Novellia, but the discount applies to all insurance companies as it’s a gov thing Ithink.,
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The original Zoe was a particularly poor electric car, or indeed car by internal combustion standards too. The later versions are a lot better - a colleague had both, and he drives the new one with much more confidence than the old one.
Are insurance costs comparable to à traditionally fueled car?
Not sure what the discount % is, but Little Evie cost us €250 this year.
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I have had had two stop outside my top of the hill home begging for a recharge in the last 6 weeks Whats the rate for
a couple of hours wasted entertaining the new world
Maybe spend that 2 hours showing them maps of local chargers as 2 hours on a granny chargers is only around 6kw so they still wont get very far.
Give them details of A Better Route Planner App.
You are right but I cannot be bothered Have you banged on a door and asked for free a few litres of fuel and hanged around for a while
I’m sure most people will have had experience of needing fuel, or water, or some such else & asked total strangers for help.
I’m also sure that anyone doing so will have offered payment for whatever it was.
Exactly the same applies if an EV driver needs some electrons.
As a rule of thumb a slow “granny” charger (the sort of thing that can be used in a standard domestic socket) pulls around 2,3kW. This means that for every hour that a nearly stranded EV driver uses one they are taking 2,3 x the kWh (kilowatt hour) price that you pay to your electricity supplier.
EDF’s current “base tarif” is 0,174€/kWh so an hours use for a 2,3kW load costs approx 40 cents. I’m sure that anyone needing to blag power for an EV will be more than happy to pay you double that. I know I would.
Clearly the above figures are about to change. Price stated was correct on 27/09/2022.
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I’ve run out of petrol loads of times in my life. My wife ran out of petrol here in France not so long ago and had to rely on the kindness of strangers. Doesn’t everybody?
We must, of course, accept the truth of personal experience as people present it in their posts, however different from our own experience - but surely it must, to say the least, be very, very rare for anybody to have strangers knocking on their door asking for either electric or fossil fuel twice in 6 weeks ?
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Thanks I see
I had a young chap knock on my door late one evening to ask if he could use my phone to call his mother to come and collect him as he had run out of petrol and it was a fair stroll to get some plus he had no jerrican. Well I actually ran him home and it was only about 15mins each way so his dad could come with petrol and get his car back safely. Next day when I came downstairs, there was a huge box of assorted local veg waiting for me from that family. I always liked to hope that should my kids need help, people would assist and not label them all as criminals on the scam.
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We provided bed and board for two young stranded Belgian girls whose car had broken down near us, while their father drove down from Belgium with a trailer to collect them & car.
Good car breakdown insurance or a readily available parent is a must for young drivers.
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Interesting review.
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Is it coincidental that it’s being mooted that any financial assistance for electric cars in future should be only for cars manufactured in the EU?
Cheers. Has anyone taken a look at this website: https://chargemap.com/
Also, there’s a mandate in France to have charge stations in every village. I live near a village of less than 500 inhabitants, and it has a charge station. And of course all of the charge stations I see in the parking lots of supermarkets in the larger towns. There is never a guarantee, though, is there? I do hope that those of us who might have a bit of time on our hands, and who own an electric car, might take a road trip (with picnic basket and a good book, and someone with a gas/hybrid to contact), and see how far one can go! Life’s an adventure and you’d be doing the community a good turn? Just a thought. Please, just take this lightly.
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@MaryW John Lichfield, former Paris correspondent and Foreign editor of The Independent has done a very lengthy road trip in France, precisely to test how far/how easy it was to get around France in his EV…
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Nice article - though a lot has changed in terms of charging over the last 2 or 3 years.
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I would be interested in a similar article on a car with 400km range.
There is this:
One slight oddity with the video - just after he has left the channel tunnel he is shown driving along the autoroute from Bordeaux to Libourne.
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Just travelled over from A39/A40 over Geneva way to Bordeaux and then down beyond Bayonne to Spanish border. Apart from 100km stretch coming into Brive where overhead gantries said no recharge available, it seemed that bornes available and working.
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Good video, plus he didn’t even mention…
I don’t think charging is a problem, just a slight attitude adjustment required 
On the negative side, the BMW salesman wants to talk to me about delivery slippage on our i4. That or deleting some (as yet unspecified) options 
I should add that Tesla quality isn’t an urban myth, it has been an issue. Though I believe the latest Tesla 3s are coming from Singapore and the panel fit etc. is better. My pal’s pre Singapore 3 cracked its rear screen (which is big mother) when he shut the boot shortly after delivery.
Anyway, a 3 isn’t an option for us because we want a hatchback and we want Apple CarPlay
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