Maybe you’re ready to take an EV on a road trip. But are EVs ready for you?

To find out, I rented an electric vehicle in two European countries with high EV adoption rates: Denmark and Germany.

In Germany, nearly 20 percent of new passenger car registrations are electric, and in Denmark a remarkable two-thirds of the new cars registered are EVs. (In the U.S., it’s less than 10 percent.)

Since I write about the intersection of tourism and sustainability, I had a question to answer: If you care about the environment, is taking an electric vehicle on your next vacation the responsible thing — and maybe even the practical thing?

Short answer: Yes. Kind of.

My experience taught me that there’s much more to a successful sustainability road trip than a reliable EV. You need infrastructure and an intuitive user experience to pull it off. And then there’s range anxiety. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Gorgeous German scenery and a little case of Reichweitenangst

In Frankfurt, I rented a Skoda Enyaq from Avis. My assignment — a month-long exploration of eco-tourism across regions like the Ahrtal Valley and the Palatinate — was predicated on the idea that an electric vehicle was the perfect fit for the journey.

Germany has it all: rolling hills and tidy villages, friendly people and the world-famous Autobahn.

In an Enyaq, you can feel every groove of the asphalt, and the steering is ultra-responsive. My favorite part was the acceleration, which in an EV feels like a rocket. But the thrill of driving an EV — my first one in years — melted away in the July heatwave. On the Autobahn, I watched the “kilometers left” gauge clicking toward zero, and joy gave way to dread.

The Germans have a word for it: Reichweitenangst. Range anxiety became my unwanted travel companion.

The rental agent in Frankfurt hadn’t shared any information about German charging stations, and in fairness, I hadn’t asked. I should have.

In small villages, finding fast chargers wasn’t always easy. We had to rely on slow chargers, often at grocery stores, which meant a simple recharge took several hours.

But the hardest part of the trip wasn’t finding a charging station. It was accessing one. Each station seemed to belong to a different network with its own billing systems and procedures. That meant fumbling around on your phone to pay every time you needed to charge.

Charging was shockingly expensive, too. German electricity prices average 38 cents per kilowatt-hour, making them some of the highest in the world. (In the U.S., it’s about 18 cents.) Refundable deposits for using the charging stations ranged between 60 and 80 euros for out-of-network users. Once you do the math, the EV loses a lot of its economic advantage compared to an internal combustion engine vehicle.

Still, on short trips between assignments, the Enyaq worked great. Reichweitenangst only became an issue on our seven-hour drive up to Brandenburg.

Finding fast chargers in some of the more rural areas wasn’t always easy, and the information on Google wasn’t always accurate. Fast chargers on the map turned out to be slow chargers in reality. We arrived at our hotel with less than 5 percent battery and found a slow charger, went through the multi-screen application procedure on the phone, and left it overnight.

When we returned the next morning, I was stunned to find it was still at five percent. Somehow, I pushed the wrong button and the charging never started.

Luckily, our next appointment was just around the corner, and we found another slow charger there. Six hours later, we had a full battery. That was a close one!

Even though I enjoyed the breathtaking scenery and winding roads through the countryside, our Germany road trip also had some logistical issues. Yes, they have charging infrastructure — and great roads — but the process is far from user-friendly for visitors.

There had to be a better way.

Crossing into Clever country in Denmark

In Copenhagen, I discovered the importance of a reliable charging infrastructure. Although the car was different — a late model Volkswagen ID.Buzz electric bus — the game-changer was Denmark’s charging network.

Our Danish road trip lasted less than two weeks. We drove from the capital to the picturesque Wadden Sea National Park on the western coast, then north to Aarhus and back to Copenhagen. Our EV had a fob with a subscription to Clever, a network of charging stations that dominate the Danish roads. They’re fast chargers, and you’re never more than about four miles from the nearest charger anywhere in the country.

Best of all, recharging took almost no time. Charges that I expected to take an hour sometimes lasted 20 minutes. The stations underpromised and overdelivered.

“It’s a consumer-centric model for charging,” explains Stephen Haar, a spokesman for Clever. Instead of fragmented pay-per-charge systems, Clever offers a fixed-rate subscription. For about $60 a month, you can get unlimited charging at Clever stations. (Electricity is a little less expensive in Denmark — roughly 30 cents per kilowatt-hour.)

As a result, there was almost no range anxiety, or rækkeviddeangst, as the Danes call it. Of course even in Denmark there are plenty of other things to be anxious about, especially for a nervous driver like me, like colliding with a bike. There are so many of them in Denmark, and they seem to stop for no one.

Should you rent an EV on your next European vacation?

So what does this all mean for anyone who wants to have a carbon-neutral driving vacation?

Clever’s operational success delivers a clear, constructive road map for the future of EV travel. The system is so seamless that motorists don’t have to think about it. No wonder most new cars sold in Denmark are electric. It’s so easy.

An EV road trip in Germany can also be easy, as long as you prepare. After trying all the charging stations, I recommend that you sign up for the EnBW mobility+ app or download Tesla’s app and participate in its network (you don’t have to own a Tesla to use the chargers). It sounds pretty straightforward, but sometimes you need a German phone number to download the right app, so make sure you’ve done all of your paperwork before you leave.

If you care about the environment and want to see some of the most beautiful parts of Europe, renting an EV is a great option. My first choice would still be mass transit for the most eco-friendly vacation. But there are some places you can’t get to with a train or bus, and if you’re headed there, I recommend renting an EV.

But it’s about more than the car. The charging network and the user experience are as important.

If you own an EV, you probably already know how to reduce range anxiety. For the rest of us, learning to handle the stress may take a road trip or two. But it may be worth it.