It is an important marker of the ecological transition. This Friday, May 5, France will have 100,000 charging stations for electric vehicles open to the public. The objective – revised in October 2020 by the Minister of Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari – was to reach this famous threshold at the end of 2021. Too ambitious according to professionals in the sector, it will nevertheless have had the merit of creating an electric shock and accelerate deployment. Thus, our country now has, in volume, the second largest European network of public access terminals behind the Netherlands but ahead of Germany. And the vast majority of our motorway rest areas are now equipped with fast and ultra-fast charging facilities.
“We’ve been hearing negative messages for a year and a half. We’ve been told that we haven’t achieved the goal. But what the general public understands is that there is no terminal. But it is false. It is time to reassure the population and to show that one can move with his battery-powered vehicle”, explains Clément Molizon Delegate General of Avere-France, the national association for the development of electric mobility. Until 2020, France had a maximum of 4,000 to 5,000 additional charging points per year. In 2021 alone, more than 20,000 terminals have been installed. It now remains to maintain this effort over time. Because the objective of 100,000 units was only a transitional stage.
“Originally, the European Commission proposed to target one charging point for ten vehicles. The strategic sector contract having set a threshold of one million electric vehicles at the end of 2022, we have programmed a network of 100,000 terminals”, explains Clément Molizon. From now on, the electrification of the road network must continue. By 2030, we will need three to four times as many free access terminals, i.e. between 330,000 to 480,000 charging points, according to calculations by Avere.
A new wave of deployment
This deployment of course poses a certain number of difficulties. For example, condominiums remain, for the moment, poorly equipped. Moreover, nothing is yet planned to accommodate the electric trucks that will soon be criss-crossing our territory (however, several manufacturers plan to achieve 50% of their sales in 2030 with battery-powered models). L’Avere still wants to be optimistic. “Since 2020, the regions have embarked on the drafting of master plans, the aim of which is to take stock of existing installations and forecast future needs. These plans being well advanced, we are going to enter an implementation phase, which allows us to anticipate new deployments from the second half of 2023”, estimates Clément Molizon. The expert also anticipates a release on the side of the condominiums which will benefit from this year from devices allowing not to have remainder to be borne in the event of investment.
At the same time, companies continue to engage in electro-mobility. Thus the obligation to green vehicle fleets before January 1, 2025 and that of equipping non-residential car parks with more than 20 spaces will increase the number of charging points in the short term. For individuals, however, one of the main obstacles remains the price of electric vehicles, which excludes many of them from this low-carbon transport solution. Part of the solution will come from the second-hand market. “On the electric or thermal, buyers have very similar profiles. They are mainly CSP + men over 50 years old. It is not on the new market that we will succeed in obtaining electric mobility accessible to all”, confirms Clément Molizon.
As the take-off in first-hand vehicle sales took place in 2019-2020, the second-hand market remains in its infancy in France. Accessibility will therefore be very progressive. Especially if the leasing companies offer too high rates, as indicated a recent study of the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E). “It would be interesting to set up a system of “social leasing”, that is to say an additional boost for low-income households wishing to acquire an electric vehicle”, estimates Clément Molizon. Emmanuel Macron had mentioned it in 2022 during his visit to the Paris Motor Show. It remains to put the measure into practice.