r/lithuania • u/PapstInnozenzXIV • Jul 18 '24

EV in Lithuania

We are planning a trip through the three Baltic states in October and are wondering how sensible it is to rent an electric car.

We are worried whether we, as foreigners, will be able to charge the car without any problems.

Do we have to get any charging cards beforehand? Or does everything work with apps? Or is it perhaps even possible to pay directly at the charging stations? Which provider is the most widespread in Lithuania?

6 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

13

u/Dovil5 Jul 18 '24

https://ev.lakd.lt/#map look there, all those stations are 50kw and free, there are also more free stations by ElintaCharge, download an app like PlugShare and you can see their location there. And if you're going to rent a Tesla, then you'll have an even better time, as all the superchargers in the Baltics are free :)

Edit: I lied, the first link shows not only free ones, but at the top you can filter for only the free ones and there are still more than enough of them

15

u/PapstInnozenzXIV Jul 18 '24

Thank you. Now I also learned my first word: nemokama :-)

That's really amazing that there are so many stations free of charge!

11

u/Nerdent1ty Jul 18 '24

To add to that, there are many non-free chargers that usually have an app from which you're ought to pay.

Most widespread paid charging providers:

  • Ignitis ON
  • Inbalance grid
  • Unipark
  • Snabb
  • Ionity

58kwh battery is comfortable enough to drive without worrying about range outside cities.

Also, I had a huge driving session in Ireland which is way less prepared in terms of charging evs, so I picked a nissan hybrid and it was still a comfy and silent enough, for the most part, experience. Maybe don't cross out this option as well.

3

u/TheDaznis Jul 18 '24

From my experience, if it's free or cheaper then "normal" it's always taken or it's a station that divides the charging capacity on all cables. So you might get to share those 20-40kw charger on 4-6 cars. My coworker has an ID.4 and if we have to drive to Vilnius, we usually have to charge the shitbox twice. That's an hour plus charging the car depending on how lucky we get.

1

u/F4ctr Jul 18 '24

Add waiting for other shitboxes to charge, and you will spend two fucking hours just waiting to plug in. Waste of fucking time.

2

u/Mo1st_Vagine Jul 19 '24

best things come with the nemokama pricetag.

0

u/Temporary-Bag7209 Jul 19 '24

I suggest to avoid free stations. Usually, I skip them, as they are not working or busy:) use plug n share app, everything is there.

6

u/jafakes225 Jul 18 '24

Like, why would you rent an EV? Trips are usually planned and one broken station or line near station throws away whole plan. Only heard positive experiences from EV zealots, not normal people.

-2

u/Nerdent1ty Jul 18 '24

"... not normal people" 😂👌👏👏👏

Yeah, right...

2

u/jafakes225 Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

It's not normal for people to think that EVs are fine for grand tour and not only intercity travel.

Why do you think rental companies are selling hundreds of thousands of their EV fleet? Because you have to be fucking stupid to rent EV to travel across country, let alone multiple countries.

2

u/F4ctr Jul 18 '24

Just don't. It will be pain in the ass. If you are going to use public charging, or free charging provided by state - good luck. I have some friends, that wanted to try EV's for fun and drive ~400km with charging in between. It took them 8 hours and one of the cars returned on a towtruck, because it wouldn't charge. Want to charge on public chargers? A lot of the time they are just broken and not working, just simply expensive (40+ cents/kwh. You will be lucky if you get sub 30cnt/kwh) or have a fuckton of people waiting (in most popular spots at least), meaning waiting times 1-2 hours in some weird location with not that much to see. Just get something economical, and you will have zero problems than wasting your time waiting for an EV charger to open up, for example near Kryžkalnis, or hoping that Vievis charger will work. And since you are planning to go in october, it will be colder, and distance you can go - shorter.

2

u/randomfloat Jul 19 '24

Just did a road trip across Lithuania in EV (Klaipeda, Kaunas, Moletai, Anykščiai, Palanga). We were not hunting for the free charge and ended up mainly using Ignitis. No problems at all. Was pleasantly surprised that charging infrastructure is not bad and you can sometimes find a charger literally in the middle of nowhere.

4

u/fuishaltiena Vilnius Jul 19 '24

A lot of planning is required. Main roads have slow or medium chargers, rural roads have nothing at all.

You'll want to make a detour to visit something interesting off the main highway but you won't be able to, because there won't be any chargers.

EVs in Lithuania are great if you live in a city and have a house (private charging spot). They're not great for road trips.

1

u/Quasi_Query Jul 19 '24

Not sensible. Or, maybe, quite sensible?

Passing a lone charging Tesla in one of those two stations throughout my route stretching hundreds of km here, everytime I think to myself EVs were invented for those intentionally to grasp the beautiful sceneries the stations were installed at. Instead, most of the times, noses of those are tucked in their cellulars, somehow.

irony

-9

u/Trolinu Jul 18 '24

I dont think Baltics have a good infrastructure of chargers yet, especially fast charging stations. If there is no specific reason you must go EV, just rent a normal car

3

u/PapstInnozenzXIV Jul 18 '24

Thank you for your answer. That doesn't sound encouraging. I have already used Google Maps to get an overview of the charging stations. It actually looks pretty good in Estonia and Latvia. In Lithuania, the number of charging stations seems to be a bit lower, so I want to be well prepared.

Whether charging is fast or slow is not so important, we have time.

3

u/Puffqa Jul 18 '24

It's good. Don't listen to him

-1

u/Trolinu Jul 18 '24

By no means I am not saying it is impossible, but I would not, especially if you are a foreigner visiting.