Money talks, as they say.
Completely agree it’s abhorrent, but difficult to do much about it.
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I have been looking at the charging network on the Autoroutes, there are now chargers at about 50% of the Aires and in some up to 7 chargers. This is up from 25% about a year ago so the roll out on Autoroutes seems pretty good and in about 2-3 years they should be in nearly all of them. I would be grateful if someone who has an electric car has found this to be the case.
Also is there a reasonable network in towns / supermarket car parks etc?
Hi,
About an electric car, when you want it to support long journeys, you must check the following features :
1 - range thanks to the battery capacity (over 60 kWh)
2 - fast charging capability (over 100 kW)
3 - Does the battery have liquid cooling system ? (not air cooled)
4- Is it automatically pre-heated when the car knows it’s going to a charge station ? (enables the best possible charging speed even in winter)
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Obviously, you will need a wide battery capacity for your car. Even if it’s a once or twice a year long journey. The only case where you could take the car with the smallest battery available, is a Tesla because it will check all other features : it will charge fast anytime of the year… so you may accept to charge it more times during one journey.
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The car must have the Combo CCS plug, the Euro norm plug for fast and public charging stations. Above 100 kW, it’s charging fast, but above 150 kW, there you have the best models to reduce your waiting time in the charging station.
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If the battery is only cooled by air, (like Zoe or Leaf) the car will hardly accept its highest charging speed in summer. These cars cannot pre-heat either their battery in winter, so for other reasons, the same problem will happen : low charging speed in low temperatures.
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Most of the latest released EV cars have the pre-heating feature, automatically triggered by the GPS planner when it’s set to a charging station as destination. During the last minutes of travel, you will pull more energy than usual from the battery, but it is necessary to allow the highest charging speed. Sometimes like in Volkswagen group, you absolutely need the optional heat pump to have the pre-heating feature.
There’s a website with particularly interesting data about the range and efficiency of a (growing) selection of EV cars actually tested in depth by YouTubers : https://www.lachaineev.fr/
Their tests provide a good idea of how much time is needed for a long journey with the cars they have tested. It’s good to note that a car with a decent battery capacity can become less interesting if it doesn’t have the pre-heating feature, or, if the curve of the charging speed is bad.
For example, the Renault Megane E-tech : it’s efficient, the battery capacity is not bad, but the peak of charging speed at 130 kW is quickly decreasing making the whole charge not as fast as one could expect by just reading its features. This car has other advantages, like the nice integration of Google Android Automative, the performance, reading capacity and smoothness of its “Autopilot”.
If you give importance to the budget, maybe solutions like the new Kia E-Niro can satisfy most of your other expectations if you accept its slower charging speed on public stations (maximum 77 kW) for only a few times in the year. Its high efficiency and well managed battery are strong features, it’s particularly popular due to its very good results on the basics when you take in account the lower budget.
For now, I do not recommend the brand new Chinese cars who recently arrived in Europe because of their much lower efficiency, and the risk of hard access to spare parts in case of problem. Their lower budget on day 1 hides strong disadvantages.
For your info, I own and drive a Twizy as a secondary car since 2015. I had a Skoda Enyaq for rent during 1 week (2300km) on holidays in Norway , and I quickly tested a Tesla Model 3. All above info come from EV cars news and tests that I have followed for several years. 
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Thank you for this information.
I am considering the Kia Niro or possibly EV6, both seem to charge at a fast rate.
The niro doesnt charge at what would be considered a fast rate by todays terms (70kW) what they did tweak in the latest version was the software so it can maintain 70kW for longer than some headline charging speeds that can only hold that for a short while. Damn good car though.
I think the EV6 is, too big though. I don’t think I will be able to get hold of a Niro before Xmas - I need a solution for a, journey in December.
Bus, train perhaps
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Unfortunately we need to take a lot of luggage with us as my wife is the florist for a wedding in UK. A full car load.
You are looking at second hand? I don’t think you will have much choice of new cars if you want it before christmas. We were thinking of a new car, and there was a 12 month delay. For second hand, we had to travel a bit to get what we wanted but managed to find the model. Seem to be 3 e-niros on la centrale
https://www.lacentrale.fr/listing?energies=elec&makesModelsCommercialNames=KIA%3ANIRO
UPDATE to my own posting.
One of the UK charging networks, Osprey Charging, have announced an increase to £1/kWH across their network…!
It may not be a permanent level & may come down, they say.
https://mailchi.mp/a0d67a4f86b5/osprey-news-quarterly-round-up-5887194?e=ab80152eda
Wow that is expensive!
May be ex-demonstrator - I don’t know if the large conversion incentives would then apply.
Yes, that’s what we bought. Advertised as ex-demo with 8k km, but actually has less than 3,000km on the clock.
And got the appropriate scrappage bonus, and eco bonus, plus credit impôt for putting in a charger.
It is thought that by the end of the year the UK domestic rate could be £1 per kW.
Truss has put into place the £2500 cap so helping the rich with their mansions (multiple) but doing bugger all for the low income careful low user 80% of the population.
I would completely avoid Osprey in the faint hope the lack of customers will break the company.
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Isn’t the cap for average use so anyone using more than average will still pay more?
Somewhat belated reply to your query… around here (Dept 50) there are charging points in every little town/village car park. The only supermarket where I’ve noticed them is Lidl but I don’t go into supermarkets much.
It is but the argument is that if you cap what would be, say, £0.50 per unit down to £0.25 then someone using 250 units a month will only save £62.50, whereas someone using 2500 units a month will save £625 - so “the rich get more benefit”.
I’m genuinely not sure whether to laugh or not.
What has become disproportionate, and hurts poorer users much harder than people who are better off is the standing charge - which has been increased to pay for the cost of the energy supply companies going bust.
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Presumably the pricing structure is different in France or am I wrong about that?
I completely agree, the standing charges are ridiculously high now. The excess profits should be used to reduce bills too.
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I looked at the EDF offers and then compared buying the box myself and having my electrician install it. Since he wasn’t a registered installer I may not get the impots credit (but I’ll still bung the the invoice for the box to see) but the overall cost of the box plus installation even without the tax credit was, if I remember correctly, a couple of hundred euros cheaper than the EDF partner’s quote.
We put in a Wallbox Copper SB 22kW. Now all we need is for the EV to be delivered. For the mommet we use it for the PHEV.