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Bringing my EV to France

Buckmark1

I will be taking my electric Kona to France on the Ferry in September. I have driven on the continent before but not with an electric vehicle . I will be mostly staying Le Havre and Cherbourg areas. Is there anything I specifically need to bring with me to access ev charging in France.

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miamee

You should probably check who the local providers are and see if you need to sign up in advance with them or if you can pay as you go. Would hate to be stuck at a charger signing up a new account when I could be off enjoying my hols :)

We haven't travelled beyond Ireland in ours so I can't help with specifics I'm afraid.

Royale with Cheese

I looked into taking mine to northwest France last summer before that inevitably got cancelled. There didn't seem to be too many non Tesla rapid chargers in the area and from what I'd read of other people's experiences the French 50kw charger network can be notoriously unreliable.

ECO_Mental

Hi going resurrect this tread as I am going to France next week and bringing my ID4 with me. Going from Cork to Roscoff and initially down to Quiberon for 2 days and then St-Jean-De-Monts for 10 days in a mobile home park. I live only 15 KMs from Ringaskiddy so I will have up to 80% getting on the ferry.

I am not too concerned about the long road trips as these will done on motorways and they have Ionity chargers...but looking at ABRP etc. there doesn't seem to be many chargers 50+kW around.

Any experiences from yourselves this summer and any recommendations....I don't think the campsite has a charger on it and I would be slow to trail out the granny cable from the mobile home every night or maybe I should!

crisco10

Yeah, drove to Bergerac last week from Cherbourg. No problem on the main roads, ABRP will keep you right with Ionity and other high power chargers.

It's a little trickier (but very very doable) around where we are day to day, there's lots of 22kW AC in various car parks so we just grab 10% here and there as we go about our day. E.g. this morning I parked at a charger and went for my run, yesterday we parked at one and went canoeing. Got about 30% from both those charges combined. We are using chargemap card to charge. Not cheapest option but easiest for a few weeks.

ECO_Mental

@crisco10 thanks for that I only the EV for 3 weeks and it was a last minute decision to go to France and only booked the holiday and ferry a couple of days ago. Looking at that Chargemap card you actually have to get a physical card and I'm too late to get one of those now.....

Any other suggestions that I can use on the phone...or I will have to wing it

😮

mfceiling

Definitely throw the extension lead out. Why wouldn't you? Parked up at 8 p.m and charge until 10 or 11 the next morning and you'll get around 30 to 40%. Why not??

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119464267#Comment_119464267

Not sure on apps bar tesla and ionity.

Maybe have a look at plugshare in your region then see what local authority supplies the cards etc and see what they say. Some may even take debit card (at a premium)

unkel

@mfceiling +1

If you're not doing huge driving, just charge the car up to 100% overnight at your gite / camping or wherever you're staying and you will have no worries about having to charge anywhere else

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119463970#Comment_119463970

With a roof-box and/or bikes?

KCross

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119463970#Comment_119463970

Another thread on it here

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119346195#Comment_119346195

You're initial trip is short to Quiberon so I'd say have the car charged more than 80% on the ferry and then just topup at the campsite but make sure you use the reduced AC setting as most mobile home sites wont take a large draw like that.

You should also ask the site, they might have a proper EV charge point. See my post above, the site I was on installed multiple charge points in the last 12 months and didn't have it advertised so worth asking.

The second leg of your trip is also well within the range of the car as long as you start out with a full charge from the site.

Its always better to avoid public charging as much as possible.

Assuming you are travelling from Jean de Monts back to Roscoff in one leg then you will need a stop for that one. I think Ionity Kergoet is where you should aim for (again, see my post, I used it twice). Your existing WeCharge account will work there.

So you wont need to get any French network cards as long as you can sort campsite charging in both places.

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119464398#Comment_119464398

4 Adults and 2 bikes on the roof but planning to take it easy driving over there so efficiency is going to be taking a hit. TBH I don't think we will be doing much driving when there just the odd day trip etc.

I will take the granny cable and plug that into the mobile home plug. Bit worried though with the long charging times and the current it will pull (i know only about 2kW) but these caravans are not designed for these sustained loads.

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119465029#Comment_119465029

Cool, forgot about that reduced AC charging setting in the car I will remember that. Need to get a 13A extension reel as well as I just checked the one I have is only 10A. I think between granny cable charging it on site (or if they have chargers on site) and the odd fill up when off to the SuperU/Carrefour I will be ok.

Only have the car 3 weeks so new to public charging business not mention going to foreign country...I'll be grand its an adventure eek!

TitianGerm

Did you get a We Charge card with the car? That should work on the vast majority of chargers.

AndyBoBandy

Plugshare will be your friend for finding local charging options there, and what apps if any are needed to get charges started.....

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119466836#Comment_119466836

What's the story with that stupid app....I have tried getting the WeCharge card through the App and for some reason it automatically selects my country as Germany and I cant change it so I didn't bother. No real need for it until as the last minute we decided to go France 🤨

BailMeOut

In France now with my EV and will have done nearly 3000kms over last three weeks. My top tips are:

Get an IZIVIA charge card as it has worked on every charger other than Ionity. I have a bunch of other cards for France but none of them have worked as well as IZIVIA.

Bring your granny charger as you'd be surprised how many kms you can charge overnight while sleeping.

Setup the Ionity app and account as these are by far the best charging systems here. They are always super fast, always work and you never have to wait. Yes they are expensive but they are so worth it!

There are 22kw chargers everywhere but they are useless an and have never gotten more than 11kw from them. They are also nearly always blocked by a Tesla with NL plates!

We planned all long trips only using Ionity which is expensive but your holiday time is valuable so I think they are worth it for the peace of mind and you will find that they are around every 200kms-300kms on all the main motorways.

TitianGerm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119466877#Comment_119466877

What EV do you have?

BailMeOut

ID4

KCross

There are 22kw chargers everywhere but they are useless an and have never gotten more than 11kw from them.

11kW is the max you can get on AC from any ID car.

11kW is fine if you are parking up for a few hours but not for motorway runs.

BailMeOut

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119466993#Comment_119466993

I did not know that. The ID4 is at a 22kw as we speak while we check out the local market and the apps says it's getting 64km/hour. The Izivia card worked again and this random local setup!

Sabre Man

Here's a video with tips for driving an EV in France:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDwezRIiUws

And this one explains why you won't get 22kW from a 22kW charge point (execpt for certain EVs):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jV3lO4yiRc

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119466795#Comment_119466795

I calculated that three bikes on the rear (in the vehicle's slipstream) added 23% to the consumption on my Kona. I can only assume that it will be that and more with roof-mounted bikes, especially at 110km and over. Let us know afterwards!

ECO_Mental

Well first day in France and its working out OK....got on the ferry with 82% charge and then drove from Roscoff to Lorient ( about 140km) where I knew there was a 350kW charger. Went for a big one as I hoped they would be fairly easy to set up. After a small bit of fiddling with the app and registration "Smoov" got it working. Put about 30% into the ID4.

The place is peak tourist season so the roads are busy so all day i have never driven over 90kmph so my efficiency is around 16-17 kWh/100km. Considering I have 4 large adults, 2 bikes on the roof, and a full boot of luggage I'm not doing too bad.

Lucked out in my hotel as well! It's a small hotel in Quiberon and a small car park out the back and I noticed these little plugs on the wall. Went over to look and low and behold fair play to them they were granny sockets for EV charger...result. I have her plugged in now and its trickling away at 2kW. Its at 72% anyway so in the morning I'll be all set. No cost as well as far as I know...didn't have to register or anything just yer basic French 2 pin socket. I bought a 13amp extension reel with me as well.

KCross

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119491156#Comment_119491156

just yer basic French 2 pin socket. I bought a 13amp extension reel with me as well.

Just check that none of it is getting hot, particularly if you are using an adaptor to go from 3-pin to 2-pin. If it is hot turn on the "reduced ac" option to reduce the amps down further.

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119491649#Comment_119491649

Yeah used the reduced ac function and also unwound my extension lead fully so it wouldn't get too hot. Worked a charm over night got about 10% into her over night to get me to 80%. Need to make sure my parking spot doesn't get iced later as they don't have it sectioned off.

Paul Kiernan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119491156#Comment_119491156

Is that socket provided by the hotel or the local authority? I saw some last year in France on a public street in a tiny village and wondered were they live! I didn't have a means of testing them! To use them to charge I would have had to pull a cable across the (very, very quiet) footpath. I'm heading to France soon myself and I'm a little nervous! I'll have 4 adults and 4 bikes on the roof!

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119493123#Comment_119493123

Here is the little plug in the hotel. They had three of them. They only had one small sign saying ev charger in the corner of the car park. The plastic cover on it though has an EV logo on it...the IP rating on it is questionable 🤔

ECO_Mental

I'm going to bleed 'em dry 😀😀