Travel to The French Alps

[FearNaught]

We’re going skiing in the French Alps in March. Having only had my MG5 EV LR for a few weeks I’m dubious about a journey like that. Has anyone had any experience of traveling over 600 miles in France with their MG (or indeed any other EV)

Thanjs

 

[biffo]

Zap Map equivalent for France

Hi Everyone, We are at the start of planning our first foreign EV road-trip! The plan is the do a family skiiing trip to the Franch Alps in February. Total distance from our home to the destination is 810 miles. We have an MG 5 EV (standard range model, which is realistically 190miles/full...

www.mgevs.com

 

[staarek]

We’re going skiing in the French Alps in March. Having only had my MG5 EV LR for a few weeks I’m dubious about a journey like that. Has anyone had any experience of traveling over 600 miles in France with their MG (or indeed any other EV)

Thanjs

Hi there,

We travelled from Kent to Catalonia in early January in our LR. The infrastructure in France (in our opinion) is not as good as in UK, most of rapid chargers are 50kw, however there are also many 150+kw ones, but these are expensive (around 0,8 euro). Some of them apart form charging per kwh charge you per minute (+ kwh), on the other hand there there are still some free free ones (rapid ones) and a very cheap ones.
It might be worth ordering a charge map card, as for 20 euro it gives you access to many networks across France (and Europe) without paying monthly subscription.

Chargemap - charging stations for electric cars

Find charging stations for your electric car anywhere in the world. Join the 2819673 ev drivers and check-out the Chargemap Pass : the multi-network charging pass.

chargemap.com

I would personally try to avoid Ionity, as their prices are quite heigh. Freshmile is quite cheap or even free.
It's worth downloading A better route planner, EV navigation and chargemap apps.
We were doing a lot of planning before we left, finding chargers and an alternatives just in case the charger doesn't work (it happened once - the alternative charger was 20 km away and it luckily work and was free) After a while we took bit more of relaxed approach and we only started looking for stops as we were driving, for example we would start looking around 35% charge (it was 'co-driver' task), we mostly used chargemap app to see what's on our way, if it's live, the cost etc.
If you have any cards for charging, it's worth taking them with you. We went to Valencia last week and were able to start a rapid charger in the city (it wasn't possible to start it with an app) with Electric Juice card from Octopus, even though it wasn't listed on the map. One more thing, France has got a lot of "semi-rapid" AC type chargers (type 2), up to 44kw, so make sure to check the type of the connector (CCS) when you are looking for a charging point, not just "current".
All in all, we've done around 900 miles.

 

[FearNaught]

Hi there,

We travelled from Kent to Catalonia in early January in our LR. The infrastructure in France (in our opinion) is not as good as in UK, most of rapid chargers are 50kw, however there are also many 150+kw ones, but these are expensive (around 0,8 euro). Some of them apart form charging per kwh charge you per minute (+ kwh), on the other hand there there are still some free free ones (rapid ones) and a very cheap ones.
It might be worth ordering a charge map card, as for 20 euro it gives you access to many networks across France (and Europe) without paying monthly subscription.

Chargemap - charging stations for electric cars

Find charging stations for your electric car anywhere in the world. Join the 2819673 ev drivers and check-out the Chargemap Pass : the multi-network charging pass.

chargemap.com

I would personally try to avoid Ionity, as their prices are quite heigh. Freshmile is quite cheap or even free.
It's worth downloading A better route planner, EV navigation and chargemap apps.
We were doing a lot of planning before we left, finding chargers and an alternatives just in case the charger doesn't work (it happened once - the alternative charger was 20 km away and it luckily work and was free) After a while we took bit more of relaxed approach and we only started looking for stops as we were driving, for example we would start looking around 35% charge (it was 'co-driver' task), we mostly used chargemap app to see what's on our way, if it's live, the cost etc.
If you have any cards for charging, it's worth taking them with you. We went to Valencia last week and were able to start a rapid charger in the city (it wasn't possible to start it with an app) with Electric Juice card from Octopus, even though it wasn't listed on the map. One more thing, France has got a lot of "semi-rapid" AC type chargers (type 2), up to 44kw, so make sure to check the type of the connector (CCS) when you are looking for a charging point, not just "current".
All in all, we've done around 900 miles.

Thank you very much for this comprehensive reply. I have the Chargemap app but haven’t bought a card yet. We will leave Dover/Folkestone at about 6am and travel over 500 miles in one day to Chambery - I hope this distance is feasible in an EV.

I see that you are also in Folkestone area.

 

[staarek]

Thank you very much for this comprehensive reply. I have the Chargemap app but haven’t bought a card yet. We will leave Dover/Folkestone at about 6am and travel over 500 miles in one day to Chambery - I hope this distance is feasible in an EV.

I see that you are also in Folkestone area.

No worries at all! I think 500 miles is very doable. We decided to split the trip to Spain in two, so we booked a hotel around Montmarault (420 miles). We arrived in the hotel around 9pm (we also left Folkestone around 6 am), but I have to say though that we were taking it easy.

 

[smokie]

I guess that's the thing. I asked a few days ago how much range you'd lose travelling at 70 v. 65 with trips like this in mind - are you better to blast down and charge frequently (with all the potential pitfalls) or bimble along taking in the scenery and stop less. Maybe even avoiding the toll roads too, as they add up to quite a few bob if doing serious distance in France.

I'd be interested to hear how you get along.

 

[staarek]

I guess that's the thing. I asked a few days ago how much range you'd lose travelling at 70 v. 65 with trips like this in mind - are you better to blast down and charge frequently (with all the potential pitfalls) or bimble along taking in the scenery and stop less. Maybe even avoiding the toll roads too, as they add up to quite a few bob if doing serious distance in France.

I'd be interested to hear how you get along.

I've got very similar feeling, we tend to take it easy, but I suppose it's like with a petrol/diesel car, the faster you go, the more petrol you use. In terms of 65 vs 70, in my fairly limited experience i cannot say i noticed a big difference in terms of m/kwh consumption, i think the weather conditions wind/temperature has more influence than 5mph.

 

[smokie]

Yes but extrapolate to 60 v. 75 and it could make quite a difference. It's "how much" that is the key. And of course whether you have the time to bimble...

 

[staarek]

Yes but extrapolate to 60 v. 75 and it could make quite a difference. It's "how much" that is the key. And of course whether you have the time to bimble...

I agree, personally I try not to go over 70, but keeping it lower then 65 on the motorway, with lorries doing around 60 is bit of a pain. Coming back to French trip, we were avoiding tolls, as the prices are extortionate, it would cost us a around additional 150-200 euro to get to Spain.
Here's the total after arriving to Spain:

 

[sido]

From my reckoning your trip has cost less than the price of a single one way ticket on a low cost airline to Spain, well done.

 

[smokie]

... and so much better for the planet!! That is good isn't it.

Slipstreaming lorries at 60 would probably be v economical!!

Though I mapped out travel to Portugal and it came out quite dear, what with hotel stops etc.

 

[EWD]

This blog is worth a read:

The ultimate guide to driving electric around France — electric felix

 

[staarek]

From my reckoning your trip has cost less than the price of a single one way ticket on a low cost airline to Spain, well done.

Yes, it cost us around £40-£50, three people, it's insane!!!

 

[Fluffykins]

There's a thread somewhere (tried to find it but couldn't) recounting a charity run in an MG5 to somewhere in Europe (Barcelona I THINK) - about 3500 miles (or mebbe km) round trip.
As far as I recall, they only had one or two issues with chargepoints on the whole trip. Possibly someone less senile than me can find it.

 

[Jonnobris]

Was it this one Charity EV drive from Manchester to Gibraltar (and back again) using MG5!

 

[Fluffykins]

Was it this one Charity EV drive from Manchester to Gibraltar (and back again) using MG5!

That's the one. The Just Giving page linked to in the thread is now defunct though.

The only other thing I could find was a few words on someone's LinkedIn: Jim Jones on LinkedIn: We finally made it, exactly 3400 miles covered, in two halves non | 22 comments

 

[EVsince2016]

You need a Chargemap.com card and app. The app even works on Android auto for you!

 

[greeiig]

We go skiing in France in Easter (well we did pre-covid) and will be trying to do it this year. Usually we drive - Eurotunnel, down to Dijon for a night then 3 hours or so to the slopes. I was assuming we'd take our old S-Max (haven't sold it since getting our MG5 LR) but am getting mighty tempted to give myself a little more time and take the MG. Sounds like it's not too much of a stretch from reading this thread - you're all boosting my mojo!

One thing though - I'd need to put on a roof box (reasonably aerodynamic) and a ski box (not very aerodynamic) and there would be 5 of us. Any views how much that will cut down on the range between charges?

 

[Jonnobris]

We go skiing in France in Easter (well we did pre-covid) and will be trying to do it this year. Usually we drive - Eurotunnel, down to Dijon for a night then 3 hours or so to the slopes. I was assuming we'd take our old S-Max (haven't sold it since getting our MG5 LR) but am getting mighty tempted to give myself a little more time and take the MG. Sounds like it's not too much of a stretch from reading this thread - you're all boosting my mojo!

One thing though - I'd need to put on a roof box (reasonably aerodynamic) and a ski box (not very aerodynamic) and there would be 5 of us. Any views how much that will cut down on the range between charges?

We're planning to take our MG5 LR to France this summer. I'd say go for it. There is a good carwow youtube video where they test how load and roof load effect ev range in a skoda ev.

We will be 2 adults, 2 children and roof box. I expect to get 200 miles max

 

[Padaung]

Hi, I've just returned from our trip to the Alps in our MG5 SR. Lots to report back about charging, and I'm happy to share the spreadsheet I made for charging stops.

First of all, do get a Chargemap account and card.
Register for an account with Ionity and Fastened, and Instavolt in the UK (they have a charger near the EuroTunnel UK side).
My car is still in France due to a bad charge at the Calais EuroTunnel terminal, one other MG owner has had a bad charge there too. Avoid charging there is my advice, there are Ionity chargers nearby to the terminal and they were reliable (but expensive) - but that is far better than being stuck in Calais for several days, and your car still stuck in France.