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

I used a good 13A adapter. Tesla schuko adapter is sausy money compared to a standard adapter. It didn't heat up when charging. I figured charging at lidl on a 60kW DC charger for smth like 25c/kWh using chargemap card was easier than trying to figure out how much do i owe for electricity to the owners of the rental:)

PS I see that lidl prices have gone up since last September. Up to 43c now.

I might not need any DC charging since I'm within range of the campsite and they have AC charging onsite

There's a Lidl on the way in Dol-de-Bretagne which has a HPC so I might top up while stocking up on food and wine

I might not bother bringing the granny lead, finding a quality adapter doesn't seem worth the expense. Plus France really went all in on AC chargers, so it looks like I'm spoiled for choice

Hopefully I'm not jinxing it 😅

Sounds like you're going to the same spot we went to last year (and are going back this august). Domain des ormes?

That lidl in dol de bretagne is literally 10 mins from the site if so, and it can be busy enough to get the DC charger. They didnt have the AC chargers at the campsite last year so I only had the DC there but it was fine.

Stayed there myself last year, great site and plenty of charging options in the general area. There are the DC chargers in Lidl in Dol de Bretagne as has already been mentioned, they also have 22KW AC there. Combourg also has DC charging if I remember correctly (campsite site probably equal distance between both towns, when exiting site go left for Combourg and right for Dol). There is a V2 Tesla Super Charger site at St. Michel (not open to all EV's), a new V3 Supercharger site has opened in Dinan (open to all EV's) which is probably a 20min drive away, would recommend a couple of hours in Dinan for a visit anyway. If travelling to D-Day sites, Ionity site on the way / return.

Number one tip, watch out for the speed camera on the road just as you leave the campsite.

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.

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 😉

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

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 😂

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

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.

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

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...

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.

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

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

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…

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!

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.

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

I have found the Shell Recharge rfid quite handy in France and indeed Hertz gave me a fob version on the 3 occasions that I've hired evs there. It seems to be very widely accepted.

For anyone travelling to Le Littoral, there are 2 X AC chargers on site at a very reasonable 22c/kWh (via chargemap so presumably even cheaper if you pay izivia direct). No overstay fee which is a blessing and a curse, charger could end up blocked for the day, but it meant I could plug in last night at 2330 for a 6hr charge and unplug at 0700 (I know, I'm the worst). AND they are installing 4 more chargers today, will be interesting to see if they maintain the same price!

There's no shortage of CCS charging on the way down, recommend Ionity and Tesla subscriptions and if you are coming via Rennes there's a Tesla supercharger stop at Parc de Bréquigny, park is nice with a playground and over the road is a big shopping centre, Rennes Alma.

No worthwhile alternative. Any competitors that existed seem to have left the Irish market since Covid. AA cover is also very expensive for what it is.

I have a Hyundai but it's over 2.5 years old so I'm not sure if it's covered by them anymore.

..