EV driving in France.

Sparky - if it is relevant, were you able to use your CA public-charging credit in France? It looks as if the CA app does include a fair number of charge points.

Also, which apps and charge cards did you find useful? To date, my research has led me to Plugsurfing both for the app and the RFID card, but not sure if anything else would be useful. My Audi GPS also includes charge points but obviously only ones connected with the Audi network, so a bit patchy.

Thanks for the reassurance about it being fairly easy, though, as I am off next week!

Hi Nealeb. What you have is fine. Pretty well all the chargers accept an RFID card and converts to Euros automatically. 

I had only very recently set up CA and didn't look at charging credits in France. To be honest the charging costs are so much cheaper in France anyway. I fully charged up at the Instavolt hub near Salisbury before we left at 89p/per kw. By far the most expensive charge in the whole 3 week trip!!

I used the Octopus Electroverse card and app because that seemed to come up frequently when researching. I found it very easy to find chargers even when searching from home before we left.

Have a happy and fun trip. I'm envious.

Hey ​@Sparky64, 

Thanks so much for sharing your adventure and those great tips along the way. I had a chat recently with ​@HangNail999, who also has an EV road trip planned for Europe, and it's wonderful to see everyone exchanging advice. ​@Nealeb, I hope you're off to somewhere equally exciting, and we can't wait to hear all about your trip when you get back.

Sparky, you touched on this in your post, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the charging infrastructure in Europe compared to the UK. I know our charging network gets a bit of criticism for not always being up to par. What do you think we could learn from countries like France and how they handle their systems?

It’s very interesting to hear everyone’s experiences of driving in Europe. My own road trip starts on the 28th May, taking the Brittany Ferries ship from Portsmouth to Bilbao in Spain, and traveling down to the south coast. The trip has been meticulously planned, staying at one hotel on the way down. I used ABRP (A Better Route Planner) to plan charging stops, plus a few manual tweaks to adjust timings. I’ll be making detailed notes and taking plenty of photos along the way.

Hi ​@Chris_OVO

I can only comment on the French infrastructure which is a little ahead of UK but not by much. The French government made it mandatory for all motorway services to install fast chargers a while ago so that shows the commitment. 

I must say the UK is catching up. Most towns have fast chargers like Instavolt to name one. The price is the issue and the sooner the Vat charge can be reduced the better. 20% at public chargers against 5% for domestic. Only a little but something. 

​@Nealeb and ​@HangNail999 enjoy your trips. I've heard good comments about Spain's EV infrastructure so you'll have no issues. Planning ahead is part of the fun of a good road trip.