EV driving in France - my experience

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.

I'm now back from my own trip to France. Probably around 1000km across Brittany and Normandy. I can only agree with Sparky - I had no problems at all in finding a charging point; all were working and I never found a site where all were occupied, even at a busy supermarket. To be honest, the biggest issue was which one to go to! Although I only needed to recharge 5 or 6 times, my preferred locations were usually at supermarkets and in one case a big DIY store. "Aire de covoiturage" (car-sharing area) was also a good choice as these are usually just off main roads so easy to get to, although no facilities apart from the charger. I didn't stop at any motorway service areas.

To pay, I used a mix of Plugsurfing RFID card (and their app to find chargers), the car's Audi GPS with its charger network and using the Audi app to pay, and on one occasion at Lidl I was able to use the CA app which used some of my public charging allowance. I think I used a credit card once but you cannot assume that a charger will accept credit cards - probably the least popular option. 

To compare prices - I topped up at a 150kW charger at Lidl in Normandy at a cost of approx 35p/kWh. My local UK Lidl has a 50kW charger which costs 74p/kWh. Go to France with as little as possible in your battery and top up before you come back!

A little bit of background on relative pricing.

France has a mature fleet of nuclear reactors which provides a lot of low cost base load whereas over here we don't have that and gas can set the marginal price of electricity which is relatively high in comparison. With increased renewables the number of times that gas sets the marginal price is reducing but we are not there yet.

On top of that we charge 20% VAT on commercial charging although an interest group took HMRC to court who ruled in favour of it only being the same as domestic users at 5% because it is mainly for non commercial purposes. HMRC have appealed. I estimate that will drop the price by 10p but don't hold your breath as to the appeal failing or the CPOs passing on the saving. (Jaffa cakes all over again if you remember that)

A third and little known contributory factor is that the government incentivised Charge Point Operators to put in a lot of Rapid (>25kW) chargers but they seem to have over ordered the connection capacity and it seems that the high connection charges are reflected in the resultant price/kWh and is putting people off outside charging. Low usage is making the situation even worse for the viability of CPOs. There have already been a number of takeovers. 

Did we just snatch failure from the jaws of victory?

Peter

Hey ​@Nealeb,

I’m so glad to hear that you had an incredible trip across France! You’ve totally sparked my wanderlust! My partner and I have been chatting about taking a road trip to Europe, and hearing your stories, along with ​@Sparky64's, makes me feel so much more at ease.

Next on the list, we have ​@HangNail999 getting ready for a sunny adventure to Spain tomorrow! How exciting 😃🇪🇸

You remembered correctly!
I will be documenting our journey (the good, the bad, and the ugly) along the way.
Sailing from Portsmouth to Bilbao on Brittany Ferries tomorrow at 7pm, and driving down to the south of Spain. It’s 2 nights on the ship on the way there, and 1 night on the way back. We have one night in a hotel on the way down, staying just below Madrid.
The full story will be revealed when we get back! 😎

So pleased to hear your French trip went well ​@Nealeb. You'll have the confidence to venture further now.

I have overlooked mentioning the other pleasures of travelling in France. Good quality roads, clear signage, litter free verges and everywhere generally. Not to mention the food and drink facilities that are fairly priced and abundant. Sorry I could rattle on for ages!

Brittany ferries are offering a 20% discount on tickets for June, July and August I have just read. They have categorically stated they are unaffected by the fuel supply issues as they pre stocked months ago and will not be cancelling crossings in light of the current situation. Clearly though bookings are down anyway otherwise they wouldn't be discounting in the holiday season.

Look forward to hearing your experience ​@Chris_OVO with your trip down Spain. That's a long trip and you'll be covering all bases on that one.

Thank you ​@Peter E for your insight to energy supply. It's a tricky one as it's all so new but I feel comfortable in the knowledge that progress has and is being made.

​@HangNail999 it's your Spanish journey. Safe travels.

The Brittany Ferries discount does not apply to onboard accommodation and the Environmental contribution (ETS). Sailings subject to availability. New bookings only. Cannot be combined with any other offer or promotion. Overnight sailings are excluded. Ends at 23:59 on Tuesday 2 June 2026. Terms and Conditions - Ferry-only Booking apply.

By the way, it’s not @Chris_OVO that’s going to Spain tomorrow … it’s me! 😁