1,400km electric road trip from Joburg to Durban in the Volvo EX30

We recently travelled over 1,400km on a long weekend road trip between Gauteng and Durban in Volvo’s EX30 electric car and had an incredibly comfortable experience overall, despite some charging niggles.
The N3 has the largest concentration of charging stations of any long-distance route between major cities in South Africa.
Seven DC charging stations are located along the roughly 570 kilometres between Johannesburg and Durban, excluding those within the cities themselves.
With a working charger roughly every 81km, a frequency similar to petrol stations, range anxiety was far from our minds.
We started our trip in Centurion at 16:00 on Friday, 14 June 2024, with the car’s battery on 95%.
The trip down to Durban would happen over more than one day, as we chose to overnight halfway at a guest farm near Harrismith.
The only major charging issue we encountered on the entire trip was at a GridCars station at the Engen Tugela garage on Saturday morning, where the 80kW DC charger would not detect when it was plugged into the car.
We had only planned to get a takeaway breakfast at Wimpy, but because we had to use the backup 22kW AC charger, we decided to enjoy a sit-down meal.
At another GridCars charging station that we used both ways, the RFID scanner was not working, which meant our card could not unlock the charger.
Fortunately, this can also be done via the GridCars ChargePocket app or by sending a request to the GridCars team on WhatsApp using a number registered to a ChargePocket account.
The EX30’s immense power, lightning-fast acceleration, plethora of driver-assistance features, and comfortable seats made the hours spent in the car much easier.
The built-in Google Maps navigation, with GridCars live map integration, showed how much we needed to charge the car at each station to reach the next destination.

Google Maps on the Volvo EX30’s infotainment system showing the optimal stops and times to charge the EX30 on our return trip.
Killing some time
The total time we spent charging the EX30 on the way down was about 2 hours and 30 minutes. On the return trip, it was two hours and 7 minutes.
The 592km trip down took about nine hours and 23 minutes. The main factors contributing to this long time were:
- A 25-minute traffic delay in Johannesburg due to the long weekend
- 40 minutes spent on the detour to and from the guest farm
- 45 extra minutes charging the car on a slower AC charger at Engen Tugela
The 650km return trip without an overnight stopover was much faster — eight hours and 36 minutes — but also included an accident that added about 10 minutes of travelling time.
We estimated that our time off the road for charging was around double to three times what it would have been when using a petrol or diesel car.

Charging the EX30 at the Engen Tugela garage on Saturday, 15 June 2024.
For three of the six stops we made to charge the EX30, most of the time was spent eating sit-down meals. This time would likely have been the same when driving a petrol car.
The other three stops would likely not have happened with the petrol car.
To kill time, we made quick runs to the bathroom and enjoyed coffee breaks while watching YouTube videos on the car’s display.
An important factor to note is that we chose not to charge at any of our overnight accommodation, which could have significantly reduced the time spent at charging stations.
The table below summarises all our charging stops and times during the trip down to Durban from Centurion and the return from Salt Rock near Ballito to Pretoria.
We have excluded the distances travelled around the Durban area and the two charging stops we made during our leisure time, and we have focused on the two-way trip between our main destinations.
Volvo EX30 long-distance road trip — Pretoria to Durban | ||||||
Location | Arrival time |
Arrival charge |
Departure time |
Departing charge | Time at location and activities | Distance covered and time travelled |
Friday, 14 June 2024 | ||||||
Office in Centurion | — | — | 16:10 | 95% | — | — |
Rubicon 100kW DC Charging Station Sasol Thanda Tau, N3 South |
18:49 | 32% | 19:37 | 93% | Sit-down dinner at Spur 48 minutes |
213km 2 hours and 39 minutes |
Appin Farm Guest House Harrismith outskirts |
20:57 | 58% | — | 58% | Accommodation for the night, no charging done | 113km 1 hour and 20 minutes |
Saturday, 15 June 2024 | ||||||
Appin Farm Guest House, Harrismith outskirts | — | — | 07:00 | 58% | Leaving accommodation | — |
Gridcars 80kW Charging Station Engen Tugela, N3 South |
07:44 | 47% | 08:49 | 74% | 1 hour and 5 minutes: Breakfast at Wimpy (45 minutes extra time due to broken DC charger) |
42km 44 minutes |
GridCars 30kW Charging Station Engen Mooi 1-Stop, Adelaide |
09:40 | 32% | 10:17 | 53% | 37 minutes: Coffee and YouTube (10 minutes extra time waiting for remote charging activation) |
97km 37 minutes |
Northdene, Queensburgh | 11:50 | 26% | — | — | Accommodation for the night, no charging done | 127km 1 hour and 33 minutes |
Total for trip down | 2 hours and 30 minutes | 592km 6 hours and 53 minutes |
||||
Monday, 17 June 2024 | ||||||
Villa Roc Guest House | — | — | 10:36 | 89% | Leaving accommodation | |
GridCars 30kW Charging Station Engen Mooi 1-Stop, Adelaide |
12:36 | 28% | 13:21 | 51% | 45 minutes: Coffee and YouTube (10 minutes extra time waiting for remote charging activation) |
184km 2 hours |
Gridcars 150kW Charging Station Engen Tugela, N3 South |
14:15 | 19% | 15:10 | 93% | 55 minutes: Sit-down lunch at Wimpy |
97km 54 minutes |
Rubicon 100kW DC Charging Station, Sasol Thanda Tau, N3 South | 16:38 | 43% | 17:05 | 84% | 27 minutes: Coffee and YouTube |
146km 1 hour and 28 minutes |
Office in Centurion | 19:12 | 20% | — | — | Final destination | 223km 2 hours and 7 minutes |
Total for return trip | 2 hours and 7 minutes | 650km 6 hours and 29 minutes |
Volvo EX30 photos

First charging stop at Rubicon 100kW station on trip down to Durban.

Early in the morning before departing from our halfway stop at Appin Guest Farm.

The GridCars charging station at Engen Tugela, where we needed to use the slower AC side.

GridCars charging station in Umhlanga.

Watching Conan O’Brien lose his mind eating spicy wings on an episode of First We Feast’s Hot Ones.