European charge

We drive the Hyundai Kona Electric from the northernmost point of Europe to the southernmost point in a bid to set a world record for the shortest time taken to do so in an EV. Dhruv Saxena takes you through the journey

- Dhruv Saxena

The plan was fairly straightforward – drive, charge, drive again, charge again until we reached Tarifa in Spain. The execution, however, was anything but. Before we commenced our drive we charted out a tentative route based on the public charging network available across Europe. Still, there was always an element of uncertainty since it was tough to ascertain whether the charging station we had intended to stop at would be in working condition or not. Adding to that was the overly complicated phone/app-based activation at charging stations that had us racking our brains. Driving duties were handled by yours truly and Auto Today editor, Yogendra Pratap. Stopping at hotels was out of the question so while one drove, the other slept and we also tried sneak in some shut-eye while the vehicle was plugged in. That was also the only time we had to grab a quick bite to eat and a cup of coffee to keep ourselves going so no fancy European meals for us. We had to complete the journey with a single Kona and with only the monitors from the LASF who followed us through our journey for company.