“Everything went wrong with the charging from the very beginning.” A Belarusian tells how he drove an electric car from Minsk to Tashkent

Preparation and route. What to see on the way from Minsk to Tashkent?

Given: A 2022 Nissan Ariya, but purchased new in 2024, with an 87 kWh battery and a real range, according to the hero of the story, of about 500 km in warm weather. Alexander decided to conquer the roads of the CIS with such a car. How did a novice traveler dare to undertake his first long journey in an electric car?

— I generally love driving, so I decided to arrange a kind of challenge for myself — to get to Tashkent in an “electric car,” — says the driver. — Before the trip, of course, I built a route (the website 2chargers.ru, which covers Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan, helped with this), checked for charging stations, and made sure that in theory, everything was possible.

By the way, I had never traveled further than Smolensk by car before.

I didn’t specially prepare the car for the trip, just had the second maintenance done a little earlier than scheduled. I bought a jack and rented a spare wheel because it wasn’t included with the car. By the way, none of the above was needed. But if something had been missing — it would definitely have been needed.

I also rented a charger that is 32 amps stronger than mine and comes with adapters for industrial sockets. It was needed in case there was no EV charging station somewhere and I had to ask for electricity at some cafe.

Why Uzbekistan? I’ve been to Tashkent several times. Our company has an office there — I planned to work and relax. I really liked the city. It’s warm there now, but not yet hot.

The road one way took five days (we left on April 17), we stayed there for five days, and our return journey lasted five days. While the car was charging at stations — we explored the city on foot.

Turkestan in Kazakhstan

Our route was as follows: Minsk — Smolensk — Ryazan (bypassing Moscow) — Samara — Orenburg. Then we entered Kazakhstan: Aktobe — Karabuta — Kyzylorda — Turkestan — Shymkent. And the final destination — Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where we were headed. In Russia, we liked Samara and Orenburg the most, and in Kazakhstan — Turkestan.

Ryazan Kremlin

Turkestan has been heavily promoted for tourism in the last 6-7 years. In the evening, there are many beautiful lights, and there’s a lot to see.

What we couldn’t visit was Baikonur; we’ll save that for next time.

Adventures with charging stations, or What to prepare for when traveling by electric car across the CIS?

— Was everything fine with the charging stations along the way? — we asked Alexander the main question.

— Everything went wrong from the very beginning, — he admits. — To drive through Russia normally, you need to buy a SIM card (almost all apps for Russian charging stations require a local number for registration). But now it’s not easy for a foreigner to buy one… I had to go to Smolensk twice, and it’s good that I dealt with the issue in advance.

I also installed all the apps before the trip, linked my number and a card that works with the Mir payment system and local currency. Near Smolensk, everything was fine — I just had to tap my bank card to the terminal. But in Mozhaysk, problems arose. I started charging, and I received an SMS with a 3-D Secure code for the app to debit money. But the page where I needed to enter the code wouldn’t open. This is because Russia introduced internet restrictions: pages of our banks (specifically for entering the code) are “bounced.”

Fortunately, it was only about 5 PM. I ran to the nearest bank, but they told me they wouldn’t be able to issue a card in time and sent me to “Gazprom.” There, they asked for a translation of my foreign passport. I had it, but I didn’t bring it with me. In the end, I was lucky that the ID card data was also written in Russian. As a result, they opened a Russian card for me, I put money on it, linked it to the app — and we managed to charge. Because of this, we decided not to stay anywhere overnight, but to drive further to catch up on time.

In Samara, there was one of the few charging operators that allowed registration with a Belarusian number. We started charging, its cost was 18.5 Russian rubles per kilowatt, but my card started being debited 18.5 Belarusian rubles (a 26-fold difference in amount. — Onliner’s note)! My money ran out instantly, and charging stopped. I wrote about this problem in the electric vehicle chat. They replied that this “glitch” has been around for three years and they haven’t fixed it. By the way, the money hasn’t been returned yet.

Another “joke” was in Penza. There’s a good, powerful charging station there, but it’s inaccessible via mobile internet. I learned this from a Tesla driver who also came to charge. He explained that there’s a salon nearby, and Wi-Fi is available 300 meters from it. You need to connect the car to the station, then catch the internet and start the session. Then, when the car is charged, repeat everything in reverse order.

— Don’t you regret going on a trip in an electric car?

— Not at all. The thought never crossed my mind, like, “I should have gone with a gasoline car.” In the end, everything worked out. The main thing is to know all the nuances and prepare.

Kazakh steppes

I also studied the stations on the route through Kazakhstan in advance. On our way, there were two long consecutive stretches without charging: 395 and 450 km. I previously contacted a Kazakh man who had an electric car road trip across the country last year. What’s more, his car had a weaker battery — 57 kWh, but he managed to overcome these stretches. As a result, I drove on cruise control at a speed of 90-95 km/h. We passed the first stretch without problems, and in the second case, when we reached the charging station, we only had 70 km of range left (on the way back after this stretch — 30-32). If the station between the two stretches hadn’t worked — then it would have been a quest. By the way, to start charging, an app and a local SIM card were also needed — we bought it at the border.

— And what about the stations in Tashkent?

— When I was there four years ago, I only saw a Tesla once and an electric BMW once. Accordingly, there were no charging stations. But now there are tons of them. The thing is, BYD assembly has started in Uzbekistan.

What to see in Tashkent and how much money to prepare?

— What did we see in Tashkent? I traditionally went to the mountains and waterfalls. We went to the market, to the Tashkent City Mall. I saw what had changed in principle over four years.

What we didn’t visit in Tashkent (though we should have) was the recently opened Center for Islamic Civilization. We also thought about Samarkand, but decided that an additional 300 km would have been too much.

The local cuisine is worth special mention: any place will deliciousy feed you with pilaf or shashlik.

Total expenses (charging, insurance, toll roads, food, accommodation) — $530 per person.

137.47 BYN, 16,673.6 RUB, 46,419.2 KZT (Kazakhstani Tenge) and 96,780 UZS (Uzbekistani Sum) were spent on charging en route. In dollars at the exchange rate at the beginning of May, this is $48.69, $222.9, $100.27, and $8.07 (totaling almost $380).

What advice would I give to electric car owners who are going on a trip? If the car has a normal battery — don’t be afraid of anything!