthPierce is to be sure to have the Umweltzone (environmental zone) sticker for Germany. I would imagine whoever he is renting from already has it on the Tesla but he should double check to be sure. Without it, you can be ticketed for driving into even moderately sized German cities.

 

[DarthPierce]

Trip update:

The car came with 4 different NFC cards that I was able to use for ~11kW (3 phase 16A 230V) charging at a lot of public lots (and even just on street- EV parking spots).

It was news to me that in Germany, it's "Bring Your Own Cable" (other than superchargers) at things equivalent to ChargePoint stations in the US. So you have a IEC 62196-2 (CCS-2) cable that has a male and female side and that plugs into the charging station and into the car. (Took me a bit to figure out that some chargers have a cover that moves out of the way after NFC, and some are locked until NFC but after you still have to push through the outlet cover. Incidentally this cable seems to be super important, since otherwise you've only got the 2-pin Shuko plug (standard Euro household) that's only good for 3kW (220V 16A single phase) - and good luck finding an outdoor Shuko outlet near a parking spot - (we used this cable only once when staying on a farm in the middle of nowhere) - it was definitely the town's (~500 people) first experience with a Tesla.

We only had a SR+, so some range anxiety on the autobahn, since the range absolutely plummets above 180kph. I was quite surprised and pleased at how well the car continued to pull all the way up to the 225kph top speed. Autopilot works great up to 150kph on unrestricted highway and then gets quite angry if you hit the go pedal at that point.

Some supercharger stalls are marked as Model 3 Priority - and I'm not sure how they are different, but I thought it was interesting. Also, superchargers seem to usually have 2 different cables per stall, one used by S/X and a different one used by 3s. the one for 3s has an extra 2 huge pins for DC, and the other looks like a CCS-2 but has a keying feature to not plug into the 3.

The trip seems like it would have been kinda difficult if not for the NFC cards.

Also helpful that I was allowed to return the car with >10% charge since there aren't any superchargers actually in Frankfurt and the parking lot charger on our last night refused to start giving power.

 

[PLUS EV]

Some supercharger stalls are marked as Model 3 Priority - and I'm not sure how they are different, but I thought it was interesting. Also, superchargers seem to usually have 2 different cables per stall, one used by S/X and a different one used by 3s. the one for 3s has an extra 2 huge pins for DC, and the other looks like a CCS-2 but has a keying feature to not plug into the 3.

As best I could tell, this is a relic of a time when not all of the stalls were outfitted with the Model 3 plug. In fact, I still did see a couple superchargers that only had the Model 3 plug on about half the stalls, but yes, 95+% of the supercharger locations had both plugs on all stalls so no need for those signs any more at those locations.

 

[KalJoMoS]

This Model3 priority means that if you start to charge your Model S/X then be sure to choose correct (if no other possibilities) stall as these ones are reserved for CCS compatibility as Model 3 has this connection.