The joke flourishes on social networks. “20 minutes of loading… if you find a free terminal that works”, write like this a user on Twitter. With just over 12% of the new car market in the first half for zero-emission cars, the question arises: will there be enough terminals on the holiday route? And more generally, how to properly prepare what will be the first big trip in an electric car for some?
If the market is dynamic, the total number of electric cars in circulation remains confidential. The French car fleet has 38 million cars, some 600,000 zero-emission cars. Even adding the vehicles of our European neighbors, many of which come this year on vacation to France, relating this figure to the number of terminals in operation, the account seems to be there.
More and more terminals on motorways
According to Avere, the association for the promotion of electric vehicles, 64,546 charging points were opened to the public in France in July. Certainly, this is far from the goal of 100,000 terminals proposed by the government. But on the motorway network, this is moving faster with the aim of having fast charging stations every 60 kilometers in Europe in the coming years.
“All service areas must be equipped by 2023 with charging infrastructure, so all service areas are being equipped, in particular, with fast and ultra-fast charging”, specifies BFMTV Clément Molizon, Deputy General Delegate of Avere France .
For example, in the Vinci Autoroutes network, 6 out of 10 rest areas are already equipped. 100% of the network areas by the end of 2023. The goal is to have fast charging stations every 60 kilometers in Europe in the coming years.
“This year there is not an excessive risk of saturation, but it is still necessary to anticipate that there may be a bit of a wait in certain very busy areas”, specifies Clément Molizon, however.
Planning your route with “An Better Route Planner” (ABRP) can help optimize loading times. This tool is well known within the Electric Car community because it allows you to enter a large number of parameters related to your vehicle. To adapt the route, the stages of recharging according to the brand and the model.
Have some free space before uploading
It remains to make sure that the selected terminals work well. The Avere advises here to download the applications of various networks to optimize your journey as best as possible and to be able to recover in the event of a problem.
Ideally, in the face of unforeseen events (waiting, terminals out of order), it is better to plan an alternative solution in advance. For each stop, imagine what the nearest emergency station or terminal would look like. Always maintain a reserve autonomy of at least 50 kilometers when you reach the recharging point.
This “reserve” is quite large but reassuring because the autonomy can drop quickly on the road. The Avere also advises moderating your speed on the highway, so you don’t have to recharge too often. Driving outside of big departure days or staggering your recharge outside of high-traffic hours can also be a trick to more easily secure a spot at the terminals.
Multi-operator cards
Once the stages have been selected, the multiplicity of networks can be a cause for concern when paying the bill, once the charge has been made. The ideal is to have a multi-operator recharge card such as New Motion, Chargepoint or Chargemap. The latter has 1.2 million registered members in Europe to date, with twice as many new members registered in the first 6 months of the year compared to the first half of 2021. The advantage is access to many different networks in Europe: Electra, Fastned, TotalEnergies or even lonity.
The Tesla Superchargers network is also accessible to users of other brands now in 13 countries. Following France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, Tesla has announced the opening of the Supercharger network to all electric cars in five additional European countries: Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
How much is it?
Once the terminal is found, the connected car, the question of the mode of payment evacuated, the question of price remains. How much does a fast charge cost? Here’s a few orders of magnitude into the Ionity network, not including subscription. Count 0.39 euros per kWh with the few generic 50kW terminals and 0.69 euros per kWh in 350 kW terminals, for prices without subscriptions.
Thus, for a “full” of 40kWh (the equivalent of 200 kilometers on the motorway), count 15.60 euros for 50kW and 27.60 euros for 350kW. This gives a total of 62.40 euros minimum for a journey of 800 kilometers recharging only in Ionity. It only remains to enjoy the holidays.
Source: BFM TV
