Sicily To The Leaning Tower Of Pisa In An Electric Van — Nissan e-NV200
July 21st, 2019 by Tomek Gać
After so many adventures and kilometers (see parts one, two, and three), we were down south in Sicily for this portion of our trip. On the 7th day in the morning, with 3,300 km on the meter, we decided to give up on the southwest part of Sicily, where fast chargers were quite scarce, and we drove through the mountainous heart of the island.
Since our night stay at the hotel was short, as usual, we only charged up to 60%. That meant we had to stop at another Enel X charger right next to the company’s power station.
We could enjoy the ride for another 200 kilometers knowing there was a CHAdeMO charger near a shopping center on our way. Or I should say, there was supposed to be a working CHAdeMO charger, as the one we arrived at only charged at a 2kW rate, more or less like a home socket would. What a disappointment it could be for a novice EV driver and a deterrent for other possible EV buyers.
We were not discouraged, though, and after one hour we set off using the energy we had to crawl our way to Palermo, where we arrived on our last few kilowatt-hours.
Charging at Enel HQ in Palermo next to an Enel Nissan LEAF.
The Enel office building right in the center of Palermo offered excellent charging and we could enjoy local beaches in the meantime (let alone excellent Mediterranean food and wine). That evening we boarded a night ferry to Naples.
Getting ready for the ferry.
The ferry arrived in Naples at 7:00 in the morning and we headed a little south to visit the ancient city of Pompeii located not far from there. It was a short visit to the ruins of the city buried in volcanic ashes of the Vesuvius eruption. We knew there were hundreds of kilometers ahead of us, so we joined a motorway and hurried north.
A view of Monte Cassino Abbey from the charging station.
We were quite lucky when charging in Cassino — we could admire a majestic view of Monte Cassino Abbey, where Polish soldiers successfully defeated German defenses during World War II. After hundreds of kilometers more, we finally arrived at Pisa, which welcomed us with numerous 22kW chargers along the city roads. After connecting our Nissan e-NV200, we could go for a nice walk in the city center.
A 22 kW charging station in the city of Pisa.
When we arrived at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it turned out that even at 11:00 in the evening, in rainy weather, the place is bustling with tourists. I was wondering how many of them came there in an EV — owned, rented, or shared. Another short night ahead of us…
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Interested in buying a Tesla for the easiest road tripping possible? Need a referral code to get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging? Use ours: http://ts.la/tomasz7234 (or not — up to you).
All images courtesy Tesla Shuttle
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About the Author
Tomek Gać Tomek is a cleantech fan and it shows in all of his endeavors. He is a co-founder of Tesla Shuttle and owns a courier company, Quriers. Tomek was probably one of the first 20 EV owners in Poland. Another one of his companies, Energia Slonca, explores opportunities for solar PV panel installations for private and corporate clients. Tomek is also an EV consultant for companies considering going electric.
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