Les Voitures Electriques

I was surprised at how few EVs are on the road in France. I saw almost no EV chargers anywhere.

This was the only charger I saw during the three days I stayed in Marseille:

When I asked people about it, in various cities, they usually said the cars cost too much and the French government doesn’t subsidize the cost. They also cited the lack of public chargers for road trips. (Might be worth looking to see if that’s actually true, or if it’s similar to the misconceptions non-EV drivers have in the US - EV drivers know that most EV charging happens at home.)

There are some EVs on French roads, though; one of the guests at the farm, Morgane, told me she’d driven across France in her EV, charging at public stations along the way using an app that communicated with her EV’s telematics and the charging network to help plan her route. (I'm thinking it might have been this white-labeled app.)

In Paris, I did spot a BYD showroom and popped in to look at these fabled Chinese EVs. They were surprisingly big (mid-sized by US standards, but bigger than a lot of European models), but otherwise not particularly special. Sadly, they didn't have an affordable Seagull model on display.

This car was definitely not cheap:

The European fast chargers are also enormous! Made me wonder if the NACS/Tesla standard will make it to Europe or if it was only opened up to North American geographies. Another thing to look up once I get home... (*NOTE: Tesla's "North American Charging Standard" is not available in Europe; European Teslas use the clunky but ubiquitous CCS standard.)

In Germany, on the other hand, there were lots of EVs. My friend Claudia has an EV as a perk from her employer; but she told me the laws had changed recently, making it less advantageous for employers to offer cars (any cars, even EVs) to their employees -- presumably to encourage transit. She’s worried they may decide to take the car away, and if they do it may be cheaper for her to get a gas car to replace it… 🙃 There is currently no decent transit between her town and the city - so she feels that transit isn't really an option for her. (Let's hope the German government is better than ours at offering carrots AND sticks, in equal measure, to achieve policy objectives.)

My last week in Paris, I did spot this curbside EV charging setup. All European public chargers (at least the ones I've seen) appear to be on the Mennekes standard -- meaning the driver brings their own cord, leaving the installed charging infrastructure clean and uncluttered by cables when no one is charging.

Not that I think Paris needs any more cars, electric or otherwise (see Le Velo), but it looks to me like they could use more charging. If someone offered me a job in Paris helping to improve and expand their EV infrastructure, I'd definitely be available...