EV trip to France

[Mr Gus]

I can see no reason to avoid it (as someone who doesn't live in france admittedly)

However, at this point in time, it's less than a pint in a typical mountain bar for your car for life if we go on the whole application to delivery system.
The french govt have said it is for the life of your vehicle, but as I said previously I reckon that will eventually become annual ..who knows.

I don't think any uk govt would be so kind as to make it a one off from the word go, just announce a new annual requirement to be tacked onto an MOT or similar.

[Ken]

Is there an equivalent of Zap Maps for France otherwise how do you know where the chargers are?

[Mr Gus]

Ken, there are now many euro charging cards covering a plethora of charger providers (we bought one as it is a handy UK one too) so yes, all laid out for mapping charging routes..

Ours for instance...

https://chargemap.com/pass

[Joeboy]

Is there an equivalent of Zap Maps for France otherwise how do you know where the chargers are?

Octoverse is very good. Now called electroverse.

[dan_b]

Electroverse covers Europe, as does A Better Routeplanner. And of course the Tesla navigation itself.

[Mr Gus]

We got ours before Octoverse turned up, having paid some euro's for the card & plans (delayed) to drive to europe, we figured that if we fly again there is FINALLY now a chance of booking an EV from inside geneva airport, so no biggy, our other thought was (back then) that a dedicated european card may have benefits when calling a main number to resolve a problem on home territory versus visiting territory (home being vast & the card commonly used) no idea how the UK HQ octoverse CS handles abroad, subbed out or multilingual staff? ..wouldn't want to gamble

Not to mention we did a few test routes with the map & found plenty of room for all eventualities, so considering the market then, was a no brainer.

[dan_b]

Because I know you're all desperate for an update (!), I'm now back in the UK after our jaunt to France.

Did all my charging during the stay on the Tesla Granny Charger (glad they still provide it!) - kept it limited to 9A because French wiring just doesn't look as good as UK standard, but over time it certainly gave me plenty of extra kWh.

Anyway, for the trip home - we had a 7pm Eurotunnel to board, and we left with the car at an SoC of about 95%. Wasn't in too much of a hurry, and arrived at our first stop, good old Le Mans V3 Supercharger, with over 30% SoC, for what was a 2.5 hour stint.

However...
There was a queue of cars more than 5 deep (which is why the Tesla SatNav kept trying to route us to different chargers it turns out).
So, and here's the irony - after taking the piss out of that other 8bay non-Tesla HPC site next door to it, I thought, "I bet it's still empty" and it basically was - just 1 iPace when I arrived. And even better, it worked straight out of the gate using the Octoverse RFID card - a win!

I plugged in and wandered back to the queue to let the other drivers know there were other empty chargers, only 1 took my advice -got chatting, friendly guy with a Q4 Etron - he was happy as they also worked with the Audi-supplied Chargecard... The only "problem" was the cost (and now I see why it's not used much) as the price/kWh was essentially double what Tesla was charging - 0.64€/kWh vs 0.32...

Anyway, who cares. At least I wasn't queueing. Got chatting to another brit with a Mercedes EQB who was on the Tesla Supercharger - both he and the Audi Q4 eTron driver were absolutely loving how easy the rapid charging is in France vs. UK and in particular how so many of the Tesla sites are Open Access. More on this to come..

Back on the road - next charging stop ended up being a place called Bourg-Achard, near Rouens. Again I arrived with about 30% so probably could have pressed on further, but what the heck. This is another V3 open access site with was was a rather bonkers layout, and some interesting non-Teslas plugged in, including the Seat Mii EV!

What was amusing (to me at least) was just as I was about to leave after a 20min stop, the aforementioned Mercedes and Audi EV drivers both arrived to recharge at the same place.

Got to Calais with plenty of time to spare before the Eurotunnel crossing, to plugged in at the now-antiquated V2 Stalls there and got subjected to power sharing for the entire session, but ultimately it didn't matter. Burger King passed the time.

Then back to the UK. And the contraflow on the M20. And an accident on the M26 which meant it was closed. And the lane 3 hugging idiots on the 4-lane M25. And Twickenham rugby traffic. Good god driving in the UK is awful compared to France! Arrived home with 7% but with the confidence of a nearby Ubitricity post to give me the juice back overnight.

1178 miles driven
389kWh consumed, so an average of 331Wh/mile.
I was not sparing the horses on the Autoroutes. But hey, it's all good fun.
Thank you for listening.

[Mr Gus]

I like the way they have directional signage for the londoners /estuarians!? "SAUF"

[ClockmanFRA]

Dan,

"called Bourg-Achard, near Rouen".

We call that village, Bugger-old. lol

[ClockmanFRA]

Nope, still no signs of machine installations for spotting Crit Air stickers in Rouen, well the bit i go through.

Haven’t used the A28 start point in Rouen itself for many years.

Just a quick visit for the last 2 days to the UK and back to Normandy. Used 'Scum' lines Dieppe to Newhaven.
Another stressful adventure.

Bloody hell French Customs Chief got bullying me as I left France, i have not been into the UK since March 2023, with the 'WHY ARE YOU NOT HAVING A FRENCH PASSPORT'. Why is this car not French etc etc,

My French friend say,s '"Leslie they are functionaries, (civil servants) told to do what they do by idiots in management, stay calm and only tell them what they need to know, they think they no more but they do not".

So a long explanation to the lady that our family has two houses one in France since 2001 and another in Oxford UK, we have 4 Cars including a French Registered vehicle and the Family swap cars 3 of my boys at Uni, and come backwards and forwards to our house’s.

All our family have permanent Residency French Cartes ID’s.

So customs don’t get to stamp our UK passports.
The male customs guys, who were hiding behind their PC screens, one looked up after scanning my passport and FR ID card, and I gave him the Galic shrug and he just rolled his eyes.

On the way back and into France a French motorcycle was having a row with the French customs guy at his booth and things got heated, and yes I was the Customs man next customer. Handed him my Passport and French ID card. Asked me in French if I spoke French, I replied in French “ yes just a little”, “well get better French and get a French Passport, and handing my docs said very loudly, “EN FRANCE” (In France).

Entering the UK, Border Force “Where have you been sir” he said “When were you last in the UK” he asked aggressively. “Your UK Passport is not stamped by the French” yep, I held my annoyance and just answered politely.

It seems to me that these Customs guys on both sides of the channel are looking for any excuse for a punch up and aggressive behaviour by the authorities is now becoming standard.
My Conclusion, folk are not being adequately trained on both sides of the channel.