sachrisinuk
Standard Member
Just got back from month's trip from Kent, UK, to Occitanie (south of France) and back in our our ZS EV LR.
Thought I'd share some thoughts and our experience for anyone wanting to a similar trip.
1. Best app to have: ChargePass - so sorry we only figured this out two days before leaving. France EV charge points have this annoying requirement to 'tap an RFID card'. This seems to be the norm for almost all EV points we used. Apps are very much second class and only the odd exception accepts contactless direct payments. We were recommended to get the Fulli app (and card) but it only worked on about about 1/3 of all the charge points we tried. The ChargePass app is brilliant (although if we had had our card before we left, it would have been even easier!). You type in your destination, and it finds EV charge points that meet your requirements (we chose 100kw min and at least 25% charge). Once you have your route, click send to GPS and move it to Google Maps. Brilliant.
2. Easiest to use charge providers: Ionity (soo easy - just app needed), FastNed (easy too, just app needed), Total Energies (mostly ok, but rather variable on how to start the charge).
3. We ended up having to download nearly 20 apps to use all the different charge points, but used these the most: Ionity, Fulli, Shell Recharge, Reveo, InstaVolt, Electra, TE energies, Electomaps, Freshmile, Indigo Neo, Orios, Pass Pass VE.
4. You NEED data on your phone in France/Belgium to make the apps work. We opted for the Smarty network (cheap, free EU roaming up to 12GB). Also a good idea to download the Google Maps for the area you are going to able to use offline (to minimise data use).
5. Get a good trickle charger. We used our trickle charger at our 3/4 of our AirBnB stays. We offered to pay for electricity use (£30 ish). We got the Vorsprung trickle charger from (Type 2 Portable EV Charger | 10 Metre | UK 3-pin | 6A to 13A Variable). Initially we didn't know how to set it to 10A - it was charging at 13A which made the plug quite hot. But eventually figured out how to change it (disconnect the car, the little screen is a touch screen, swipe down, etc.) Once we had it at 10A it would charge from 20% to 100% in about 20h - not bad.
6. Charging is not cheap. Most chargers cost in the range of 70-80c per kWh. So a full charge for us was normally in the 25-30 euro per charge.
7. Avoid slow chargers if at all possible - it is so sad plugging in, spending ages figuring out how to use the new app, start the charge only to sit there for 30min to only get 10% charge. On the fast chargers we normally managed to get about 75-80kw charging going and that took about 30min to go from 30% to 90%. But charging slows down RAPIDLY when you go from 80 to 100. A good rule is that the bigger the charging station (as in tall), the faster it charges. We didn't pick up any difference between 100, 150 and 350kw chargers - all took the same time.
8. Hotel charging is hit and miss. Some have chargers within walking distance, some have in their carparks, it really depends where you go. The ChargePass app is very good at finding your closest charge point.
9. Underground car parks nearly ALWAYS have chargers, but to activate them without an RFID card is a nightmare. Often the carparks have no mobile signal, so you can't authenticate on an app, meaning unless you have a (ChargePass) RFID card, you are stuck. The only exception was Andorra (admittedly a different country) but all the underground parking ones there were BRILLIANT - no card needed, all done on your car parking ticket. Absolutely brilliant. And almost universally fast chargers. Well done Andorra! Worst carparks were in Toulouse - even their Twitter 'helper' couldn't get it to work. Avoid Inidigo Neo chargers - not worth the hassle.
10. We got the little beeper thingie from Fulli to go through Telepayage (toll gates) - ABSOLUTELY worth the money. Saves having to faff with cards, slips, and other bits - just slow to 30 kmph and drive straight through. Be aware that sometimes you have to drive RIGHT up to the barrier before it opens up.
So in summary (TLDR) - get the ChargePass app, get the ChargePass RFID card, get the Fulli telepayage beepie thing - go and have an EV adventure!
Thought I'd share some thoughts and our experience for anyone wanting to a similar trip.
1. Best app to have: ChargePass - so sorry we only figured this out two days before leaving. France EV charge points have this annoying requirement to 'tap an RFID card'. This seems to be the norm for almost all EV points we used. Apps are very much second class and only the odd exception accepts contactless direct payments. We were recommended to get the Fulli app (and card) but it only worked on about about 1/3 of all the charge points we tried. The ChargePass app is brilliant (although if we had had our card before we left, it would have been even easier!). You type in your destination, and it finds EV charge points that meet your requirements (we chose 100kw min and at least 25% charge). Once you have your route, click send to GPS and move it to Google Maps. Brilliant.
2. Easiest to use charge providers: Ionity (soo easy - just app needed), FastNed (easy too, just app needed), Total Energies (mostly ok, but rather variable on how to start the charge).
3. We ended up having to download nearly 20 apps to use all the different charge points, but used these the most: Ionity, Fulli, Shell Recharge, Reveo, InstaVolt, Electra, TE energies, Electomaps, Freshmile, Indigo Neo, Orios, Pass Pass VE.
4. You NEED data on your phone in France/Belgium to make the apps work. We opted for the Smarty network (cheap, free EU roaming up to 12GB). Also a good idea to download the Google Maps for the area you are going to able to use offline (to minimise data use).
5. Get a good trickle charger. We used our trickle charger at our 3/4 of our AirBnB stays. We offered to pay for electricity use (£30 ish). We got the Vorsprung trickle charger from (Type 2 Portable EV Charger | 10 Metre | UK 3-pin | 6A to 13A Variable). Initially we didn't know how to set it to 10A - it was charging at 13A which made the plug quite hot. But eventually figured out how to change it (disconnect the car, the little screen is a touch screen, swipe down, etc.) Once we had it at 10A it would charge from 20% to 100% in about 20h - not bad.
6. Charging is not cheap. Most chargers cost in the range of 70-80c per kWh. So a full charge for us was normally in the 25-30 euro per charge.
7. Avoid slow chargers if at all possible - it is so sad plugging in, spending ages figuring out how to use the new app, start the charge only to sit there for 30min to only get 10% charge. On the fast chargers we normally managed to get about 75-80kw charging going and that took about 30min to go from 30% to 90%. But charging slows down RAPIDLY when you go from 80 to 100. A good rule is that the bigger the charging station (as in tall), the faster it charges. We didn't pick up any difference between 100, 150 and 350kw chargers - all took the same time.
8. Hotel charging is hit and miss. Some have chargers within walking distance, some have in their carparks, it really depends where you go. The ChargePass app is very good at finding your closest charge point.
9. Underground car parks nearly ALWAYS have chargers, but to activate them without an RFID card is a nightmare. Often the carparks have no mobile signal, so you can't authenticate on an app, meaning unless you have a (ChargePass) RFID card, you are stuck. The only exception was Andorra (admittedly a different country) but all the underground parking ones there were BRILLIANT - no card needed, all done on your car parking ticket. Absolutely brilliant. And almost universally fast chargers. Well done Andorra! Worst carparks were in Toulouse - even their Twitter 'helper' couldn't get it to work. Avoid Inidigo Neo chargers - not worth the hassle.
10. We got the little beeper thingie from Fulli to go through Telepayage (toll gates) - ABSOLUTELY worth the money. Saves having to faff with cards, slips, and other bits - just slow to 30 kmph and drive straight through. Be aware that sometimes you have to drive RIGHT up to the barrier before it opens up.
So in summary (TLDR) - get the ChargePass app, get the ChargePass RFID card, get the Fulli telepayage beepie thing - go and have an EV adventure!
but good to have a reference!
