With Audi e-tron 55 Sportback quattro 1080 kilometers from Augsburg to Sarajevo
Can you make a long road trip sustainable? I took the plunge and drove 1080 kilometers from Augsburg to Sarajevo alone in the Audi e-tron Sportback 55 quattro.
“You’re crazy!”
– My friends laugh when I tell them about my plan: a road trip from Augsburg to Sarajevo in an all-electric vehicle. A road trip from Augsburg to Sarajevo – with an all-electric vehicle. But I want to go for it, despite the poor infrastructure of charging stations. If we’re going to talk about sustainable travel, let’s start there! I grew up in Germany and have traveled this route with my family at least twice a year since I was a child. I still love traveling to the Balkans, the land of my ancestors, because there is still so much to discover there: Nature, history, cuisine.
But which car should it be? YouTube star Christopher from
Audi liked the story and provided me with the Audi e-tron Sportback 55 quattro with virtual wing mirrors as a test vehicle.
The day before I set off on my journey, I meet Car Maniac. He gives me some valuable tips and leaves me a Juice Booster, a mobile 22 kW charging station equipped with every conceivable adapter.
Here we go – goodbye, Augsburg!
I set off at five in the morning on February 14. It’s minus 11 degrees Celsius. The range with a fully charged battery is 280 kilometers. Drive Selection is in Efficiency mode, cruise control is set to 130 km/h. The heating, seat heating and massage function are active in continuous mode.
Charging at the Hyperchargers in Germany and Austria works without any problems. The range on a full charge is 260 to 280 km. Driving is also pleasant, and not just because of the massage seats. Thanks to navigation and cruise control, the car thinks for itself.
When the speed limit drops from 130 to 100 km/h, the car regulates everything by itself. All I really have to do is steer and enjoy the music! I also really enjoy the virtual wing mirrors. I find them clear and helpful.
Loading surprise Croatia
I don’t even have to charge in Slovenia. The next transit country is Croatia. I’m a little apprehensive, as the infrastructure for charging stations is not yet fully developed. I combine the charging stations displayed by the Audi sat nav system with the ABRP app that Car Maniac recommended to me. I find a number of DC charging stations along the highway, which are provided free of charge by the government. It takes me about an hour and a half to go from 40% to 100%. That’s great for taking a long break.
The “electrical hurdle” of Bosnia
I charge the battery just before the Bosnian-Herzegovinian border. I don’t know what to expect after the border. The Bosnian-Herzegovinian border officials also don’t know what they’re looking at in relation to the car. They laughingly ask me if it’s a spaceship from a distant galaxy. They are particularly impressed by the wing mirrors, which are not mirrors. “You know, we get a lot of different cars, but we’ve never seen one like this before!”
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They ask me if they can take a look inside. When they realize that it’s electric, they shake their heads in disbelief because they can’t imagine that I’ve driven all the way from Germany. They’re even worried whether I’ll make it to Sarajevo, as they have no idea where to charge it. However, I have received a list from Audi BiH with all the charging stations they have installed in hotels across the country.
As a full charge won’t last as far as Sarajevo, I decide to spend the night in the town of Doboj and charge the car overnight. It took me about 11.5 hours to get here, about 900 kilometers. The journey was completely uncomplicated, not to say “boring”. The wallbox charges at 11 kW and takes around six hours to fully charge the half-empty battery. The next morning, the car is ready to go and I manage the remaining 180 kilometers to the capital with ease.
Sarajevo
I stay at the Residence Inn by Marriott for the first few days. I take the elevator down to the underground car park. I plug the car into the high-voltage socket with the mobile Audi charging station and take a rest. For the next twelve days, I will be traveling the country with a cameraman and colleagues. There are hotels with wallboxes in some destinations, but in others we’ll have to be creative. We’ll be shooting in the mountains for the next few days. I can charge up wonderfully at the Hotel Hills on the outskirts of the city, which has two Porsche wallboxes. The hotel team has also reserved parking spaces, so there’s always one free for my Audi. “You’re the second guest with an all-electric car,” an employee told me. That’s why there are mainly cars with combustion engines parked here – you simply wouldn’t expect to find an electric car here.
The Audi BiH team is also looking forward to my visit and provides a faster charging station. I’m not bored: while the car is at the charging station, I enjoy my tea in the branch and even get to visit the workshop. I have to smile because the coat of arms of the Free State of Bavaria, the home of our star on four wheels, hangs on the wall. Three days of production in Herzegovina lie ahead.
Mostar
In Mostar, I can charge at a hotel before driving on to the small historic towns of Stolac and Blagaj. When we arrive at the hotel, the employee tells me that they don’t have a wallbox. I ask her to check this. She comes back with a colleague and says: “We actually have one! Believe me, you’re the first to ask. I didn’t even know we had one!” She asks me if they could see how it works.
No problem in Bosnia and Herzegovina! (Photo: Mirella Sidro)
We spend the night in hostels in Stolac and Blagaj. Both offer to charge the car overnight at the household socket. I gratefully accept. This saves me a trip to the hotel in Mostar. I am also allowed to charge the car at the power socket on a campsite while we explore the area. Nobody wants me to pay for it. But I am happy to tip them five euros. That’s roughly the price of my charge. While the temperatures in Sarajevo are below zero, Herzegovina is blessed with a Mediterranean climate. The range increases to 390 kilometers. As soon as I arrive in Sarajevo, it drops to 280 km, as expected in the wintry temperatures.
The adventurous return journey to Germany
Two weeks later, it’s back to Augsburg. The return journey is more adventurous than expected. I will stay overnight in Doboj again to fully charge the car overnight. I’ve chosen a Sunday for the return journey, as I’m hoping for little traffic and, above all, hardly any trucks. I set off at around two o’clock in the afternoon. My first charging station is supposed to be the Ionity columns in Croatia. When I reach them, it’s already pitch dark. There are four pillars standing tall, but none of them are working. The lady at the filling station can’t help me: “We only lease the land to the manufacturers. We have nothing to do with the pumps,” she explains. I drive to the next DC pump and spend almost two hours there.
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I lose about five hours at the Bosnia-Croatia and Croatia-Slovenia border crossings. I simply didn’t expect so many travelers in the low season, including the pandemic. Slovenia, the greenest country in Europe, is full of charging points! What luck! But I rejoiced too soon. No matter which one I stop at – it’s already two o’clock in the morning – I can’t charge. The stations don’t accept my RFID card. So I download the app and log in. But even then it doesn’t work. I go back to the petrol station to ask and get the same answer as in Croatia. The land is only leased to the provider. However, several people from outside have already complained that the pumps are not working. I now have a problem.
With only eight percent battery charge left, I won’t make it to the next Hypercharger. It’s now four o’clock in the morning in Ljubljana. I call the Radisson Hotel and ask if they have a wallbox. “We have a Tesla Destination Charger, but I don’t know if it works. Please come by and we’ll give it a try!” It works. But the disillusionment follows immediately – it charges at 7.5 kW! I spend about three hours in the underground garage and try to get some sleep. After all, I’ve already been on the road for 13 hours. With this charge, I just about make it to the Hypercharger on the Slovenian-Austrian border.
If all else fails, I still have the Juice Booster. So I’m completely relaxed. They stand there proudly, the four graces from Ionity. The first one doesn’t work, nor do the next two. I park the car again to try my luck at the fourth column. The longed-for “Connected” lights up! The battery is fully charged in 35 minutes. The remaining 600 kilometers go smoothly again. After 27 hours, I arrive in Augsburg. I’m exhausted, but also happy. I’ve made it!
My conclusion
Even with good preparation and organization, you cannot rely on everything running smoothly. The infrastructure is still too weak in some areas and the promised functionality is not always given. But the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, which is why I would always make the journey again with the Audi e-tron. Reporting on my road trips is my passion. It is a fact that we have to give up our accustomed way of life for the sake of climate protection and our future generations. And I’m happy to do that. However, doing without doesn’t mean that we lose anything. We can even gain! E-mobility is still in its infancy and yes, not everything is ideal when you think about the production and recycling of ion-lithium batteries. But it is a better alternative. And one point is crucial. Electric vehicles make us independent of crude oil, which is only available in limited quantities. Electricity, on the other hand, is accessible to everyone. Now we just have to make sure that it is clean.
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And the charging prices?
Charging effectively saves no money. On the contrary, it could even be more expensive than a vehicle with a combustion engine. In the long term, however, an e-vehicle definitely pays for itself, as there is hardly any need to go to the garage.
It feels good that the popular long road trips can also be carried out sustainably. I love the silence in the car and the comfortable ride. People’s reactions are also priceless in a positive sense. They call me brave or crazy. But their looks are always admiring. I didn’t realize it myself, but even men in the Balkans confess to me that they wouldn’t have the courage to drive this route alone. They think it’s great that I took on this adventure as a woman. For me, it wasn’t courage but curiosity that drove me on. Wasn’t it Bertha Benz, Carl Benz’s wife, who undertook the first long journey of 106 kilometers in 1888? She did it without her husband’s knowledge, as he doubted the functionality of his own vehicle. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. This applies to both women and men.
My mobile companion – Audi e-tron Sportback 55 quattro
- Maximum speed in km/h: 200
- Continuous electrical power in kW: 100
- Electrical peak power in kW (in boost): 265 (300)
- Electrical torque in Nm (in boost): 561 (664)
- Battery type / battery energy content: Lithium-ion / gross 95kWh / net 86.5 kWh usable
- Electric range based on power consumption in the combined WLTP driving cycle in km*: 373 – 452
- Combined power consumption in kWh/100 km: 24.0 – 21.6 (NEDC); 25.9 – 21.6 (WLTP)
- My average power consumption: 27 kWh/100 km / 3100 km / winter time
- Electric acceleration 0-100 km/h in s (in boost): 6.6 (5.7)
- Base price: from € 81,500
- Price of my test vehicle Audi e-tron Sportback 55 quattro S line: approx. €113,000
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