Driving an electric car: tips for a successful first journey

• Informing helps: Every e-model works differently. It's worth familiarising yourself with it in advance so that you can approach your first electric journey as relaxed as possible.

• Special driving characteristics: with a low centre of gravity and instant power, electric cars offer a new driving experience that e-car newbies have to adjust to.
• Adapt your driving style: smooth and anticipatory handling is particularly important in order to maximise range and conserve battery power.
• Range anxiety: modern electric cars have a long range. Today, there’s no reason to fear that the “juice” will run out in the middle of a journey.
• Different electric cars: not all electric cars are the same. There are major differences between hybrids, plug-ins and all-electric cars.

The most important thing first: Your first experience with an electric car will most likely not go according to plan straight away. We all know it, that one electric car moment when you don't know what to do and either go to Google or YouTube or give someone a call. How do I remove the cable? How can I see if the car is charging? How do I start the car? Questions upon questions!

Every manufacturer and every model has its own peculiarities that you need to familiarise yourself with. We can help you further: Mobility has created various e-cars and specific vehicle manuals (DE, FR and EN) for each model. You can find all e-mobility cars and the corresponding vehicle information on our website. For the e-models, instructions are provided directly below the picture of the car.

You can also access this information while travelling. Select your upcoming or current reservation in the Mobility app and click on the "About the vehicle" info button. You can also download the instructions as a PDF before the journey. You will also find laminated instructions in the car (usually in the glove box), which are always to hand.

The first time you get behind the steering wheel of an electric car and press the accelerator, you’ll notice it immediately: the power is there right away. One of the biggest differences to an internal combustion engine is that the full power of an electric car is immediately available, which is particularly noticeable when starting and accelerating. This immediate power may be unfamiliar to new e-car owners at first. It might be worth familiarising yourself with how an electric car drives by taking a test drive on a quiet road so you feel safer.

Once you get used to the new driving dynamics, you’ll soon start to enjoy this form of driving. The fact is that an electric car is much more dynamic and less cumbersome to drive than a car with a combustion engine. The batteries of electric cars are usually built into the floor. This gives the cars a very low centre of gravity, which makes for particularly stable handling.

Given their instantly available power, electric vehicles are particularly sensitive to abrupt acceleration and braking. A jerky driving style can drastically increase energy consumption while also reducing range. So try to accelerate gently and keep the speed as constant as possible. This way, you’ll not only save the battery, but also maximise the range. Incidentally, this also applies to cars with internal combustion engines.

Speaking of range, a frequent worry among new electric car owners is what is known as “range anxiety” – the concern that the battery will run out before the next charging point. This fear is now very much baseless. Private individuals in Switzerland cover an average of 38 kilometres per day by car. The Tesla Model 3, which is part of the Mobility portfolio, can easily cover over 350 kilometres, for example. Even the small “VW E-up!” can cover around 260 kilometres.

However, the myth that electric cars are only suitable for short distances still persists. We clear up seven such myths about driving with electric cars in our article “There’s not enough electricity for everyone to drive electric”.

But, if you still need to charge on the go, you can usually rely on the car itself. Modern e-vehicles often have a navigation system that shows you where the nearest public charging station is. In addition, there are various apps, such as major providers eCharge or Gofast. And if you want to know exactly where charging stations are, it’s a good idea to take a look at the interactive map available at www.ich-tanke-strom.ch, which is operated jointly by EnergieSchweiz, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy and Swisstopo.

And finally, let’s get to some background information. There’s not just a single electric car. Instead, there are different kinds of electric vehicles with different engine types. Abbreviations are also often used for the various types. You’ll find an overview of the most important ones below.

• BEV: battery electric vehicle. Sometimes these are also referred to as EV. These are all-electric cars that run exclusively on electricity. This the kind of electric car that Mobility also relies on.
• BEV-REx: battery electric vehicle with range extender. This is a variant of the all-electric car that also has a range extender. Although this type of e-car has an internal combustion engine, this auxiliary power unit only charges the battery and is not directly coupled to the vehicle’s drive. 
• HEV: hybrid electric vehicle. They have a much smaller battery that can’t be charged externally. It can only be driven a few kilometres on electricity alone, but the energy-intensive start-up of the electric motor, for example, can be taken over by the other motor.
• PHEV: plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.These vehicles are equipped with both an electric drive and an internal combustion engine. Compared to conventional hybrids, however, they have a significantly larger battery, which enables a longer electric-only range – but usually no more than 50 kilometres. As the name “plug-in hybrid” suggests, the batteries of these vehicles can be charged at external charging stations.
• FCEV: fuel cell electric vehicle. In these vehicles, the electrical energy during the journey is generated from hydrogen and oxygen. The major advantage is that there are no emissions other than water vapour. However, as the production of the required fuel cells is very energy-intensive and expensive, there are currently only a few models of car that use this technology.