In recent months, I’ve been thinking about a situation: taking an electric car through Europe today is no longer news. At least for those who accept the idea that battery models are part of everyday life and have reached a level of market penetration (as specialists say) that they are no longer seen as niche products. On the other hand, there are still people – and there will be from now on – who believe that electric cars have no place in the industry, that they will disappear as quickly as they appeared, and that they don’t deserve a minute of their attention. I’m not going to refer to extreme opinions because it would spark endless discussions.

The general situation – I’m talking about the one in Europe, because that’s where we wear out our shoes – is complicated enough when it comes to electric cars in general. A few years ago, many manufacturers – also pushed by the European Union – rushed to announce project after project aimed at completely eliminating combustion engines and adopting electric cars in 100% in a medium interval. In the meantime, things have calmed down, decisions have changed, plans have been rethought. Not in a radical way, but in a somewhat more realistic note, let’s say.

Electric car sales are there, and even a milestone was reached at the end of last year: for the first time, an electric model (Tesla Model Y) was the European sales leader in the general ranking. In 2024, things have settled down more smoothly in the market, and you can find the situation of new car registrations according to engine types in the first seven months in Europe in the chart below.

And now I’m going to go back to the idea from the first paragraph. For some, a long drive with an electric car is a normal situation, for others it seems something difficult to impossible to imagine. Therefore, we thought outside the box (where the box translates as the borders of Romania) and came up with an idea that many would attribute adjectives worthy of online publications that make their traffic based on bombastic titles.

Things sound like this: 20 people, 16 days, 8 electric cars (one of which acts as a Safety Car) and many thousands of kilometers from Bucharest to Lisbon and back.

We didn’t start completely from scratch with the experience. However, we have three editions of ROCHARGE (the tour of Romania with electric cars) between our heels, from which we extracted reports with real range, charging times and real consumption about the newest electric cars launched during this period in Romania.

Mobile Laboratory

Regardless of your position on electric cars, I think you’ll find at least one reason to be interested in EUROCHARGE by Schaeffler. Come to our side, as the English say. We won’t have cookies, but I assure you that we will have spectacular photos from the Grossglockner pass, images with the Atlantic and the Dolomites, history collected from the museum, plus people who do things for the cars that many of us drive. That’s why there are 16 days: in 4 of them we rest in Brașov, in the Dolomites, on the Atlantic coast and in Salzburg, and the road is not straight, but we complicate it: we zigzag through the Alps, visit Michelin at home and so on.

But let me get back to it. What does EUROCHARGE by Schaeffler want to be? In short, it’s a kind of mobile laboratory, a workshop, an extended test drive (call it what you want) in which we also sprinkle a little air of adventure. Of course, the beautiful words end when we throw reports with consumption figures in real traffic, range values obtained on public roads and charging times measured at the European infrastructure. Now you might ask me: why are we doing this?

It’s simple: so that anyone can get as clear an idea as possible about the position that electric cars occupy in the industry in 2024.

I’m not going to drag it out with introductions: we leave on October 1st and take out our passports again at the border on October 16th. There will be about 9000 kilometers in which we will cross national roads, county roads, cities and highways. Highways, roads and mountain roads. Varied conditions, so that in the end there is relevant information from as many scenarios as possible.

The actors? Some of the newest electric cars that you can find now in Romania. I’ll put the pictures on the panel, in alphabetical order. A click on the image takes you directly to the car’s presentation article.

In addition to the 8 electric cars that we write about daily (of course we will also report what the Safety Car does), we also take with us a BMW X5 with the role of Photo Car. That is, the car from which we will photograph the electric cars of the tour day by day. During the 16 days, the lenses of the cameras handled by the two photographers and the videographer of the tour will emerge from behind its windows.

Partners

I don’t know how you see things so far, but from our side of the screen, this whole mobile test laboratory has many puzzle pieces: from accommodation to road taxes, from charging methods and even monitoring the weather in Austria (the snow removal of the 48 kilometers of the Grossglockner pass has just ended). And the frame that holds the pieces that we have put together is made up of the partners who support this whole crazy project.

Schaeffler is the main partner of the project and, as you have already noticed, the German company is the one that gives the official name of the road trip. For me, a former student in Brașov, it will remain in my memory as Ina Schaeffler – because this was the name under which one of the largest manufacturers of auto components in the world opened the production unit in Cristian.

Returning: Schaeffler’s first step in our country took place in 2002, with the establishment of the company and the launch of the production line in rented halls with 100 employees. The strong point at that time was the bearings. Then, the German group started the construction of the halls in Cristian and an expansion followed that was not only about production. In 2012, the engineering center and the German Kronstadt Vocational School (the first vocational school in the dual system in Romania) were inaugurated, and in 2019 the opening of a research and development center took place. Without false modesty, but with these investments it is clear that Romania counted on the map of the German giant.

Currently, the activity is divided into three major areas: Automotive technologies (where they work, among other things, on electric transmission mechanisms on the axle and electric wheel drive mechanisms), Automotive Aftermarket and Bearings & Industrial Solutions.

Schaeffler’s most recent major step is closely related to Vitesco Technologies. I am convinced that you know the latter, especially since we have crossed their threshold in all three ROCHARGE editions so far (and in just as many times they had the status of title partner) and we have written about the projects they are running in Romania. What is the connection between the two companies? Schaeffler currently owns almost 90% of the Vitesco Technologies shares, and the merger is expected to take place as soon as possible.

We will also cross the threshold of the centers in Brașov and we will talk in detail about what the Schaeffler people are doing in Romania.

Autonom is the Green Partner of the tour. The company with 100% Romanian capital has a lot of services in its portfolio, and one of the most important is operational leasing, that is, a long-term rental. It’s like a subscription that you pay monthly to use the car. I have something like that and I keep writing in a kind of travel journal that you can find here. If you choose an electric car, the program you unlock is called Autonom Business Green and comes with some extra benefits. You can find all the information about it here.

Okay, okay, but what do you charge with? Don’t worry, we’ve thought of everything. And it will be much simpler than it seems at first glance: EUROCHARGE is recharged by Renovatio e-charge in Romania and by the new OMV eMotion network in Romania and in Europe. In other words, we will arrive in Portugal with only two accounts in two charging applications. This is because their partnerships extend beyond the country’s borders (through the e-roaming service). More details on how we will use OMV eMotion and Renovatio e-charge can be found here.

I consider that Michelin no longer needs any introduction. The French have been making tires for over 100 years, and the EUROCHARGE caravan will also pass through Clermont-Ferrand, where the headquarters are located. Until we talk about what’s happening at Michelin’s home, I’ll say this much: the company has developed tires with reduced rolling resistance designed to improve autonomy and consumption. And this is valid for electric, ICE, hybrid, plug-in hybrid cars. You got it.

MOON deals with the development of charging solutions for electric cars. In the company’s portfolio you can find fast charging stations (even 400 kW) solutions for the office or home (AC stations), but also projects that target photovoltaic panels. We will talk about a special place designed by MOON at the appropriate time. Not that I want to spoil the surprise.

Server Config, a traditional technical partner of Autocritica events. It offers ultra-performing laptops with the help of which the team of journalists, photographers and videographers of EUROCHARGE will bring you this event on the screens. You can find their refurbished products dedicated to professionals who need high computing power on the official website.

The People who Will Bring You the Numbers

I wrote at the beginning that there will be 20 of us: from auto journalists to content creators, photographers and organizers. If you don’t want to miss anything from what we do, save the hashtag #EUROCHARGE on all social media platforms in which you are active. As I said, we start on October 1st.

In case you have any preference, I’ll leave you below the people you’ll be able to follow in EUROCHARGE by Schaeffler:

Mircea Meșter / Autocritica.ro
Constantin Ciobanu / Autocritica.ro, Adevărul Auto
Alin Ionescu / Mașinistul
Dan Scarlat / Top Gear România
Radu Tudoroiu / Digital storyteller
Adrian Mitrea / 0-100.ro
Andrei Barbu / MotorVlogTV
Gabriel Nica / Cu și despre mașini
Laura Antonov / LaChicBoutique, Shedrives
Adi Dima / eblogauto
Mihai Vasilescu / Digital storyteller
Julius Constantinescu / Digital storyteller
Bogdan Grigorescu / Autoexpert
Tibi Buzdugan / electromobilitate.com
Marius Dobrescu / Video
Ciprian Mihai / Foto
Radu Chindriș / Foto
Tudor Rus / Organizare
Berti Panaiot / Organizare
Daniel Popescu / Organizare

The sheets and forms that we will fill out during the trip to report the figures are already made, so all that remains is for those who will drive the cars to fill in the relevant information about the electric cars during the trip: from charging times to charging powers, from range to consumption.

Of course, everyone will also say their opinion about how the car behaved on the section of road they drove, what they liked, what they didn’t like, what they would have wanted more or less. Pretty much anything related to the impressions from behind the wheel.

Main photo: Dreamstime

is a project backed by SCHAEFFLER

Charged by
OMV eMotion and Renovatio e-charge

Green Partner
Autonom

Charging stations
MOON România

On the road with
Michelin

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