A time envisaged for the end of 2021, then the end of 2022, the milestone will finally have been crossed with a few months of delay in early May 2023. "This is a real achievement," said the director general of Avere which brings together all the industrialists of the sector in France, Clément Molizon.

"It is time to have a positive message and reassure on the status of deployments," he stressed, while the failure to achieve this goal within the given time had been widely commented.

The France, the largest country in the European Union and whose number of bollards per 100 km was until recently at the bottom of the table of countries, becomes the second best country with absolute number of terminals, behind the Netherlands, said Avere.

To continue to catch up and respond to the continued growth of electric mobility, Emmanuel Macron has set the goal of 400,000 charging stations by 2030. The Avere sets it "between 330,000 and 480,000" by the end of the decade, according to Clement Molizon.

The obligation to sell zero-emission vehicles (mainly electric) in Europe from 2035 pushes manufacturers to insist on the deployment of charging stations.

Quality vs quantity

But the multiplication of charging points is not enough, warn some actors. "What matters is also the quality of charging," insists Matthieu Dischamps, CEO France Powerdot, one of the main operators of fast charging stations in France.

Currently, the France has about 10% fast charging point -- beyond 50 kW of power. These installations allow you to recharge your vehicle in 20 to 30 minutes for the sum of about 30 euros, depending on the size of the battery.

"In Germany, we are rather at 18%" of fast charging points, says Mr. Dischamps for whom the France should aim for 20% to be in line with demand.

"There are 1.3 million electric vehicles in France currently, and the projection is that we will be at 13 million in 2030," he warns.

He cites supermarkets as an example: "When you go shopping, you should be able to recharge in 30-40 minutes".

Currently, it is mainly motorways that benefit from these facilities. Like the APRR and Area motorway networks, of which 100% of rest areas are now equipped, "i.e. a charging station every 30 km", according to these companies.

Heavy investments

The investments for this type of installation are heavy. On motorways, stations must be oversized in order to absorb flows during major crossover weekends and avoid saturation.

"For profitability, on the motorway, we are not very far from 15 years," says Pierre-Emmanuel Bredin, who is in charge of TotalEnergies' 3,400 service stations in France. The latter are being transformed to accommodate charging stations in addition to the traditional petrol pumps.

TotalEnergies operates 750 fast charging stations, and hopes to own nearly 4,000 by 2025.

For now, even during the long weekends of May, few terminals are occupied in the stations, says Pierre-Emmanuel Bredin, "but the rise in power will be done," he says.

Another challenge is to ensure the viability of the network when many public charging points do not work or poorly and motorists regularly report having difficulty charging their vehicles.

But to ensure an efficient deployment of fast charging points, the France can count on Enedis, "the fastest distribution system operator in Europe," according to Dischamps, whose company operates in five countries on the continent.

The speed of connection of stations to the network "will condition the deployment" of infrastructure, says Mr. Dischamps.

© 2023 AFP