Electric Holiday – These Are the Most E-Friendly Travel Regions

Summer is here and nationwide the anticipation for vacations is rising. Germans love road trips within the country: 61 percent would rent an electric car if they are traveling in Germany – this is shown by a YouGov survey conducted by Monta. However, anyone traveling with an electric vehicle will sooner or later face the big charging question. In this survey, 6,747 Germans over the age of 18 were asked by the analysis institute YouGov about their preferences when choosing rental cars.

Not only for trips within their own country is the car one of the most popular means of transport. Rental cars are also very popular abroad. While six out of ten Germans want to travel electrically within the country, 53 percent would rent an electric or hybrid car outside of Germany.

"Using your own car on vacation offers a lot of freedom and flexibility, but it is not always environmentally friendly. It is a positive sign that the majority of Germans now value sustainable mobility and are increasingly turning to electric cars," says Max Scherer, COO of Monta.

The fact that Germany plays a pioneering role in electromobility is also evidenced by the results: Germany surpasses France and the United Kingdom, where only 53 and 54 percent, respectively, would drive electrically on vacation, with 61 percent.

Hotels with E-Charging Stations are Scarce

Anyone traveling on vacation with an electric car needs to gather information in advance about charging options along the way, but especially at their destination. There do not seem to be enough of these in Germany, as the analysis also shows: Nationwide, only around seven percent of vacation accommodations have charging infrastructure for guests. Yet 40 percent of Germans would very likely or somewhat likely prefer accommodation with a charging option. For tourism, this means a rising demand that must be managed in the future. Scherer adds:

“For the first time, over a million electric cars are on Germany's roads, and after the pandemic and price hikes, more affordable, domestic short trips by car are trending.”

States are Equipped with Charging Options to Varying Degrees

Of nearly 130,000 accommodation options, only about 9,500 have a charging option—this amounts to 7.3 percent. Leading the state ranking is Lower Saxony: currently, around twelve percent of accommodations here have a charging option. With an average of an impressive 82 percent, the Artland region in Lower Saxony is the frontrunner among districts or counties. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is at the bottom with just 4.8 percent—and 647 options to charge a car at the place of accommodation. Bavaria comes in second place, followed by Hesse and Brandenburg. Hamburg is in fifth place, followed by Berlin in sixth (Baden-Württemberg 7th, Schleswig-Holstein 8th, North Rhine-Westphalia 9th, Saxony 10th, Thuringia 11th, Saarland 12th, Bremen 13th, Rhineland-Palatinate 14th, Saxony-Anhalt 15th).