France: Single Operator For Electric Fast Charging Stations?

#Electric #Charging #France - In a move that is not typical for the current French politicians (in other words, thoughtful and creative), the French government announced last May that they are looking into creating a central and single operator for all electric fast charging stations for electric cars and motorcycles. Currently, like in most other countries where there are electric vehicles, the vehicle manufacturer tends to install charging stations. Since often the standards differ, the charging station will only work for that manufacturer or for those that have adopted their standards.

The most obvious example here in France is the difference between Renault and the PSA group (Peugeot/Citroen). Both have electric cars, both have electric charging stations, but one can not use the other's.

By appointing a single operator that installs and operates electric fast charging stations, all must adhere to that standard. The idea is to have 5,000 stations alongside motorways and secondary roads. But this being France, there are a lot of different opinions and to "cure" that, they are all talking, so it might take a while before we see this happen.

In principle, we are going to go back in time, to when there was a single telecom operator, a single electricity company and single gas company. So I guess once the single fast charging station operator has been in place, they'll break it up.

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