Going on holiday with your new electric car in a climate-conscious way? This is possible, but it can become an adventurous game of chance. What is certain is that electric car vacationers have many stories to tell after a trip to the southeastern Mediterranean.
For travelers, especially families, it is a horror scenario. The luggage is ready packed in the car. The tickets for 400 euros have been booked and paid for. Together with the three children, they arrived at the port of Rafina in eastern Attica on time before the ferry left.
The car is in the queue in front of the stern ramp of the ferry to the island of Tinos. It should start at 8:20 a.m. The children whine and ask when they are finally going on the ship. An officer, in this case the captain, inspects the waiting cars.
He looks through the window into the car, sees the screen on the dashboard and says in a harsh tone: “You can’t get in here with 90 percent!” That’s what happened to father Christos on April 30th.
The coast guard called in agrees with the captain. The ferry leaves without the family. All other passenger ships are completely booked during the Easter holidays. Christo’s offense?
He drives a Tesla that is easily recognizable as a battery electric car (BEV) and has almost 90 percent of the battery charged. Numerous plug-in hybrids were not identified by the captain and crew and came onto the ship without being checked.
Christos is lucky in misfortune. As the car magazine “Newsauto” reports, a captain who happened to observe the situation took pity. He gets Christos and his family a place on an evening ferry.
What happened to the father of the family has to do with two circulars from the Greek Ministry of Merchant Marine. They affect BEVs, plug-in hybrids, but also cars that are powered by “alternative fuels” such as gas or hydrogen.
No electric cars with batteries that are more than 40 percent full should travel on ferries that call at Greek ports. For alternative fuels, one half-filled tank is permitted.
A BMW i4 eDrive40 has a battery capacity of 83.9 kWh, a Dacia Spring has a battery with a meager 26.8 kWh. The 40 percent limit applies to both vehicles. The decree does not take the respective capacity of the batteries into account.
Charging on board is strictly prohibited. The electric cars are monitored by video while driving so that no unobserved fire can develop.
The decree transfers responsibility for damage to or caused by the battery exclusively to the vehicle owners. The shipping companies should take into account that BEVs are heavier than combustion engines.
The latest decree, dated April 16, is not a law, but rather a recommendation that the ministry believes should contribute to the safety of passengers on the ships. Christos, a father of the family, could not complain that he was checked while others were allowed through.
Worse still, there is no obligation to transport BEVs. The TV station “One Channel” from Athens asked shipping companies and learned from a representative of the Sea Jets ferry line that they would generally not transport BEVs, regardless of the battery charge status.
Unlike in Germany, e-mobility in Greece continues to be state-sponsored. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck is probably jealous of the funding the Greek Finance Minister is providing to his counterpart in Athens.
The funding program, which ended at the end of April, provided for up to 8,000 euros per BEV. The new funding pot is more generous and still applies to company cars and taxis.
Including the scrappage bonus for combustion engines, a subsidy of 11,000 euros is now possible. In large cities, purely electrically powered vehicles are allowed to park for free.
None of this changes the fact that there are hardly any public charging stations on small and medium-sized Greek islands, as the map of available charging stations provided by the state shows.
Only a year ago, the popular holiday island of Milos got its first public charging station. Arriving on such islands with an almost empty battery gives vacationers a charging station scavenger hunt with fellow sufferers.
However, car travelers from Germany first have to come to Greece for such an experience. You can choose between the Balkan route, on which there are only a manageable number of charging stations through Serbia and North Macedonia, or the journey via Italy.
But then you have to take a ferry from an Italian port to Greece.