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

Now that is impressive. It's not competing with the motorway stops in terms of accessibility, but they aren't in crazy-out-of-the-way places either. And yes, a good few of the units that I looked at are 2x 320kW chargers with 2x 160kW units alongside.

I stopped here on the way to Pin Parasol this year. I dropped the family at the McDonalds and then drove over to Tesla chargers and headed back over to the McDonalds when finished. I used the bathrooms in the Novotel and there was a bar/restaurant there but I didn't use it. The McDonalds has one of those outdoor play areas and there is also a bigger playground outside the shopping center nearer the chargers.

Spent around an hour wondering around the shopping center then just to reset the kids before heading off again. There was a carousel and a couple of other activities in the shopping center too. Good stop overall and would recommend.

Also I was in a 58kWh Ioniq 5 and left Cherbourg at 94% so sure you could keep going further. ABRP told me I wouldn't make it and it seems to be particularly conservative in warmer weather. It is almost exactly halfway though.

That Alma location came up for mention around 4 pages back in the France holiday thread - basically it can get very busy, especially on a Summer Weekend, etc. It is a good spot in fairness, except that it's too distracting in ways - and a "quick stop" here in 2018 turned into an hour and a half due to the attraction of the shiny-new-things in the shop windows. So unless you can outfit your family with donkey blinkers, I'd be going for somewhere quieter.

I initially found a place outside Derval (46km from Rennes) with 320kW chargers, except on further review - it's a truck stop and there's absolutely nothing attractive about the place.

Bain-de-Bretagne seems like a possibility as it's not an SPOF, has 8 stalls (2x 150kW, rest are 100kW) and it's near to the centre-ville. Plus, all of the street-names are named after their war-heros, so what's not to like? 😀

Other than that, there do appear to be gaps in the French infrastructure along the West coast, but part of that is a mapping issue as the French don't engage on some of the open mapping sites such a Plugshare or OpenChargeMap.

Try having a look on Chargemap too:

https://chargemap.com/map

I left Cherbourg with 93% charge and a roof box on top and a three bike rack on the tow hook of our id4 and got to the Alma charging station in Rennes with 24% charge. Topped up to 90% and headed off again.

Then got to the Aire de service de la Vendée with about 40% charge, topped up to 90% and got to Bonne Anse Plage with 40%.

No issues charging at any of the stops and plenty of free ones using the Chargemap card.

Mine are pretty similar, if they see the sign they go mental. Last week in Wales the closest 150kW charger was an Instavolt in a McDonald's

Needless to say I didn't use that charger once 😏

Looks like debit card is also an option, but might require scanning a QR code for some chargers. Others might have payment terminals on the charger

https://evcharge.totalenergies.com/en/ev-drivers/how-pay-your-charging-session

Model 3 RWD. Trip to pick up my son in Germany.

Dublin - Holyhead with a full charge on the Ferry.

Holyhead to Eurotunnel. 2 stops on the way and a top up before boarding the train.

Next day, Calais to Bochum, Germany. 2 stops on the way, including 1 at Eindhoven where I picked up 16 prismatic cells for solar battery. Managed to fit 14 of them into the lower boot area and 2 in the frunk.

Charged to 100% at Bochum next day before heading home. Boot completely stuffed. Frunk stuffed. 3 of us in car. Rear seat stacked to the roof with luggage. No spare spade and I had a planned Seplos battery kit to collect in the UK! Only needed 1 stop at Brugge and charged to 75% when I reached Calais.

From Dover I got to Heathrow SuC and charged to about 60%. From there, I got to Fogstar near Birmingham and picked up my battery case. Strapped it to the roof rack. Charged to 100% at local SuC and drove to a local hotel. Have enough to get to Holyhead from here. Will do a quick topup maybe near Chester just to get out and stretch the legs. Fully charge on the Ferry and zip home with pretty much a full battery. If I had spare time, I'd detour to Wrexham, but need to catch the ferry home and don't want my battery case nicked 😋

Zero stress driving. Zero range anxiety. The car calculated everything with minor interference when I wanted to stop somewhere different, or stay for a longer charge if I was grabbing food. Autopilot was used almost the entire journey 95% minimum. Small stretch of Autobahn where I cruised at 190 😁. Now I have a big battery case strapped to the roof rack and I'm so glad the total height is only 188cm...so OK for the ferry. Also all charging was on Tesla network with credits used from referrals.

Journey not done yet, but would do it again in a heart beat, especially with SuC credits.

Ha, great trip.

Must have killed you though in having extra unusable battery capacity, and contributing to worse economy on the EV. 😁 What questions did you get at customs?

I was also considering a similar trip to Fogstar, good to know it's it not too tricky to arrange.

Yeah France went a bit mad for 22kW AC early on and there seems to be loads of chargers around. I guess with Renault pushing it with the Zoe it makes sense

Glad to see more cars using 22kW, it's handy when it's there

It's good to see the rental companies getting the idea when someone asks for an EV they won't be happy getting swapped for a diesel car. That's probably one of the main things that puts me off rentals (other being the prices, can be pretty steep)

Which date was this as a matter of interest?

Thanks. I was on the road from La Palmyre to La Rochelle and then to Caen the previous Saturday but never had to queue for a charger once but I was heading the opposite direction to the main seaside destinations. Nantes was still chronic though. I don't think I've ever avoided traffic there 🤣

Yeah - that's an Anglo-American term pasted onto the original French, written by a railway enthusiast. In France there is no one "Black Saturday". Contrary to what the wiki article says, newspapers refer to un samedi noir (= "a Saturday designated 'black' for heavy traffic") and in due course they'll refer to un dimanche (classé) noir (dans le sens de retour) and other "black" days and directions.

If you want to label the weekend in some way, you'd be better off using the French term Chassé-croisé, as featured in the French version of the Wiki page, which incidentally, is how it was taught to me in Dublin way back in the 80s.

As with most things from the 80s, the concept is dying out because even the French have realised some traditions are not worth wasting a hot summer's day stuck in traffic jams for … so they do it in the Spring instead when our multiple public holidays line up. As I mentioned, the "Black Saturday" this year was the 11th May (followed immediately by a "Black Sunday"). The all-time record was also broken this year - but on the Wednesday (8th May), with traffic jams totalling 2125km at midday.

Incidentally, if you're following road signage rather than a sat nav, lower-traffic alternative routes are indicated for all major destinations : a yellow panel with the word "bis" on it -

These aren't short-term deviations, but long-distance routes set up to avoid known bottlenecks. When the motorways are clogged up with tourist traffic, the "Bis" route can shave a good couple of hours off a journey (and they're generally toll-free, and fuel is cheaper along the way, if you're into that kind of thing :-) )

Top marks, better than my learned understanding.

A couple of screenshots from a bit earlier this afternoon just to underline an earlier post by @CelticRambler on how travelling by motorway on certain Saturdays can be challenging. Today is one of them although a little bit better in the region than last Saturday.

Station was out of petrol, I've heard it all now 🤣

It would have been perfect if there was a bank of chargers at the same petrol station

I think you've got some great points, it's a difficult balance between adding capacity and ensuring it'll be used. I'd say we're still a bit away from EV charger saturation though, 90% if vehicles still have a combustion engine

I'd say when it does start to happen then battery backed chargers will really come into their own because they enable another source of revenue by selling electricity back to the grid and also have lower running costs

I think better signage around EV chargers would really help a lot. Those hubs that were full was likely in part down to some networks not appearing on all providers

If you were driving along the road and on the services sign there was a live display with the number of available and unavailable

So for example if you saw a sign saying there were 12x 300kW chargers at the next stop and 9 were unavailable it tells you a bunch of useful things

-There's a bunch of 300kW chargers ahead

-Some of them are currently available so there's a good chance you can charge

-If those chargers are occupied by the time you get there, then there'll probably be good turnover so you won't be queueing long

Add a price display, and a sign showing the distance to the next charger hub and you've got pretty much all the info you need

I've seen videos of some Ionity stations where a guy was directing traffic and helping people plug in on busy days. Was probably a one off though

A pull through layout would probably help with spaces for queuing, so you just join the shortest queue

I understand online to mean a motorway service station where you dont have to get off the network. Usually fuel is 5-10% more expensive at them. Some EV charging hubs, especially Tesla SuCs, are offline where you have to exit and reenter.

no, I was travelling through only 2 days ago. No loss, got a scenic spin through the countryside so was grand. And yes, there was a bunch of chargers there unused.

The Aire that had the queue for chargers was Aire de Bolleville north of Le Havre. The layout of that Aire is a little mental. Its a facility for traffic in both directions BUT in some fit of French quirkyness, they have decided to keep both sets of traffic separate with duplicate carparks, picnic areas, petrol pumps and Ev chargers - but share the restaurant.

Another point I forgot to mention was that the Hotel B+B we stayed at near Metz had just installed 5pillars, so 10x 22kw chargers. There seems to be a new law that all hotels in France with 20+ parking spaces must provide chargers by next year, so thats another piece in the jigsaw in making Evs (in general, not Tesla in specific) more attractive for long distance spins

Lesson learned, drive electric next time 😜

AC chargers were always popular in France, but it's great to see them getting rolled out en masse

I agree having destination chargers makes life much easier. I've done campsites with destination chargers in France, and without chargers in Wales

There were plenty of DC chargers around Wales so it wasn't hard to find them on day trips, but it was much simpler having the chargers on the campsite in France