Tbilisi to Istanbul by electric car: the route and the chargers

Updated August 2026

The drive in numbers

The fastest way from Tbilisi to İstanbul is about 1,620 km and roughly twenty and a half hours of pure driving. The route stays on the Black Sea coast the whole way: Tbilisi to Batumi, the Sarp border gate, then Trabzon, Samsun, Sinop, Zonguldak and finally İstanbul.

One common misconception is worth clearing up first: this road does not go through Ankara. A route via Ankara exists, but it is about 150 km longer and is a separate option, compared below.

The Georgian leg has its own page, the Tbilisi to Batumi route. This guide is about what happens after the border.

The road, leg by leg

For each leg the table shows how many fast chargers sit within 5 km of the road and how far apart the two most distant neighbours are. The figures come from the official registry of EPDK, the Turkish energy regulator, the same data the app runs on.

A fast charger here means 50 kW or more, within 5 km of the road. The last column is the largest distance between two neighbouring chargers.

The first three legs, roughly two thirds of the drive, are well covered. Between Trabzon and Samsun the largest gap is about 20 km, and from Zonguldak to İstanbul the density is already European.

Where the coverage thins out

The one stretch that needs planning is between Sinop and Zonguldak. Here the coast road winds through cliffs, the towns are small, and the whole section holds just 28 fast chargers. The longest gap between two neighbours is about 95 km, on the shore between Sinop and Kastamonu.

The practical rule is simple: leave Sinop with a full battery. 95 km is not much in itself, but the road is slow and twisting, and in cold weather the same distance costs more energy than a flat motorway would. With a 40 kWh battery or smaller, split the section in two.

The alternative: inland via Ankara

If the thin coastal section worries you, you can turn inland at Samsun and reach İstanbul through Çorum, Kırıkkale and Ankara. That road is about 150 km longer, and considerably richer in chargers.

In numbers: from Samsun to İstanbul along the coast there are 657 fast chargers with a longest gap of about 95 km; via Ankara there are 888 with a longest gap of 75 km. The Ankara option costs time and buys charging comfort.

A sensible split: in summer, with a large battery, the coast is faster and far prettier. In winter, with a small battery, or driving at night, the Ankara route is the calmer choice.

How many stops it takes

The arithmetic is simple. A typical EV uses about 18 kWh per 100 km. On a 60 kWh battery that is roughly 330 km on a full charge, but nobody waits for a full battery on a long drive: 20 to 80 percent is the fast part of the curve, and that is about 200 km per stop.

Over 1,620 km that means eight to ten stops of 20 to 30 minutes each, provided you use 100 kW chargers or better. On the Turkish part of the route 350 stations deliver 150 kW or more, so finding a strong charger is not the problem.

With a big battery, 77 or 82 kWh, the count drops to about six. With a 40 kWh car it rises towards twelve and two days stop being optional.

What the drive costs

The whole distance takes roughly 292 kWh of energy, split in two.

• The Georgian leg. About 390 km, so 70 kWh. At the median fast charging tariff that is around 55 GEL.
• The Turkish leg. About 1,230 km, so 221 kWh. At Turkey's median DC tariff of 14.74 lira per kWh that is roughly 3,263 lira.

The lira moves, so convert on the day you travel. You can redo the sums for your own car in the calculator.

For comparison, a petrol car using 8 litres per 100 km would burn about 130 litres over the same distance. Even on public fast chargers, the electric version of this drive is markedly cheaper.

Which connector you need

Fast charging in Turkey runs on CCS2 and slow charging on Type 2. There is effectively nothing else: CHAdeMO is on 196 stations nationwide, and GB/T on none.

So a Chinese car with a GB/T-only inlet cannot make this drive. Georgia has plenty of those, which makes the inlet the first thing to check before leaving. If the car has CCS2, there is no issue. The differences are explained in the connector guide.

Who owns these chargers

Along the route you will mostly meet Trugo (146), ZES (110), Eşarj (78). Turkish operators publish national tariffs, so the same network costs the same in İstanbul and in Trabzon.

Starting a charge normally needs the operator's own app. It is worth checking which network sits at your planned stops and installing those apps at home. Which network is where is on the Turkey chargers page and in the app.

The fines waiting for you at the border

Speed on Turkish roads is enforced by automatic cameras, and the ticket is written against the number plate, Georgian plates included. No paper reaches you, so many drivers first hear about it on the way home, at the border.

The rule is this: if an unpaid traffic fine or an unpaid motorway or bridge crossing sits in the system, customs will not let the car leave the country until it is settled. Payment can be made at the gate itself, by card or in cash.

Motorway tolls are a separate matter. Turkish toll roads run on the HGS system, and a regulation published on 29 July 2026 requires foreign-plated cars to be registered in it with a positive balance. Pay within 15 days of the crossing and there is no penalty. Between 16 and 45 days the toll is doubled by a fine of the same size; after 45 days the penalty is fourfold.

The advice is simple: watch your speed, respect the signs, and check for fines before you head back, on the Turkish tax administration site, which has its own section for foreign-plated vehicles. An unplanned stop at the border always costs more than paying in advance.

The border and your last Georgian charge

Sarp is the only crossing this route needs. Batumi is about 20 km from the gate, so the last Georgian charge belongs in Batumi or Kobuleti. On the Turkish side the fast chargers start soon after, between Hopa and Rize: from Sarp to Trabzon there are 69 of them.

Georgia and Turkey share three land customs crossings: Sarpi, Kartsakhi and Vale, the last on the Akhaltsikhe to Posof road. For an electric car only Sarpi makes sense, because charger density on the eastern roads is several times lower. That comparison has its own guide, driving into Turkey by EV.

What to plan for

• Sinop and the Kastamonu shore. The one section where about 95 km separates two chargers. Leave Sinop full.
• No live status in Turkey. The Turkish registry does not say whether a charger is busy right now, so pick a backup in advance. In Georgia that information is real time.
• Big cities. İstanbul has 2,850 chargers, but traffic eats time. Charge before you drive in, not inside.
• Fines and HGS. An unpaid fine or toll debt stops the car from leaving at the border. Check before you travel back.
• Tbilisi to Batumi. The best covered road in Georgia, with the strongest chargers around Terjola. Details are in the long trip guide.
• Planning in the app. If the route crosses Turkey, the Turkish chargers are downloaded automatically and counted into the stops. Nothing to switch on.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. EPDK, the Turkish energy regulator: charging station registry
2. EPDK figures for the first half of 2026, charging points and sessions
3. The 29 July 2026 regulation on fines and HGS for foreign-plated vehicles
4. Turkish tax administration: fine lookup for foreign plates
5. Georgia and Turkey: agreement on the joint land customs crossings
6. Published tariffs of Turkish charging operators