[Parkwood]

Hi as it looks as if we are beginning to progress towards some travel being allowed with France talking about opening her borders to non EU citizens from 9th june I thought I would share some info I have gleaned from my research in preparation for delivery of my EQC In July. For reasons I have not totally clarified Ionity in France charge by the MINUTE you are hooked up NOT the KWH delivered which I believe is completely different to the UK and much of Europe albeit possibly Norway is the same🤔 The standard rate is .79 centimes per minute but if you are a Mercedes me charge customer it is .29 centimes per minute. So if any of you do not have Mercedes me charge and are looking to make a long trip here in france using Ionity chargers you may want to check out signing up. I am still to get a full handle on the roaming charge systems here and cards etc but am assuming possibly fatally that the Mercedes me system will work with all the local authority charge points in the villages which are fairly numerous though some regions are better than others. I have downloaded the app from abetterrouteplanner.com which plans the route and charging stops with timings a bit like the EQC on board navigation system does I assume (failed to look at it when I had a car for 2 days🙄) it came recommended by numerous french users. it does not update in real time so many still ran Chargemap as well (this was al all electric vehicle forum not Mercedes only). Will share any other info I think may help others as and when it arises. EV in general are quite well rooted here now but mainly as city cars & the idea of long journeys is still quite anxiety inducing for many new owners it seems😉 but the gov is pushing plans to build more and more charge points another 7000 have been put in service so far this year sounds a lot but given the size of France 🤔

 

[Parkwood]

An little update Mercedes me charge on the Mercedes France site now refers to Ionity and also Total as partners who are rolling out a charging network to their service stations many of which are on the peage so there should be more scope for fast and rapid charging coming on stream😉

 

[Parkwood]

Have just come back from a short trip to the Loire via the A28, A11 and A85. there are Ionity chargers at La Sartre-Sargé-Le Mans in both directions 4 fast chargers (ccs) and 1 type 2 and chademo. On the way out a Renault Zoe was hooked up to the chademo but the driver left as we arrived. The A85 has the same set up both directions at Longué when passing no customers where hooked up. I was travelling midweek but with the planned rolling lifting of restrictions underway tourism is picking up albeit it seemed to be mainly us oldies out and about😉so there was a reasonable amount of traffic about. It has given me some confidence that the infrastructure is in place. The town where we stayed had a local gov 22kw charger with type 2 sockets and a standard plug but i noted it pointed out of 2 vehicles were connected the charge was shared between them. Cost was 29 centimetres per kWh and payment could be made by credit card but needed you to download an app. That was a pay de Loire region. What was disappointing was the hotel facility basically a plug only albeit there were 2 Tesla points but quite what speed was unclear as it too looked rather like an overgrown extension lead. The hotel was an expensive 4 star establishment and I would have expected better. We may well find public chargers will be the main source of charge until hotels wake up to the fact that like internet access several years ago it is a selling point and a service people expect.