Welcome to travel guide EV France
Updated: July, 2021. IONITY expansion, blogs & videos added.
First things first
A couple of apps for the phone you definitely want to accompany your travels:
Chargemap (The one app that will help you check uptime of the French infrastructure).
Shell Recharge (former NewMotion, decent roaming access around France)
Plugshare (Still testing this app for better idea about results in France)
Planning
To get an idea about local charging infrastructure it’s always a good idea to start here: https://abetterrouteplanner.com/
Depending on the direction that you’re heading there are a couple of Ionity stations already in use (many more recently finished especially near Lyon) they make life attractive for everyone riding CCS enabled cars like Ioniq, Kona, e-tron, EQC, i3, I-Pace, Taycan and so on. Be aware that the ‘settings’ part of ABRP is a very important one to look at. You can edit the reference consumption to better match your own. Also I would suggest lowering the SoC (State of Charge) % that you want to arrive at chargers/destination to for example 5%. I recommend putting 80% as a max charge.
ABRP has released the second updated version of their app.
Download for Android.
Download for iOS.
It’s highly important to use Chargemap carefully when planning your way around France since the infrastructure is very hit & miss. The community will tell you what’s going on and there is also the very important Izivia website to login so you can see uptime of infra.
Corri-Door chargers can be sort of a necessary evil, useful to read up about my September 2019 roadtrip. Read my blog about Ioniq EV ride to Paris.
Important: Create an account here so you can have a look at real uptime along the highways of France: https://www.izivia.com/en
The Izivia charging card is a must when you’re looking for affordable fast charging along the French highways. Especially where Ionity is not yet active. (Especially with updated Ionity will update pricing since 2020).
More important: Izivia has shutdown 189 chargers in France. Read more about it here. Don’t rely on Izivia/Sodetrel chargers for your travels. Double check your route, especially ABRP-planning still uses the chargers that are not available!
While driving
To watch consumption when on the road is always useful on the longer drives, download the app 'Windy' to check on where the wind is coming from and let this factor in on your driving speed. The warmer the weather, the further you will get with one charge of course, as long as you don’t put the A/C too high.
My navigation advice: use Waze, very popular in France so it knows all about trucks on the side of the road, traffic cameras, traffic jams and so on. You’re always in the know.
Charging cards (RFID)
A few RFID’s that are very useful in France (next to in my opinion #1 Chargemap):
Freshmile (you need this one for free charging in Bordeaux but also a lot of local slow charging will be supported with this one).
KiWhi (might be the most important card in France, if this one doesn’t work, you made it to the end of civilisation).
Belib (necessary for affordable charging in Paris).
Izivia (50kW charging along the highway (actually 40kW more realistic) Important: Summer 2020, hardly any availability of Izivia chargers around France! Don’t believe ABRP planning.
The importance of local charging cards is hard overstate. Of course your apps might work over 90% of the time. QR codes on many machines will also help, but might lead to a very cumbersome website (believe me, I’ve been there in the blistering heat). France is not flat, and like Germany, 4G can be very hit & miss when out and about. When you got all the charging cards ready, life should be quick and painless. On top of that, the risk of ending up with an empty battery drops significantly.
Lidl (aka Juicing up for Free)
Some of the best chargers in the country are hosted by Lidl, doing some shopping when charging at 50kW speeds, no RFID needed. This is quite special in France, because next to the highway at the Corri-Door/Sodetrel/Izivia chargers you mostly receive 40kW max at abysmal prices. (Ionity is the exception to the French rule, but not on every route yet). Be aware that in general France is closed on Sunday, Lidl will only support you Monday to Saturday, roughly 9:00-19:00, local mileage may vary, always check Chargemap in advance to verify opening times and if it’s actually functional!
Ionity France (high speeds & reliability)
White is not yet active.
Ionity changed pricing recently. Look at my live ticker to get a better idea of tactics.
Depending on where you are headed, Ionity is already a big help around France. The promise was 80 stations by the end of 2020 and that didn’t happen. Right now there are 74 stations available for your travels around France. The summer of 2021 promises to be quite adventurous still. Don’t forget. I travelled by Hyundai Ioniq EV from Amsterdam to Barcelona without issues in Summer 2019, and used a couple of Ionity stations on the way. But I really hope there will be more good news to tell you in 2021. Safe driving!
Total EV charge (big plans)
Finally some competition on the way for IONITY in France. I recently visited one of their newest stations, maybe one of the most important charging locations around the country, on the A1 between Lille and Paris. Video:
You can find all Total EV charge stations on this map. This is the January 2021 status:
At Total payment is by the minute (quite common in France). I tried to pay with creditcard but ran into errors, I expect this to function better during the summer of 2021. Depending on your vehicle of choice it might be smart to use the German EnBW chargecard. That way you can still pay per kWh. At a rate of €5,- per month it’s even possible for €0,39/kWh. Looking at the competition that can feel like a bargain.
There is one but: I expect a run at these chargers this year. It looks like they put 50kW and 150kW chargers at the exact same charging spot. This way, as soon as one machine is in use the other one gets effectively blocked. I hope this model changes before they build stations like this all over France. We’ll find out! Photo:
Aire de Ressons-Est. Chargemap.
Sidenote
Maybe you think, but I should be able to make it on my NewMotion (Shell Recharge) RFID? Yes, this is probably true. Maybe one receipt at the end of the holiday is more important than lower prices, that’s up to you to decide, of course. With some local cards you can do quite some saving. With Chargemap for example there used to be no ‘start-up costs’ with the charging sessions. When you drive a lot on the French highways it will pay off to specifically order the Sodetrel RFID (also known as Corri-Door/Izivia), depending on your mileage you can pay a monthly fee for better prices per minute. Please request on time (!), this will get mailed out by hand from France. Very useful on the French highways (no starting costs).
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Extra: Paris
Not the easiest town to find a working charger. That’s why I started collecting reliable ‘fast’ charging infrastructure around the city. CCS chargers, offering 20kW. Thanks to the Belib charging card you hopefully ordered, you can juice up for an hour on the cheap. Recommended!
The first night (or the end of the holidays) in Paris, who wouldn’t like that? Charging at the hotel is very convenient of course, choose a hotel with Tesla destination chargers that also supports ‘other EV’s’. You can charge up to 22kW speeds if your car supports it.
West of the city. Click for the map. Or book directly.
East of the centre (inside of the périferique). Click for the map. Or book directly.
Video
Recently I toured with buddy Hugo one last time to Spain with the classic Hyundai IONIQ 28kWh!
Reading material:
1000km on one day with the Peugeot E-2008 from Central France to Amsterdam.
Dutch EV advice when traveling south (probably useful thanks to DeepL translation):
https://goedkoperrijden.blogspot.com/2020/01/met-ccs-op-vakantie-deel-1-van-3.html
CCS chargers around Europe (useful to all except Leaf, Zoe and Zero drivers).
How did this guide come into the world?
In 2018 I traveled to Paris by Energica Eva SS9. This motorbike supports CCS charging. But that turned out to be relatively ‘dangerous’, because the CCS infrastructure in France still leaves a lot to be desired. When you can only do about a 100km between charges, this is a real challenge. I made it, but barely. The small roads and trucks to hide behind helped me. Also with a BMW i3 that I took from Amsterdam to Paris after midnight with some friends, we almost got stuck on the highway. My advice, charge up early in France, especially if you drive or ride a CCS powered vehicle. With the Jaguar I-Pace I crossed the whole country, if you take a route close to Chartres/Tours/Limoges/Toulouse these chargers will save you! Also € 8,- is a great price still active this winter. Most recently I traveled by Hyundai Ioniq all the way to the Spanish Costa Brava. I also made a guide for Spain, Germany and the UK, you know where to find me if you’re interested in those ones too. Be careful out there, check Chargemap on the days that you’re driving, there’s a big community out there that will certainly give you a better idea about whether you can trust a certain charger on your route or not. Drive safe, cheap, and enjoy!
Secret extras
Wow, since you made it this far in the document it’s time to share all my secrets!
Find me on Twitter if you never want to miss my travel updates.
If you are (or speak) Dutch or you like Google Translate, one of my favourite websites in the world is laadpastop10.nl by the great Maarten Hachmang whose blogs about EV adventures and charging cards and pricing have been invaluable for my European Adventure Rides of the past years. How would the EV drivers in NL have ever discovered the great company Maingau and so on.
Then there is the simple but beautiful http://ionity.ev-info.eu/ where you can follow Ionity expansion on a daily basis with great statistics. For the nerds!