I drove constantly with TACC at 80 km/h (50 mph), the last third with 60-70 km/h. Consumption was being shown at below 100 Wh/km but still, something was weird and the range dropped quickly. Driving slow like that I was hoping we would reach Ashdod with 100 km typical left in the battery, which would be hopefully sufficient for the car to be parked a couple of days at Ashdod harbor and then also for making it back to Monfalcone, Italy, onboard the vessel and not arriving at Monfalcone completely empty. In the end, we arrived with 66 km typical in Ashdod. Hrmpf! That meant I had to look for a charging possibility the next day. On the way to Ashdod I tried several gas stations and malls but didn't find any CEE 3-phase red plugs.
At 08:30 in the morning we sat again in the office of our favourite customs officer back in Ashdod. But then terrible news: "Our" customs officer isn't at work today. Just his stand-in. Panic at first, but then happiness! Because, it couldn't get any worse with the stand-in, impossible! And indeed, the stand-in was uncomplicated, in a good mood and very cooperative. The only problem was that we weren't supposed to be at the customs office just yet. Instead, we should have driven to our customs broker Olaf, who was supposed to issue an export form for us, which we then had to present here. Exactly the opposite of what our favourite customs officer had told us a couple of days ago. I wasn't surprised anymore. So, Olaf's office was just a few km away but every km of range was precious at that moment.
Upon arriving at Olaf's office just his secretary was present. Olaf isn't in the office yet, and neither is Melanie. When we last spoke with Olaf a couple of days ago, he asked at what time our flight would leave from Tel Aviv and promised that he would take care of everything first thing in the morning so that there wouldn't be any problems. I guess he changed his mind.
Finally he arrived but couldn't do anything because he said he needed Melanie for this. He mentioned Melanie was at the Allal*uf office taking care of our stuff as we spoke. Yeah, right. At 11:00 Melanie enters the office, really relaxed, at a pace of 1 mph or something
Only God knows where she was the last few hours or what she did. Chilling, probably.
Then, she needed exactly 1.5 hours to prepare that friggin' form for us. A joke here, a little chat there, booting her computer, oh, a note fell down to the floor, picking up the note realllyyyy slow etc. etc. etc. Inside, I'm going nuts because I already see the plane taking off without us, and I know that I still have to charge the car somewhere or I'll be in trouble when it arrives empty in Monfalcone. The harbor is the only place where charging could be possible now. At 14:30 we have to be at the airport in Tel Aviv. Ashdod to Tel Aviv is approximately 40 minutes by taxi. That means we have to leave Ashdod at 13:45 at the latest. Alright, at 12:30 we're leaving for the customs office, together with Melanie. The customs office is directly next to the harbor and a traffic jam of dozens of huge semis is blocking the entrance. Everybody wants to get into the harbor. Totally jammed, no chance. Melanie thinks she's smart and takes another route, which leads us into an even bigger traffic jam. She's in her Mazda, I follow her in the Tesla. Reverse... but there's already another semi coming from behind. No chance to drive back now. 5 minutes which feel like 5 hours nothing is moving at all. My wife exits the car, I take the documents from Melanie and give them to my wife, asking her to proceed on foot to the customs office (few hundred meters) to try and see if she can save us some time even if the Tesla isn't there yet. Melanie asks the semi driver in front of her if he could move aside. He replies: "No". I mean, where should he drive off to? There are like 10 other semis around him. But Melanie just shakes her head in protest and lack of understanding. Anyway. I exit the car and take a closer look at the median strip that is separating our 2-lane-road from the other 2-lane-road going into the other direction. Curb is about 20 cm high and then some plants/weeds growing up to 30 cm. Well, what else to do, in theory we could be here for hours without any progress. So I decide to cross the median and get onto the other road. I politely ask the 2 semis in front-left of me whether they could both just drive like 2 meters forward. And they do. I had already told the semi left of me that I'd like to pass, and he leaves the spot which was just created open for me. I set the air suspension to VERY HIGH and drive really slowly over the median. Melanie sees what I'm doing and wants to follow me. But I don't care a tiny rats ass about her in that particular moment and drive off like a madman. Back at the other entrance everything is still blocked and I finally lose my temper. There's a totally empty road into the customs office, but it's there to access the harbor FROM the customs office, and not vice versa. Anyway, I drive into the EXIT of the harbor in order to reach that road and 2 officers stop me immediately. A security guy runs towards me immediately, pointing his machine gun at me. One of the officers yells at the security guy like "Everything's OK, don't panic!". They ask for my passport and ask what I'm trying to do here. I explain the situation and that I urgently need to get to the customs office but the road is totally blocked. I ask if I could pass through here, they say no but at the same time offer to clear the regular road for me and escort me to the customs office. So, one of the security guys hops into his jeep and drives in front of me, blue lights on, and the semis make way after a while. Oh man. I get to the customs office and Melanie is already there. What the hell! My wife asks me what kind of bullsh*t I'm fabricating here and honestly, in that moment, I ask myself the very same question.
The stand-in of our favourite customs officer needs just 3 minutes to check the form. Great, now we're allowed to proceed to the harbor. Suddenly, everything moves really quickly. The good guy Guy is there for us again and picks us and Melanie up and brings to the next checkpoint where some documents will get checked. But, the security jeep is back and tells us that Guy was a little bit too fast, we would first need to have all our luggage checked (It was the same the first time when we left the harbor - so that's OK). Ok, quick, quick, quick, everyone involved is helping to carry the luggage, except for Melanie who prefers to sit in her car and chill. It's 13:30 by now. The luggage check is quick and Guy escorts us to a warehouse where we start a discussion with the boss there whether we're allowed to charge our Tesla there for 2 hours. Boss is skeptical. Time is ticking. Guys brings us to another warehouse where there's a CEE red 3-phase 32A plug. I plug in. It's charging. I manually adjust to 16A. Better safe than sorry. We can't afford an interruption now. It's 13:50 and we have to get hold of a taxi. I explain to Guy how to stop the charging process and how to restart it in case it drops. He says OK, he'll take care of it and is going to stop the charge in about 2 hours from now. I say thanks a thousand times and feel happy and relieved that there's a solution. Melanie kindly calls a taxi for us and drives us out of the harbor, to the taxi meeting point. We say goodbye and we're off to Tel Aviv. I call Guy from the taxi and remind him to first disconnect the car side, then the wall side.
I have no idea whether this actually worked. I don't know the current SoC of the car. When we dropped it at the harbor, it had 31 km typical left. Does it have 25 km typical now? Or 150? Or 300? No clue. The car is now parked for up to 2 weeks at the harbor in Ashdod. Then the vessel arrives and the car will board. After that it takes another week or so for the car to get shipped back to Monfalcone. This is where I'll pick it up and then find out whether it's still driving or not.
Guy to the rescue!
We did catch the plane. It was delayed 1.5 hours because of a thunderstorm.
That's it for now. Tomorrow, there'll be a bit more. Videos and the process of getting the car back...
Cheers!
Markus