How good are EV charging stations in 2023 to cross France from North to South?

[@allymack9246]

I'm planning a similar journey next summer, albeit starting in Scotland and this has given me more confidence for it! Thank you

[@evdabbler]

Thanks and all the best for your trip

[@TJ-mb4qs]

Excellent. Well done. Thanks for taking the time to do a very thorough and informative video. We have one small EV we have been happy living with for four years always charging at home. In four years we have never had to use a public charger. Your video has encouraged us now. We want to change our old family size diesel car to a bigger EV but we are hesitant because of range and using it for longer trips in the mountains and in summer to south west France and touring in the mountains. We live in the Savoie mountains and in winter the range significantly reduces (-30%) with the cold temperatures and wet snowy roads especially going up hill ! There are few affordable 4x4 EVs that can do a trip up to the bigger ski resorts and come back on one charge from our home (260km in -7°C ) we have test driven several in winter so far none can make to Tignes or Val Thorens or even La Plagne and back on one charge. There are few chargers after Albertville! So we are reliant upon public chargers for this but there are few in the mountains. Also in ski season many Dutch people visit who drive EVs and so the charging stations get very busy especially at weekends so it is not ideal waiting to charge with so many tourists coming and going when you are nearly home ! Also it is not easy to go via southern alps to south of France by the nice scenic roads because there are fewer chargers away from the motorways and national roads and Italy has very few chargers around Turin. So I think there is still many more chargers to be installed away from autoroutes to persuade more people to adopt EVs. Not every one lives in flat region or wants to travel via expensive autoroutes and like us we live in very steep mountains that make the EV much less efficient and even more so in the colder climates. I would not be confident to go to ski resort in heavy snow when our 4x4 diesel car is not a problem. Two wheel drive EV is nearly useless in snow going up a gradient because of its weight. We know this because we have driven our EV in four winters in Savoie! Not everyone lives in a flat city or town! But in winter the diesel pollution in the French Alpes is horrible now! So something has to change to reduce pollution emissions by diesel and petrol cars!

[@evdabbler]

Thank you and agreed on the focus needing to be on destination chargers especially in resorts. As for Evs in mountain, you may like today's video. Just summer though.

[@terrymackenzie6784]

Thanks for the insight planning similar trip next yeat

[@michaelridley2864]

Thanks, useful to share your experience. It would also be interesting to have your impressions of charging etiquette i.e. how many chargers occupied by cars already above 80% - is that getting worse as EV ownership spreads? You are right that plug and charge is a huge benefit and needs to be more widely available. For us having plug and charge via electroverse it is a great reason to use Ionity, particularly in France where the costs are much less than the UK. Just so much less stressful.

[@evdabbler]

Thank you. On etiquette, I did not see any obvious 'I went for a 2h lunch whereas my car charges in 15mn'. The only exception I can recall of that was (and it's a bit cliche) a big EQS hugging one of two working Ionity chargers at Channel Gateway, so in the UK and not on that journey. Some cars do stay a bit longer but I suspect most people who have charged a couple of times get the gist as many cars also display the charging speed. I for one used to be particularly mindful of this but have realised that with a car that charges in just 15mn to 80%, I will in fact go to 90% when I need it for the next leg even if it adds 5mn. I still free up the charger faster than others. Also higher demand is a good problem for infra providers to sort.

[@michaelridley2864]

Yes, 90% fine, but it's people taking leisurely lunches whilst their car is at 97% that is particularly frustrating, particularly at [UK] motorway service areas. Hopefully people will learn!

[@thermoratz]

Thank you, for detailed report. Can agree von your experience, from Germany to Spain. No relevant issued occured. I had been mainly with Tesla and Ionity. Elli and Tesla made it a low cost travel fun. Yes, same car.

[@evdabbler]

Thanks for sharing!

[@Joiedevivredesilives]

I liked the Fastned chargers

[@TheMelkiades0]

I'm a bit late to commendations, but nevertheless, great job. Thank you so much.

[@evdabbler]

There is no such thing as too late for encouraging comments :-) thank you

[@duneplodder]

Thank you EV Dabbler. France looks better and cheaper than the UK.

[@evdabbler]

Cheaper yes and better most likely in that there has been concerted effort and planning to get those chargers on the motorways.

[@Nikoo033]

I feel that having the “freedom” to choose your provider remains key to avoid rapid charger availability issues. I don’t think I’ll go for any subscription any time soon 😄

[@evdabbler]

Indeed. Hopefully subscriptions will become irrelvant pretty soon.

[@Nikoo033]

@@evdabbler don’t know if you’ve noticed, InstaVolt have just increased their tariff to £0.85/kWh 😱 despite saying for ages that £0.75/kWh was there to stay. Apparently, their margin was too small.

[@rhinozerus623]

The advantage of a subscription is that you can choose an inexpensive energy provider and get the same cheap price at nearly all charging stations (roaming). You need not know what the price of the operator of the charging station is. In Germany you can see that the price per kWh for adhoc charging with credit card is always much higher. So I am not happy with increasing credit card payments at charging stations. And you never know the price in advance. In my opinion only newbies plead for credit card payment. Also I suspect that some providers tend to not repair NFC card readers - I had already the situation that only credit card payment worked ...

[@evdabbler]

@@rhinozerus623 fair points but if I have one criticism of the EV ecosystem right now it would be around billing: The endless arbitrage opportunities, the absence of price display and the fact that outside key networks you never know if you need the app, the card, some new bank details etc... it makes it less palatable for those you call newbies and i would call those who cannot handle as much complexity

[@rhinozerus623]

@@evdabbler I am deeply convinced that competition is beneficial for e-mobility. If there were only credit card payments, we would be at the mercy of the operator's pricing policy with no alternatives, e.g. at a motorway service station. Price tags on the column wouldn't help if I had to take what was available. The solution cannot be that several operators set up their charging stations in competition at one charging point, so that I would then have the choice (although this already exists in individual cases). Charging cards ensure competition at individual charging stations that would otherwise not exist.

[@rejaulkarim2853]

Ev charging possible to pay by credit or debit card ?

[@evdabbler]

@@rejaulkarim2853 It varies but it wasn't the default last year. More of those that get installed have that as an option now.

[@itspart]

Wow another great reason to never but an EV. just think a 20 year old diesel could do that trip in one go and save hours and hours of time. + it would have used less carbon than a new EV because its already been built!

[@evdabbler]

It probably won't change your mind, but for a bit of fun, check out kzbin.info/www/bejne/sIC5h2NtrayiabM which is the same people travelling with a different vehicle (one is the small battery EV, the other a pretty efficient diesel) on the same journey.