Hiring Electric Cars in Spain

A couple of years ago I met someone in Toledo (another Brit), who had been driving his own electric car round Spain for two weeks without a problem.

Do you drive an EV at home? If so you will know the issues and I won't repeat.

If not, a vacation may not be a good time to learn. If you wind up at a slow charger it may affect your driving tour. Even if it is a fast charger you may need to go to it rather than it being at your hotel. And some will be out of use.

Will you be driving each day within the range or will you need to charge at lunch?

Ditto what Nigel said.

When deciding, take into consideration where you intend to drive. The infrastructure in the interior of the country probably isn’t as good as along the coastal and more populous areas. If you intend to visit more remote locations and smaller villages then an EV might not be a good choice. In my travels around the country there have been times when I didn’t see a petrol station for an hour, let alone a charging station.

I generally stay at Paradors (hotels) and many do have charging stations, but not all of them. Personally I’d spend the money for a gas or hybrid vehicle rather than chance being somewhere where there isn’t a charging station, it is occupied, or is out of service. Your vacation time has value and spending it waiting for a vehicle to charge possibly isn’t the best use of it.

I own two electric cars in the US, Teslas, but I would echo what some have said here. I think if you go to a foreign country and rent an electric car without doing extensive research into whether the charging stations are convenient to where you intend to travel, you are asking for trouble. Why do that? Why add that trouble to your nice trip? I find electric car use in the US very easy, but Spain? I wouldn't do it.

Rent a gas car.