When you move away from home, the question of recharging the electric car quickly arises. In this dossier, we take a tour of the various players in fast charging in France, their prices and their specificities.
Porsche Taycan charging on the IONITY network // Source: Porsche
The electric cars sold today allow some to cross France without too many problems, but you still have to know where to recharge during a long journey. With different actors each having their particularities, it is necessary to know in advance what you need so that everything goes smoothly.
In addition to the Tesla manufacturer’s proprietary network, several fast charging players have started to provide stations spread across France. Whether it’s the Tesla, Ionity, Totalenergies Superchargers or the latest Fastned, this guide aims to help you tackle long journeys with serenity.
Tesla Superchargers
The network of Tesla Superchargers is without question the most developed in the country. With no less than 100 stations and 1,000 charging stations spread across the city, crossing France from north to south or from east to west with a Tesla vehicle is no problem. The latest stations deployed include up to 28 charging stations, thus ensuring excellent availability even during the heavy crossovers of transhumance periods.
Source: Beat Jau via Unsplash
The network of Tesla Superchargers is not perfect, however. The majority of stations are located off the highways, forcing drivers to exit the highway and make a detour to be able to connect. Generally allow between 5 and 15 additional minutes on your route to reach a Supercharger.
Pricing is not the same at each station: today it takes between 0.32 and 0.43 euro per kWh depending on the location, with a national average of 0.40 euro per kWh, bringing the price of a typical recharge of 45 kWh at 18 euros at Tesla. There are two generations of Tesla Superchargers, which can power vehicles at up to 150 kW for older Superchargers, compared to 250 kW for new ones.
The use of Tesla Superchargers is very trivial: once the vehicle is parked, all you have to do is take the cable and plug it into the car for the charge to start. Identification is automatic, and the credit card associated with the Tesla account is automatically selected for billing. This is the best fast charging experience today. Note that for the moment, this network is reserved for Tesla brand vehicles in France, but that it will undoubtedly open to everyone in the future.
ionity
Launched by a consortium of car manufacturers and energy players, Ionity is the best known and most developed fast charging network open to all in Europe. The approximately 60 charging stations spread over the territory have between 4 and 8 terminals and are located on motorway service areas, allowing you to recharge quickly and without detours. Vehicles using an 800 Volt battery architecture (Ioniq 5, Porsche Taycan, Audi e-tron GT) will be able to benefit from charging powers of up to 350 kW, making it the most powerful network to date.
Citroën e-C4 on IONITY
Since the end of 2020, pricing has been per minute and not per kilowatt hour, with a rate of 0.79 euros per minute. A 30-minute charge will thus cost you 23.7 euros, but this does not take into account the subscriptions or offers from certain manufacturers which drastically reduce the cost of these charges.
Indeed, Ionity offers a subscription called “Ionity Passport”, which allows you to recharge at a rate of 0.35 euros per minute. For this, you must commit to paying 17.99 euros per month for 12 months, or 215.88 euros for one year. In order to make the subscription profitable, it is necessary to recharge on average at least 41 minutes per month.
At Ionity, unlike Tesla Superchargers, the charging process requires authentication on the terminal, either using an NFC badge, or directly from the Ionity application available on iOS and Android.
Fortunately, the network will gradually approach the Tesla experience with a Plug & Charge system, the deployment of which has already begun. Only certain vehicles are eligible initially, but more are expected to join in the future.
Total energies
The energy giant Totalenergies has started to deploy fast charging stations nationwide, and we now have around 50 stations offering fast charging. Each station has between one and six locations, with powers between 50 kW and 175 kW.
At Totalenergies, pricing is also per minute, like Ionity, but with a few additional features depending on the station. In general, on the fastest terminals (175 kW), the rate is 0.65 euros per minute, or 19.50 euros for 30 minutes of charging.
For terminals limited to 50 kW, the rate is 0.40 euro per minute (12 euros for 30 minutes of charging) if they are located on the motorway. Outside the motorways, the rates for 50 kW terminals are 0.30 euro per minute for the first 45 minutes, then 0.40 euro per minute thereafter.
The TotalEnergies station at La Défense is now 100% electric // Source: Defense-92.fr
Authentication is required before charging starts, either using an NFC badge from a charging operator, or by bank card on the Total EV Charge online platform.
Fastned
The newcomer Fastned has already opened six fast charging stations in France, with a power of up to 300 kW. For the moment, the stations that are open have between four and eight terminals. Fastned stations are located on motorway service areas, which is a major advantage on long journeys: no detours to be expected.
The first Fastned charging stations are open in France // Source: Fastned
Pricing is done here per kilowatt hour like Tesla, and the rates are 0.59 euro per kWh, or 0.45 euro per kWh by taking the subscription at 11.99 euros per month. Thus, it is interesting to take out the subscription if your monthly consumption exceeds 85 kWh. Without subscription, for a typical load of 45 kWh, count 26.55 euros.
The advantage of Fastned over other open networks is its feature called “Autocharge”. By activating it when charging via the Fastned mobile app, you can, in the future, have the same experience as on the Tesla Supercharger network. All you have to do is plug in your vehicle, and it will automatically be recognized and associated with your means of payment, and charging will begin.
Conclusion
For the moment, only these four players offer fast charging stations (over 50 kW) in France. Newcomers like Fastned are just getting started, while the giants Tesla and Ionity already have good coverage of the territory. The coming years will undoubtedly be interesting, with many additional networks, and competition that will allow the user to choose where he prefers to load.
Tesla Model 3 // Source: Bob Jouy for Frandroid
At present, for travel by electric vehicle, Ionity remains essential given its location, and Tesla takes advantage of its excellent network to spoil its customers. However, when the Superchargers in France are open to everyone, it will be necessary to check that the stations will be able to absorb the influx of new users without there being saturation.
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