By car type
An EV is superb on a mountain road and terrible at improvising. These are the roads where the charging network holds up, plus how to plan the range around a pass.
Electric cars are quietly brilliant on great roads. Instant torque out of a hairpin, a low centre of gravity and regeneration that gives you most of the climb back on the descent.
The constraint is planning. A two thousand metre climb can consume a third of a battery in forty minutes, and the top of a pass has no chargers. The trick is to treat every pass as a round trip from the valley charger below it.
Checked by the Drivers Atlas desk
Scored and written by the Drivers Atlas editorial desk, drawing on driven routes across the UK and Europe, mapping data and member road reports. Rankings combine the Atlas driving and scenery scores with a fit score written specifically for electric cars. How we score roads.
Last reviewed 29 May 2026
The criteria
Pushed up the list
Pushed down, or worth avoiding
Ranked
01 · United Kingdom
Britain's highest road climbs via hairpins to a wild moonscape pass above Applecross.
18.5 km · 11.5 mi · Fit score 11.0 / 10
02 · Norway
Eleven hairpins claw up a sheer valley wall beneath waterfalls and the Trolltindene peaks.
20 km · 12.4 mi · Fit score 10.8 / 10
03 · Norway
Twenty seven hairpins drop 900 metres to the head of the Lysefjord.
30 km · 18.6 mi · Fit score 10.7 / 10
04 · Austria
A high toll road crossing into Italy with a dramatic glass museum perched at the summit.
30 km · 18.6 mi · Fit score 10.6 / 10
05 · United Kingdom
England's steepest road gradient, a brutal one in three climb over Roman ruins.
5 km · 3.1 mi · Fit score 10.5 / 10
06 · Switzerland
A cobbled historic switchback climb that predates the modern Gotthard highway entirely.
13 km · 8.1 mi · Fit score 10.5 / 10
07 · United Kingdom
A sweeping run through Rannoch Moor beneath the brooding Buachaille Etive Mor.
30 km · 18.6 mi · Fit score 10.5 / 10
08 · United Kingdom
A ribbon of hairpins climbing a bare Welsh moorland made famous by Top Gear.
19 km · 11.8 mi · Fit score 10.5 / 10
09 · Switzerland
Bond film hairpins skirt the Rhone Glacier on this high, exposed Alpine crossing.
16 km · 9.9 mi · Fit score 10.5 / 10
10 · United Kingdom
A lochside single track with views straight across to Skye and the Cuillins.
25 km · 15.5 mi · Fit score 10.5 / 10
11 · United Kingdom
A high single track skirting the surreal landslipped pinnacles of the Trotternish ridge.
13 km · 8.1 mi · Fit score 10.4 / 10
12 · United Kingdom
A dramatic pass beneath Snowdon's crags linking two of Wales's most storied villages.
16 km · 9.9 mi · Fit score 10.4 / 10
13 · Switzerland
Glaciers hang over the road as it threads past turquoise Lago Bianco to the Poschiavo valley.
33 km · 20.5 mi · Fit score 10.4 / 10
14 · Austria
Thirty four hairpins climb past the turquoise Silvretta reservoir to a glacier ringed summit.
22 km · 13.7 mi · Fit score 10.4 / 10
15 · Austria
Austria's grandest high alpine road climbs to Franz Josefs Hohe beneath the country's tallest peak.
48 km · 29.8 mi · Fit score 10.4 / 10
16 · Norway
A low bridge skips between skerries with the open Norwegian Sea breaking either side.
8.3 km · 5.2 mi · Fit score 10.4 / 10
17 · Norway
A gravel and tarmac heritage road between glacier tongues and turquoise meltwater.
27 km · 16.8 mi · Fit score 10.4 / 10
18 · United Kingdom
A steep slate quarry pass squeezed between towering fells above Buttermere.
6.5 km · 4 mi · Fit score 10.3 / 10
19 · Germany
The Green Hell loops through Eifel forest with 73 legendary corners open to the public.
21 km · 13 mi · Fit score 10.3 / 10
20 · Germany
Germany's highest through road climbs to the border with views over the Watzmann massif.
16 km · 9.9 mi · Fit score 10.3 / 10
21 · United Kingdom
A fast sweeping glen road beneath the jagged Five Sisters of Kintail ridge.
38 km · 23.6 mi · Fit score 10.3 / 10
22 · Switzerland
Granite reservoirs and stark rock walls line this dramatic climb from the Bernese Oberland.
26 km · 16.2 mi · Fit score 10.3 / 10
23 · United Kingdom
Narrow single track linking Langdale to Duddon Valley over the ancient Three Shire Stone.
6.5 km · 4 mi · Fit score 10.2 / 10
24 · Norway
Hairpins spiral down to the Geirangerfjord past waterfalls with names like the Seven Sisters.
106 km · 65.9 mi · Fit score 10.2 / 10
Before you go
Route each day around a confirmed working rapid charger, then treat the driving between them as the fun part.
Expect to use far more than the map suggests going up and considerably less coming down. Over a full pass, the net is usually reasonable.
In cold weather a battery that has not been preconditioned charges painfully slowly. Set the destination in the car's own navigation to trigger it.
European networks still fragment by country. A couple of the major roaming apps plus a contactless capable card covers most situations.
Common questions
Yes, and they suit the terrain well. Plan around valley chargers, expect heavy consumption on the climb, and count on regeneration returning a useful share on the way down.
As a rough guide, a thousand metre climb costs roughly the same energy as twenty five to thirty five kilometres of flat driving, with much of it returned on the descent.
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