The golfer and the e-car: one year report
“Did everything work out?” and “How long did it take?” – these two questions accompanied me in 2023. It was my first year as a driver of an all-electric car, and that with around 19000 to 22000 miles of driving. They just add up when you’re a journalist covering golf in Europe. A range of 268 miles was the claim for the black SUV from a German car manufacturer, with which my journey into the mobility of the future began in March 2023. Ten months later, I can say two things above all: yes, I have arrived at every golf course. And: Never before in my life have I talked about my car with fellow players, strangers and friends in clubhouses and in the parking lots of golf clubs to the same extent.
To put things in perspective: Germany is the Mecca of high-engined top vehicles such as Porsche, Mercedes, BMW and Audi. However, Germany is not a frontrunner when it comes to e-mobility, although 470,000 vehicles from Germany were among the approximately 1.4 million new registrations in Europe between January and November 2023, the highest number of any country in Europe. However, the share of e-cars in all vehicles is less than 20 percent. According to the car experts, the early adopters – and according to my car salesman, I seem to fall into this group – are now all driving electric cars. All other German drivers are apparently in the process of being convinced.
The reactions
I met plenty of golfers from this group. One of the first reactions came from a golfing friend from the neighbourhood, who critically looked around my car in the carport and came to the following conclusion: “It looks like a proper car. You could buy something like that,” with which she alluded to the opinion, not uncommon in Germany, that the vehicles of the leading international e-manufacturers from American and Chinese production supposedly disintegrate into their individual parts comparatively quickly.
But let’s digress: When my husband (a convinced e-driver) and I travelled to a major tournament in Hamburg in the spring, a few of the fellow competitors stopped in front of the car with a look at our licence plate and commented: “500 miles from Munich, oh God, how long did it take you?” It sounded as if we had been part of a week-long donkey caravan.
When I offered to carpool a teammate to an away match day, she cautiously asked how much earlier we had to start than everyone else. And when we took the car to the Mercedes dealer for its first service, Mercedes’ own technician commented on our own positive e-conclusion: “But there’s nothing like a proper V8”.
Travel
Golfers travel. Even with the e-car. I’ve loaded up at the Gardagolf Country Club in Italy , the German Golf Club Würzburg, the GC Schloss Pichlarn in Austria, Golf de Vuissens on Lake Geneva and the GC Losone in Ticino – to name just a few. The e-charging station has long been a must, at least for top golf courses.
Loading was just as little a problem on the nearly 1000 miles first to Woodhall Spa and then to the British Open in Liverpoolas it was at the Amundi German Masters in Berlin or the Evian Championship in Evian, France. The fact that they took the car keys out of my hand when I checked in at the hotel in Evian and charged my car for free because it was part of the hotel service was particularly wonderful. My petrol car before that was never refuelled free of charge.
Admittedly: In August in the Czech Republic around the Karlovy Vary Golf Club , the selection of charging stations was rather meagre. Otherwise, my experience with charging stations, especially on highways, was surprisingly positive: There were plenty of them, including fast chargers, where I was able to leave after 30 minutes with an 80 percent full battery.
In ten months, I only had to wait for a free charging point once, when I drove out of the Bad Ragaz Golf Club in Switzerland at the Heidiland service station, where 14 other e-drivers were actually charging at the same time.
Plus and minus
Driving an electric car turned out to be pleasantly inexpensive, especially if you can use your own solar power from the roof of your house, which is plentiful, at least in summer. In Germany, at any rate, filling up with diesel or gasoline is a good deal more expensive.
The switch to electric vehicles has only benefited Golf Sustainable’s carbon footprint. With a mileage of around 22,000 miles, my old car produced almost 20 tons of CO2. Now the CO2 calculator gives me a value of just under ten tons. That’s still more than twice as much as by train – but to be honest: The accessibility of golf courses by public transport in large parts of Europe is simply anything but great.
With a view to the CO2 balance of golf courses, which will probably be standard in 20 years’ time, we must add at this point: At the moment, the majority of golfers using classical vehicles, not only at golf tournaments but also at golf clubs, make every CO2 balance a horror. The transformation to a net zero golf club will therefore also be largely determined by the members’ vehicle fleet in the future.
Experience
There were also some funny encounters: In the middle of the Bavarian Allgäu, for example, where I asked the owner of a B&B late at night to lend me her private e-charging station because there was nowhere else to charge. A 20-euro bill changed hands and the next morning my car was fully charged and I was ready to go.
Negative experiences? Every now and then I would have liked to press a little harder on the gas pedal. In Germany, the land of unlimited highway freedom, I could often have driven up to 100 mph as well. But to be honest: The German government’s adherence to unlimited speeding cannot be explained anyway, as it is unique in Europe. And who likes to follow such an antiquarian way of thinking?
Conclusion
I arrived on time. At every golf course. The drive back to Munich from the British Open took a day and a half – just as long as it did in 2022 with my former car.
And another thing: there are now significantly more electric cars parked on the golf course at my home club than there were a year ago.
