Who’s bringing the horse - no - EV to France?

ELM327

Dinan is a lovely visit. We went there and Mont St Michel, both places really require good walking shoes! We also visited the aquarium in St Malo which is well worth a visit , as well as a couple of local markets.

The EV wasn't an issue with any of them. All large towns and most small towns seemed to have at least AC chargers. The DC chargers were also cheaper there, maybe half to 2/3 the price of over here.

talla

Looks like a lot of the previous Tesla only sites(mainly V2 sites) have been opened up to non Tesla's now e.g. Mont St. Michel is now open to all CCS vehicles.

kanuseeme

Smells of desperation, job cuts, 3rd or 4th price drop, FSD in the US cut by 33% and now opening up more sites for the competition.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122048060#Comment_122048060

Not really sure how that's relevant to anyone heading to France, but there's a whole thread dedicated to moaning about Elon if you need to vent 😉

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058275798/is-elon-musk-hurting-tesla

kanuseeme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122049555#Comment_122049555

Your right, just something that popped into my mind when reading about opening up more sites, I am sure there is no need to worry just yet about the empire and the dark lord collapsing.

no interest in posting about it more, even if I had something against tesla's they seem to be doing more themselves than any hater could possible do.

Back to your planning and enjoy your holidays.

the_amazing_raisin

For anyone ordering the Crit Air sticker for driving around urban areas, I found yesterday that the payment screen doesn't seem to work on mobile browsers

It worked fine on desktop today (still failed on mobile)

They should issue a temp vignette via email in case the sticker doesn't arrive on time

There's only a few areas that require one, Paris being the main one. However given they cost less than €5 it seems handy to get one

Also they seem to be rolling them out more and more, with different rules per area, so no harm to be prepared

CelticRambler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122001480#Comment_122001480

I was reading through the requirements and was amused by the breathalyser law in France. Halfords have single use ones so I'll pick up a pack before going

There is no "breathalyser law" in France any more. Our government realised it was a stupid idea and scrapped it several years ago.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168487#Comment_122168487

Yeah I found that out after buying the test kit 🤦🏻‍♂️

Ah well, I'll have fun checking how many glasses of wine it takes to go over the limit 😂

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168390#Comment_122168390

What happens if you don't have one?

We're going in late July this year and may be going to Paris on a day trip.

3d4life

Hi CR, sorry to be a bit OT, was wondering what "local" ( i.e. in all of France but not EU wide ) regs there are at present for unexceptional ( i.e. not super big or super small ) electric cars

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168763#Comment_122168763

There's some good info here

https://www.france.fr/en/article/crit-air-anti-pollution-vehicle-sticker/

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/law-change-for-uk-drivers-in-french-cities/

It's only applicable at certain times Mon-Fri in Paris, weekends seem to be okay

Other areas seem to make up their own rules, so it's probably best to just always have the sticker

If you don't have one you can get an on the spot fine of €135

CelticRambler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168763#Comment_122168763

Depending on the rules in force on the day (and the rules can be applied/changed on specific days due to local weather/pollution conditions), either you're simply not allowed into the relevant area, or - if you've got in undetected - you may be fined if someone spots the vehicle and can be bothered notifying the authorities.

All visitors be advised: the list of towns/cities applying Crit'Air restrictions is growing, with another dozen or more to be added to the current thirty-odd at the end of this year.

CelticRambler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169016#Comment_122169016

Not entirely sure what you mean by that, but I'm not really in a position to say as my lifestyle and driving habits are incompatible with EV use, so I'm not in tune with the subtlies of FR vs EU-wide regs. I haven't heard of anything that's got the peasants revolting, though, so probably nothing important!

Something that may be of relevance, however, is parking - specifically "event" parking where you'll be directed to a convenient field, which is the traditional local custom. France has had an enormous amount of rain over the last nine months, to the extent that even our farmers are having trouble getting their tractors into and out of the fields. I would be very wary of taking a heavy EV into a "festival parking" area unless you know where your towing points are. The same goes for parking on grassy verges - they are really, really, really unstable at the moment (ask our local bin lorry driver … )

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169016#Comment_122169016

The only one I know if is that Paris is charging large SUVs a premium for parking

I believe E-scooters are also banned on Paris public transport, and possibly some other cities

Since an unexeptional EV doesn't fit into either of those, then the only restriction is the Crit Air mentioned above

Like Ireland, some places give free parking when you're charging. It's at the discretion of the landowner or local government, so best to check ahead

the_amazing_raisin

So, currently in France with the ID.4

I have to say the lack of drama is almost disappointing. We went to the place, plugged in the car to an AC charger and 3 hours later the car was charged

I was driving under the limit but that was mostly due to nerves and caution than any need to reduce consumption

I did have some bad luck with the chargers, there seems to be a flaky one which charges at 4kW only and I managed to get it on the first try. Tried the one beside it and got 11kW all the way

Spent €12.56 for 27kWh, which was a rip off but that's public charging for you

Probably the biggest headache was that I had to hold off the wine for the 3 hours the car was charging so the misso polished off half a bottle of wine without me 😂

Maybe if I'd had to use a DC charger things would be more interesting, but there seems to be enough along the main roads that I should be fine even if forced to divert to one

Anyway, bringing an EV to France, no problem 👍🏻

the_amazing_raisin

I obviously angered the charging gods with my hubris, the AC chargers were busted this morning, couldn't authenticate on any of them

Luckily I was far from stuck but rang support to report it as I'd prefer to use them later. Support was no use of course, my request to get an engineer out fell on deaf ears.

The resort staff weren't much use either, I asked them to reboot the chargers and they looked like I'd asked them to fly a rocket to the moon

Anyway, somehow the chargers magically started working again later so I'm filling the battery now to 100%

It'd be nice if the resort staff had a way to override the charger and start it manually even without an internet connection. They could sort out the billing later as an expense

I suppose that would be too intelligent though...

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122215829#Comment_122215829

eh, nah.You should pack a genny for those eventualities. 😂

denismc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122215829#Comment_122215829

Whereabouts are you?

Heading to Carnac in July, Cork to Roscoff, there seems to plenty of DC chargers nearby including Tesla and Ionity but AC seems to be limited enough.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122217147#Comment_122217147

Domaine des Ormes near Dol de Bretagne

They've got 10 AC chargers on site, however 4 of them seem to be permanently broken

The other 6 are a lot more reliable usually, yesterday was the first time they let me down

There's a DC charger in Dol de Bretagne if I'm stuck, and Ionity and Tesla chargers along the main road if needed

I actually found AC chargers to be more common here than Ireland, although I think a lot of them are older models. A bunch got installed when the Zoe was cutting edge and fast AC seemed to be the way to go

Chargemap is pretty useful for finding them in my experience, seems better maintained then Plugshare here

Heroditas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122217147#Comment_122217147

Carnac isn't great. We were there last year. If memory serves, there were two AC chargers near the town square and two on the seafront (which I used)

I think there might be a few in the Super U now though

McHonda

We are in Ile de re near la Rochelle now after making the trek from roscoff, absolutely no hassle. Made two ionity stops on the way in Auray (nice place to stop anyway) and vendee. A tip if it hasn't been mentioned already is to sign up for ionity passport before you go for better rates

cormacp

Great info on this thread, thanks all for posting.

I'm travelling to Cherbourg (with 2 young kids) next week in a Citroen e-Berlingo, driving to Domaine des Ormes in Dol-de-Bretagne, and I'm having a bit of trouble finding out exactly how we should pay for EV charging across the various networks/mobile apps.

Essentially, we need Combo/CCS charging at 50Kw or above, so it looks like there are plenty of locations when searching on Plugshare or Chargemap. However, I don't have a physical Chargemap Pass card, and I'm not clear on how widespread Plugshare's 'pay with plugshare' feature is. I've also signed up to an Izivia ('Grand Lyon' subscription), but I also won't have a physical card for their system in time for the trip. It's not clear to me wether payment using the Izivia app is possible.

I'm also signed up to Ionity's app, but the number of charge locations seems a little thinly-spread.

If anyone has first-hand info on how I should go about payment for the above services (or any other approach I might be missing), it'd be a massive help

fits

the chargepoint app with orange symbol worked well for us last year. It worked on everything we tried I think. You can also pay directly by credit card on many.

AndyBoBandy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122278464#Comment_122278464

Download the Tesla app and set up an account…

These are the locations of Superchargers that are open to non Tesla cars (so any CCS capable car can charge at these sites)

Price wise you are looking at between €0.45 - €0.50/kWh, which is about as reasonable as it gets…

This one is 25 minutes from your camp site

You actually don't even need the Tesla app as it can be done on their website, but just handier to have the app…

Dont be at yourself

Will be my third time taking the EV to France — also heading to Domaine Des Ormes via Cherbourg next week.

My experience has been generally stress-free; I have a Chargemap card but generally have paid via QR codes on chargers while shopping at hypermarche etc. Infrastructure is generally a lot better than here in my experience.

cormacp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122278650#Comment_122278650

Amazing info @AndyBoBandy , massive thanks. Those Tesla chargers will easily sort our needs, and we'll have Ionity/Izivia/Plugshare as a fallback. Really appreciate you taking the time to find a spot near our campsite!

cormacp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122279252#Comment_122279252

Ah excellent, I wasn't aware that pay-by-QR is an option for some chargers. That's good to know

denismc

Does anyone have any alternatives to AA for European break down cover?

My dealings with AA recently have been abysmal, I applied for the breakdown cover and my card was charged but I received no confirmation.

I tried emailing and phoning but their customer service seems to terrible at the moment.

fits

some new cars come with European breakdown cover. Might be something to check if applicable.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122278464#Comment_122278464

Just back from there myself with the ID.4, mostly a seamless experience

The AC chargers in Domaine Des Ormes are operated by a network called E-Flux, you can download their app or use the QR code on the charger to pay

The ones over by the dome are generally more reliable, there's a group of 6 there. The 4 over by the clubhouse seems very flaky

Some of the chargers will occasionally slow to 3kW. Seems to be an issue with the two furthest to the right although it comes and goes. They should go up to 27kW

I'd recommend topping up after you've unpacked, the chargers do seem to have some signal issues at times. I had no charger for half a day, but they were working again in the afternoon

There's also a 150kW unit in the Lidl in Dol de Bretagne if needed, it's literally on the way to the campsite