Road trip through France Switzerland and Austria

[Heynow999]

HI
I live in Canada and we have a Tesla which we take on road trip vacations around North America.

We ( a family of 4 ) want to do a road trip next summer through Europe. The rough idea right now is to fly to Paris and rent a Nissan Leaf or whatever long range ev is available at the time, and drive through France to Switzerland then Austria. What I would like to know is if the DC charging network is widespread enough to basically drive whereever we want within these countries?

I know the first thing everyone is going to say is "take the train" but the simple answer is my wife doesn't want to take the train.

Why land in Paris? I am using Aeroplan points and it is cheaper to fly to Paris as it is less than 4000 miles from Toronto. It seems also that I can rent an EV at the airport. I have had a real struggle trying to find a place to rent an EV. I suggested the idea of Paris to my wife and she liked the idea of spending a day or two there.

 

[jbcarioca]

There are Tesla rentals. They are rarely cheap but can be less expensive than ICE given high petrol prices.
Sixt has Peugeot e-208 which might be preferable to the Leaf, although they ahem those too.
Turo has Tesa there:

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An advantage of older Tesla rental is that they usually come with unlimited Supercharging, that suddenly makes the price affordable.
There are several other options too. These days there are Superchargers almost everywhere. None fo the other systems are as reliable nor are they as easily accessible, but they do exist and are growing rapidly.

My choice has been to rent an older Tesla every time in Europe. Easy, simple, accessible. You might cringe at the nominal price, but you'll grin when you have that free Supercharging.

 

[Heynow999]

Thats a great idea to rent an old Tesla, I will consider that. I would have confidence in the Tesla supercharger network. But, we are trying to keep costs down, staying in Airbnb's, making our own meals, renting a cheap car, that kind of thing. We are going for a cheap long trip rather a posh short trip.

I was suprised to see a Nissan Leaf at the Paris airport for $30 Canadian doallrs a day.

CAD 30.93 per day or Total: CAD 649.57 for the whole 3 weeks! Thats pretty cheap!

So if anyone has any feedback about how widespread and reliable the DC fast charging network is that would be great. Thanks

 

[Tastee]

Switzerland has a reasonable charging network outside the Supercharger network. There are also slow chargers in some of the supermarket parking lots, etc. A few of the Lidl supermarkets offer free 50kw charging.

If you were to rent a Tesla the Supercharger network in Switzerland and Austria is really good. We have never had a problem.

Reego.ch rents used Teslas. They are located in Basel so that's one direct train ride away from Paris. Maybe you can even ask them to pick you up at the train station or drop off the car for you.