What I Did This Summer: Electric Cars & Owners Go On Vacation

By Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

Contributing Writer BIO

Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield is a self-confessed petrol head. She grew up in a carless family but was able at a very early age to name cars passing her on... More

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Nitters European Leaf Trip

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Now we’ve entered the start of September, it’s officially no-longer summer. 

For many Americans that means no more road-trips, balmy summer evenings or family camping trips. 

So while you prepare for falling leaves, finding your winter sweaters and working through until Thanksgiving, we thought we’d share some of our favorite summer road trips made by electric cars and their owners keen to show that electric cars don’t just make the daily trip to and from work.

Taking the 101

Tom and Cathy Saxton, well-known electric car advocates from Seattle, Washington, took their Tesla Roadster on an epic 12-day trip from Seattle to San Francisco Bay and back. 

Saxton Family Road Trip

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Taking in the coastal delights of highway 101, the couple travelled south, charging everywhere from dedicated public charging stations to RV parks.  From their photo album accompanying the trip, the weather was far from fair, but certainly made for some interesting photography. 

Returning home, the couple took in the faster I-5 route back to Seattle, stopping off at dedicated 70-amp Tesla charging stations on the way north. 

Saxton Family Road Trip

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In total, the couple report traveling 1,823 miles, an average of a rather leisurely 151 miles per day. 

French invasion

If you’ve got children, the thought of taking a massive road trip with them in your electric car across several countries probably isn’t high on your list of fun activities. 

But for one Nissan Leaf-owning family from Grasse, France, that’s exactly what happened.  

Setting off on July 15, the entire Nitters family travelled from Grasse to Paris, making use of a car-transporting train to travel quickly from the south of France to Paris. 

Saxton Family Road Trip

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Then, the family made their way north, heading for the Netherlands and a ferry to Newcastle in England. 

From there, the intrepid explorers headed further north, eventually arriving in the Highlands of Scotland.

From there, they travelled over to Ireland. Known for its high number of rapid charge stations, their journey was made much easier, allowing them to cover quite large distances despite only having a range of around 70-90 miles per day. 

Returning to France via ferry from Ireland, the family travelled a total of 2,030 miles on their odyssey. 

Thanks to some clever use of social networking -- and the sponsorship of a charging station provider --  the Nitters family were able to crowd-source places to charge en-route, relying on the hospitality of other electric car owners in places where there were few public charging stations. 

Lessons learned? According to Mark Nitters, while the holiday wasn’t the most relaxing due to worries about finding somewhere to charge, the entire family had lots of fun.

“It would be handy if more hotels would install actual charging points - or even just outside sockets,” Nitters wrote. “So that we can sleep with the window closed!”.