With the rise of electric cars, naturally also comes the rise of electric campervans and motorhomes. After all, why not make them more sustainable? Sometimes a road trip is just really nice, especially in countries where public transport leaves room for improvement. A car or campervan gives you a lot of freedom, but of course a normal petrol car or campervan isn’t very sustainable. An electric campervan gives that freedom, but offers the environmentally conscious traveller an option that’s better for the planet. I tested out Leavv’s electric campervan.

A little introduction

I myself do not have a driving licence, so I always travel by public transport. I am a big fan of trains, but so I also depend on them. Every now and then I travel with others, and we sometimes rent a car. Not very sustainable, but it often gives a bit more freedom. And travelling should be fun, of course, so it doesn’t always have to be perfect. But when I got the opportunity to test out the Leavv electric campervan, I was immediately excited! I had never been on the road with a campervan before myself and thought it would be a fun challenge to travel with an electric campervan. How far will we get? Can we camp off the grid somewhere? Will we manage to charge abroad, or will it be stressful to find charging stations?

We went on a trip in February, towards Saxon Switzerland in Germany, and it was a fantastic trip! Although we definitely learnt some things about electric driving and would do certain things differently. Here you can read about our experience, my tips for if you want to hit the road with an electric campervan, and exactly what electric driving and sustainability are like. (Not too many boring technical details, don’t worry.)

Is driving electric sustainable?

There is still quite a bit of debate about electric driving and sustainability. Real sustainability critics are against it, because electric car production is still quite polluting and electric cars generally wear out faster. So you need a new car sooner, or at least new parts. So because they are not made that sustainably, many people wonder if it is really sustainable. But developments are moving fast, so in no time electric cars will last longer and definitely be more sustainable.

But if you have a choice between a normal campervan and an electric one, the electric one is obviously the better choice. And it is certainly a good deal more sustainable than flying too. In use, electric campervans are more sustainable, especially if you can charge at a charger that uses solar energy, for example.

For example, we spend a night at a small-scale campsite next to a water mill. They had arranged their house so that their energy was generated entirely by the water mill. We were allowed to charge our camper there, which was therefore extra sustainable. A sustainable campsite makes your trip more sustainable anyway. You can find them at HomeCamper | Campspace, for example.

What’s special about the Leavv electric campervan?

At Leavv, they also try to be as sustainable as possible. That is why they take a number of additional measures to make the campervan sustainable:

– The interior is made of sustainable materials
– The campervan are produced in the Netherlands, rather than flown in from China as well, for example
– There is a solar panel on the roof, which you use to charge the household battery. The light, fridge and sockets are connected to it. So you can enjoy off-the-grid wild camping without being without light at night!

Our experience with the Leavv electric campervan

It was the first time for both me and my friend, to travel in a campervan and the first time drove electric. So that took some getting used to, and it ended up having advantages and disadvantages. Electric driving is very smooth. The car makes little noise and accelerates quickly. The Leavv campers have cruise control and are automatic, so driving is very relaxed. Which is nice, during a holiday.

Loading was one thing we had to get used to. We expected it to be a challenge to find chargers, especially fast chargers, but it wasn’t that bad! However, we did underestimate how much time it takes. Because we went in February, and it was incredibly cold, the battery drained pretty quickly. Because one disadvantage of driving electric is that really everything is electric. So having the heating (or air conditioning in summer) on, causes you to have to charge faster. Partly for this reason, we had to charge more often than hoped. And it takes a good 45 minutes before the battery is full again, on a fast charger.

What do you do? You put the camper on the charger, while you go into a village or having a bite to eat somewhere. We actually liked this way of travelling. An electric campervan really forces you to go straight into holiday mode and take your time on your journey.

So plan your route right from the start like this. Download (some) app(s) that show you where to find electric chargers, and see which villages on your route have them available. Assume around 200 kilometres, 300 if you don’t use air conditioning or heating. And just plan on spending an hour in that town. Also keep in mind that you are not the only one driving electric. So the chargers may be full, so you may still have to drive on to the next town.

Our travel route

So we took the Leavv campervan to the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, both the German and Czech parts. We left on Thursday evening after work and had a stopover in Cologne. So that turned out to be really too far for an evening drive, but if you leave in the morning, it’s quite doable.

The next day we set off again on time, as we were going straight to our destination in Saxon Switzerland. Again, this proved too far for one day. This was mainly because we had not charged during the night and so spent another half hour charging in the morning. A normal charger is really very slow. So our idea to have breakfast at the charging station at the beginning of our campsite didn’t make much sense. In the afternoon, we stopped in Alsfelt (pictured), a cute little village on the route. In the evening, we had a bite to eat in Dresden and drove on to our campsite in Chemnitz, arriving again around midnight.

We ended up staying here for the rest of our trip because it was just a really nice campsite. It was a sustainable campsite, very small in size, adjacent to a beautiful hiking trail and with great views. The owners were a friendly German couple, who were super helpful. In addition, it had a common room with a wood-burning stove and kitchen, which you could use all day. As we also had some working days planned, this was ideal. And best of all: a sauna! You could turn that on whenever you wanted, and it was lovely after a long day of walking. So there was little reason to move or go wild (which is tolerated in many places in the Czech Republic, but not legal).

From this campsite, we drove to several beautiful places in both Saxon Switzerland and Bohemian Switzerland. On the way back, we had lunch in Leipzig, so we stayed at the watermill campsite. You would think we would have mastered it after a week, but no. A lot went wrong during this ride. We had planned to have lunch in Leipzich, but there were no fast chargers there (broken or occupied). Then we ran into a traffic jam to the next village, so the 10-minute drive took almost an hour. Then the charger turned out not to charge, so we spent three quarters of an hour drinking coffee at McDonalds for nothing. So also check your charger carefully and don’t walk away before you are sure there is a connection!

All in all, we had indeed thought better of this ride, and technically we should have arrived at the campsite at 6 o’clock. But that didn’t work out, so we again didn’t get there until late in the evening.

So planning is very important when you go electric for a holiday!

Driving electric takes time

So take your time. If you don’t use the air conditioning too much, you can drive 300 km on a full tank, but if you do use it, it’s only 200 km. After those 200/300 km, it is not a matter of quickly filling the tank as you are used to with a petrol car. So plan your travel days so that you make a nice stop after about 200 km, where you can recharge yourself and the camper. Also bear in mind that fast chargers are sometimes occupied and you may spend extra time finding one.

It does help, though, if you have a campsite where you can charge the campervan. Leavv electric campervans come with several cables, including one that allows you to charge the campervan at the pole at the pitches. You usually pay for that afterwards at the campsite. If you charge it there overnight, you can hit the road first thing in the morning. Going wild camping? Then you’ll have to charge it before you can get going again.

Would I recommend an electric campervan?

I would recommend camping with an RV anyway, I loved it! The camper was also warmer than we expected. The first night we had no heating because we arrived at the campsite so late and were too tired to figure out the electricity. But we didn’t feel cold at all in the campervan, despite the cold outside. So the campervan is also a good option outside the summer season.

Of course, having breakfast outside the camper is then out of the question. So we found a nice campsite with a kind of living kitchen, where we had a bit more space to cook and have a nice meal. That’s all possible in the campervan. But having two people working in the campervan was cramped. It still works better if you can put a table outside and also cut food and so on there. So camping with a living kitchen was a good solution.

In terms of driving, it was quite manageable. So it was the first time driving a campervan for both of us, and friend had no problems at all driving it. If you’ve never driven an automatic before, that’s probably more of a challenge than driving electric. So, the only obstacle during the trip was having to drive late because charging took a long time and also went wrong a few times. As a passenger princess, I was probably a little less bothered by that, but was not happy about it. But so that is very simple to solve with a shorter distance per day and better planning than we did.

Still not quite convinced about an electric campervan? Then you can now try out the Leavv camper in Haarlem for 24 hours! That way you can drive around the Netherlands, see how it is with finding charging points and whether you find the camper livable enough for a longer trip.

Where to go with the electric campervans from Leavv?

Leavv is a Dutch company and has a few different pick-up points in The Netherlands, but also abroad! They are still expanding but currently have a few pick-up points in France and Spain. 

There is a minimum rental period of 4 days in low season and a week in high season, but no maximum rental period. Of course, it does depend on availability, but if you book in time, you could easily get away with it for a month if you like! Ideal if you’re thinking about vanlife, for example, and want to try it out before buying your own camper. The first 2,500 km is included in the price, any further distance costs extra. But within that 2500 km, you can easily go to, say, Scandinavia, Paris or so Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic if you start in The Netherlands.

Want to travel with the Leavvv campervan? Use the Leavv discount code “AWFW55″ for €55 off any booking!