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Electric Across the Alps

A journey by electric car from Germany to Italy via Fernpass and Reschenpass.

Outward journey: September 8, 2025, return journey: September 10, 2025
Route: Kempten - A7 to Reutte - Fernpass - Reschenpass - Schluderns and back, 2 x 204 kilometers
Duration: Outward journey: approximately 4 hours, including a 37-minute break. Return journey: approximately 5.5 hours, including a 56-minute break
Power consumption: 11.6 kWh per 100 km there, 12.0 kWh per 100 km back
Charge level at start: 99 percent, 6.5 kWh charged (approx. 11%), arrival in Schluderns with 62% charge
Return journey: 10.1 kWh charged (approx. 17%), return with 30% charge

In September 2025, I took a two-day trip from Buchenberg near Kempten in Allgäu (Germany) to Gschnair near Schluderns in Vinschgau (Italy). The car was a VW ID.3 with a 58 kWh battery. The route, just over 200 kilometers long, initially leads over 36 kilometers of highway to Reutte, then over very winding roads through Austria via the Fernpass, Imst, Landeck, Nauders, and the Reschenpass, avoiding toll roads. Using toll roads would have shortened the route by 5 kilometers and probably also made it faster, but would also have increased power consumption due to the higher speed there. Indeed, the electric car can fully exploit its strengths on roads like those driven here, namely, winding, steep country roads. Where the combustion engine is extremely fuel-hungry, the electric car of course also requires more power uphill, but recovers a large portion of it downhill through recuperation. This explains the extremely low fuel consumption on this trip. It would have been even lower without the Autobahn in Germany at the beginning and end of the trip.
The starting point in Germany was 780 meters above sea level, the destination in Italy at 1350 meters. Neither heating nor air conditioning was needed on the outward journey, but it was colder on the return journey, and heating was necessary. Therefore, the electricity consumption was higher on the return journey, despite the elevation change, which would otherwise lead to expect lower electricity consumption on the return journey. The longer return journey was due to traffic jams.
Charging was carried out in Nauders, simply because there the charging station is next to a restaurant where we were about to eat. The 16.6 kilowatt-hours charged cost €14.11, which equates to a rather expensive 85 cents per kWh. I don't have a contract with a monthly base fee and therefore have to accept high prices when I charge away from home, which I rarely do. The 40 kilowatt-hours charged at home, on the other hand, cost me €12 with an electricity tariff of 30 cents per kWh. So the total electricity costs were approximately €26. In fact, it would theoretically have been possible to drive the entire round trip without charging, with the battery using 97 percent of its total power. But of course, that's not what you'd do.

Last change September 12. 2025

No responsibility is taken for the correctness of this information. The articles on this site about electromobility and different electric car models are based on personal experience and on current news. They are not sponsored or supported by the car manufacturers.

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