Range wasn’t the problem. Neither was finding chargers. But after 4,157 kilometers from Belgium to Albania and back, with electricity costing anything from nothing to almost €0.90/kWh, one question remained: what did the trip actually cost? And how does that compare with gasoline or diesel?

In Parts 1 and 2 of our EV road trip, we concentrated on the practical questions. Could our Kia EV6 simply follow the holiday route we wanted? And how well does Europe’s charging ecosystem work once you venture as far as Greece and Albania?

The answers were surprisingly positive, although the collection of charging cards, apps and tariffs still has some growing up to do. Now for the spreadsheet.

599 kWh for 4,157 kilometers

When we arrived home, the EV6’s trip computer showed 4,157 kilometers in 86 hours and 40 minutes, at an average consumption of 14.4 kWh/100 km. That works out at approximately 599 kWh of traction energy over the entire journey.

The low consumption deserves some context. This wasn’t a 130 km/h motorway dash to southern Europe. We deliberately chose secondary roads and mountain passes when they made the journey more interesting, resulting in an average speed of only 48 km/h.

But it wasn’t an economy run either. We crossed the Alps several times and also covered substantial stretches of motorway at 120-130 km/h.

Air conditioning was used as needed throughout, as were comfort features such as the ventilated seats. We even carried a Vevor compressor fridge permanently plugged into the EV6’s rear 12-V socket while driving, keeping our food and drinks at around 6°C.

Those auxiliary loads ultimately draw their energy from the traction battery as well and are therefore reflected in the trip’s energy consumption.

Seen in that light, the EV6’s 14.4 kWh/100 km average over 4,157 kilometers becomes even more noteworthy. We weren’t trying to set an efficiency record; we simply used the car (and its comforts) as we would on any normal three-week road trip.

From free to €0.87/kWh

Calculating what those kilometers cost is more complicated. There is no meaningful single European price for an electric kilometer.

Some hotel charging was included in our stay and effectively cost nothing. Bologna’s Relais Bellaria charged a flat €18 for charging. At our hotel in Ancona, Park&Charge alone cost €40.26.

At Castel San Pietro Terme, meanwhile, 30.7 kWh from a 300-kW charger cost €26.74, or around €0.87/kWh. At Lefkada Marina in Greece, 31.7 kWh cost €22.79.

And there were the oddities: in Sarandë, a charging session apparently never produced a bill, while in Gjirokastër we ended up paying for it at the neighboring bar. Add everything up, and we paid approximately €329 for charging away from home.

Don’t forget the electricity we brought with us

We left Belgium with a 100% battery and returned with 19%. So the calculation also needs to include the net 81% of the EV6’s 77.4-kWh battery that we effectively brought from home, roughly 63 kWh.

Our ENGIE tariff makes that particularly interesting. The super-off-peak energy component applicable before our departure was about €0.131/kWh before taxes and network charges.

Including the relevant variable distribution costs, levies, and VAT, we estimate that the initial electricity cost was around €16.40. Fixed charges and the capacity tariff aren’t included because we would have paid those regardless of the trip.

That brings the final electricity bill to approximately: €346 for 4,157 kilometers, or €8.32 per 100 km.

What would gasoline or diesel have cost?

For comparison, take a similarly sized efficient combustion-engined car.

At 6.7 l/100 km, a petrol or full-hybrid crossover would have needed around 279 liters for the same journey. A diesel averaging 6.6 l/100 km would have consumed around 274 liters, while a conventional petrol SUV at 8.0 l/100 km would have burned approximately 333 liters.

And September 2026 wasn’t a cheap month to fill up. In Germany, for example, Super E10 averaged €2.266/l and diesel €2.386/l during September. In Belgium, official maximum prices late in our trip had risen to €2.108/l for E10 and €2.494/l for diesel

Using deliberately rounded European reference prices of €2.20/l for petrol and €2.30/l for diesel, the same 4,157 kilometers would have cost roughly €613 in an efficient petrol/hybrid, €631 in an efficient diesel and €732 in an 8.0-l/100 km petrol SUV.

That’s not an exact reconstruction of what we would have paid at every filling station along our route. Fuel prices varied by country and day, just as charging prices did. But it puts our €346 electricity bill into perspective.

Cheap electricity helps, but so does charging smartly

Our EV therefore cost roughly 45% less in energy than the efficient gasoline or diesel scenarios. But there’s an important caveat. We benefited from some free hotel charging. An EV driver relying exclusively on expensive motorway HPCs would have paid considerably more.

On the other hand, that’s also part of traveling electrically. An overnight 11-kW charger can fill the battery while you sleep. Charging during lunch or a supermarket visit can add energy without adding meaningful travel time.

That may be the biggest lesson from our spreadsheet: charging cost and charging inconvenience aren’t necessarily the same thing.

Would we do it again?

Absolutely, but the biggest surprise wasn’t the saving. After 4,157 kilometers through nine countries, we stopped thinking very much about range. The EV6 simply followed the holiday we had planned.

And it proved to be an excellent long-distance travel companion. The smooth, near-silent electric drivetrain made long days behind the wheel remarkably relaxed, while the GT-Line’s comfort, space and effortless performance suited everything from German motorways to Alpine passes and winding roads in Albania and Greece.

The absence of engine noise and gear changes is something you quickly take for granted – until you realize how much it contributes to arriving less tired after a long day on the road.

Part 1 showed that Albania didn’t produce the range anxiety we had half expected. Part 2 showed that Europe’s charging network is extensive enough to make such a journey surprisingly straightforward, even if its apps, cards and payment systems remain unnecessarily complicated.

And now the numbers provide the final piece: even with some very expensive charging along the way, 4,157 kilometers cost us around €346 in electricity.

The EV6 GT-Line didn’t merely prove that an EV can handle a journey like this. It proved itself an almost ideal long-distance travel car. The electric car itself is no longer the adventurous part of a European EV road trip. Sometimes paying for the electricity still is.