[Cevoli21]

I can get our XC40 from the UK to Italy via Switzerland just using Tesla superchargers. Good to have a back up plan just in case but so far not needed it. Be open to going off the Autoroute. For example leave the A4/26 and take the N44/A31 across to St Louis/Basel. It takes the same time as the longer route around the A4 but is 60km shorter. There are at least 2 Tesla superchargers en route and speeds are lower so you will save a few electrons. Like France most Swiss services and even those without "normal" fuels will have 4 or so rapids. Never used them so cant comment on how easy they are to use.

 

[Todor]

Thanks all for the useful feedback. I will do some advance planning, especially around the gaps between service stations and aires, so that I have always have a primary then backup, if the former has any issues. But it does seem that outside of the bonkers days of the big holiday start/end dates, I’ll be OK.

We’ll be driving down to the Swiss Alps over two days, and so we have plenty of time. So we don’t mind stopping more times than strictly necessary. And our overnight hotel has four slow charge points as well.

It just seemed weird to me that the recommended charge location for someone coming off LeShuttle at Coquellles was a KFC, rather than a dedicated site or a service station on the autoroute. But then if I think about our local facilities, then the best and largest are at a Sainsbury’s (12) and an M&S superstore (10) five minutes off junctions, rather than the BP garage (4) on the main route through. So perhaps a KFC isn’t that odd, after all.

I'm not sure if that is a concern to you, as this thread seems to focus on EV charging only.

But i found this online tool useful:
https://french-tolls.undiscoveredlatitudes.com/

It is a simple tool for calculating the cheapest route through France (toll wise).

I combined that one with a Fully toll-tag, for fast transit through the tollgates. Another thing that is very handy in a right-hand vehicle.

 

[simcity]

I combined that one with a Fully toll-tag, for fast transit through the tollgates. Another thing that is very handy in a right-hand vehicle.

How are you finding your Fulli tag? From my experience they have been way easier to deal with than Ulys (Vinci) who were a complete nightmare to deal with.

 

[Todor]

How are you finding your Fulli tag? From my experience they have been way easier to deal with than Ulys (Vinci) who were a complete nightmare to deal with.

I haven't had any issues, to be honest. France was a breeze, billed almost immediately and could see them in the app. Italy took about a month for the bill to arrive. I was very concerned where to position it initially, but just next to the mirror, and not a single issue.

 

[msej449]

We’ve had the Emovis LiberT tags for some years now and these have been very reliable. I used mine only last week with a rental car out of Montpellier. Debits to my First Direct UK sterling bank account with no issues. The various different providers do have differing pricing arrangements, but as far as I can see for travellers within France, you can save the odd €10-€15 a year, depending on your choice, but there’s not that much difference between them all.

But if you are planning to travel in Spain or Italy, then you may find it worth researching, as for example Emovis customers need a separate tag for Spain, while some others use a singe tag to cover all countries.

 

[Ski Tron]

For tolls I use bip&go.
It’s good value, only pay a teeny charge for the months it’s used in. Super convenient, signed up because I had a solo journey.
But I went years without a toll tag going to the alps. Passenger can tap a bank card at the toll gates, and paying on line for free flow autoroutes like the A13 Normandy to Paris is pretty easy.

Needs a direct debit from a bank account, and that’s not compatible with some banks.

 

[Mr H]

I Use IONITY but will prioritise IE Charge cos i'm a tight git

 

[msej449]

List of links to various toll tag suppliers: overall, they vary in the specific details of what and how they charge: the differences aren’t huge, but you’ll need to research them to see which suits you best.

● Emovis (Liber-t as was)
● Bip&Go
● Ulys-Vinci
● Fulli (Mango Mobilité)
● Eurotunnel (as an Emovis partner offer*)
● ATMB

*Various discounts on the standard membership and fees. Requires a Eurotunnel booking reference.

 

[Laforêt]

Thanks again to everyone who has responded.

The Crit’Air sticker has now arrived*. This also works as an equivalent to the Stick’Air certificate required in the greater Geneva area.

I’ve also registered the car online for its Swiss autoroute e-vignette, and opened charging accounts with the Swiss equivalent of ShellRecharge (evpass) and another big Swiss charging group, SwissCharge (previously VALT*). This is to supplement my Octopus Electroverse and Chargemap cards and regular credit cards. Our destination has SwissChargefast charge stations, and is up a mountain, so it seemed worth having this just in case.

*(There's an official fitting video that shows where to place it on the windscreen. The instructions are ambiguous as they refer to the 'right side' but don't say whether this is as viewed from inside or outside the car. It's the bottom-right, as viewed from the driver's position inside the car).

*some equipment in remote locations may still be labelled ‘VALT’ but it’s the SwissCharge RFID card that’s needed to use them.

 

[Parkwood]

Yes it is the bottom right from inside the car ie drivers side in UK passengers side for us foreigners😉🤣

 

[simcity]

My car is covered in discrete little French flags surely then I don’t need to get a replacement CdA sticker again. If it’s visiting back in its homeland. 😅

 

[Laforêt]

One bit of feedback: ahead of a trip abroad - check that all your charge accounts and related apps are working.

I've just run through my various charge apps and corresponding accounts and a number of them needed me to re-enter my username, password, or both - presumably because I hadn't used them for some time (if at all, post-registration). This isn't something you want to be doing the first time you recharge in France.

This is one reason why I set up a specific Gmail account for the car, comprising {reg_no}.{model}@gmail.com - at least I can work out the Account ID without a prompt.

 

[Laforêt]

So, after a bit of time spent planning our France»Switzerland trip here are the results, in terms of strategy and method for route planning. I'll illustrate it with the first segment, which might be useful to other travellers, namely the Autoroute des Anglais from Calais to Troyes.

First, here's the baseline information for all the potential charging 'way points' from Calais to our overnight in Magnant, just SE of Troyes.

mins	Kms	Used	kms/1%		Location	Arrival
		~				~
				1	LeShuttle Calais
36	64	23%	2.8	2	Aire de Service de Rely	57%
39	67	23%	2.9	3	Aire de Baralle (↓S) Rumancourt (↑N)	57%
35	57	21%	2.7	4	Aire d'Urvillers / Mont de Nizy	59%
61	101	35%	2.9	5	E.Leclerc Reims Champfleury (N↕S) exit#23	45%
14	22	8%	2.8	6	Aire de Reims Champagne Sud	72%
32	48	17%	2.8	7	Aire de Sommesous (N↕S)	63%
54	84	30%	2.8		Hotel le Val Moret - Magnant	50%

This is based on a combination of planners such as ABRP and ViaMichelin and apps like Electroverse. The charge% 'Used' is obviously specific to our EV, a 50kWh Peugeot e208. These are all aires on the autoroute, plus the big E.Leclerc complex just off Jct.24 at Reims Champfleury. All have at least 4 fast CCS charge bays, mostly more, with the Leclerc site having 46 (!). Cruising speed is an admittedly conservative 100kph (we aren't in a hurry).

I decided on a ‘next+1’ strategy that balanced distance against risk i.e. where we are always able to go on to the next way point if the planned stop has an issue. In addition, this approach gives us more margin for the penalty of faster speeds if we can't limit ourselves to the 100kph average.

After trying various combinations, I concluded that leaving Calais with 80% gave the best choices 'downstream'. We'll recharge at LeShuttle Ashford if we have time, or Cité de l'Europe if not.

After that, you can use one of two tactics: either the 'contingency' one we opted for, or minimise the number of stops, but give up the contingency. For the latter, you will have fewer stops, but if the planned stop has an issue, you'll have to exit the autoroute to find a charging site, as you won't have enough remaining charge% reserve to comfortably get to the next way point on the autoroute.

So with the 'contingency' option in mind the plan after leaving Calais with 80% is to charge again at Rely (»64kms), Urvillers (»124kms) and Reims Champagne (»123kms), arriving at the hotel after 132kms with a comfortable 33% remaining. In each case, we can arrive and decide to continue to the next way point on the autoroute, without having to come off and search.

The key takeaway is the value of having the waypoints listed and numbers for distance and vehicle-specific charge% needed to reach them ('Used%' in the chart). Yes, it's a bit tedious to have to route plan each way point as a destination, to get your vehicle-specific charge% 'Used' but then you have all you need on paper to make key decisions if there are any issues, and decide on an optimal plan that suits your preferences.

I used ViaMichelin to decide on the next stage, which is to leave the autoroute at Langres to go via Besançon and Pontarlier to Lausanne. Then on the A9 to the Swiss Quatre Vallées. I thought this would be more involved but in fact, it was easier. In part this is because the mainly cross-country roads mean about 20% more efficiency from the EV. In part because I already had a template spreadsheet for the baseline data. But it did involve more iterations of ABRP/ViaMichelin to get my list.

The only other comments:

ABRP seems to come up with some very odd waypoints sometimes. I can't for the life of me see why it's fixated on the relatively limited KFC charge station at Coquelles, when there are two much larger sites at the Cité de l'Europe - at engie and Carrefour. It is also prone to diverting you some way off the autoroute for no apparent reason.

The route planners seem to only charge you up to the level needed to get to the next waypoint. Which is fine, but often means you won't have enough charge% to get to the next-plus-1 if there's a problem. Our intention is to charge to 75%-80% each time, even if this adds 10-15 minutes - if it opens up the option of a '+1' contingency then it seems worth it.

It seems worth having a Tesla account. Various sites (Eurotunnel Ashford, E.Leclerc Champfleury, the Zone Commercial at Besançon etc) have CCS charging open to non-Tesla drivers. But you do need the app to use them.

Some routes may have a cross-country vs autoroute choice. For our vehicle, the former gave 20% more Kms per charge%, so that's a factor to consider if the choice is otherwise evenly-balanced.

Working out the kms/1% for your EV is also useful. First, it is a check against arithmetic errors in your data collection - exceptionally high/low probably means you've made a mistake somewhere. It also is useful to check against the figure the route planners are using, which sometimes seems optimistic/pessimistic. Finally, if it proves accurate, you can calculate for yourself how far you can actually travel given your charge% in real-time - versus the guess-o-meter on the instrument display.

 

[simcity]

I admire your level of planning, (although not so secretly I think you enjoy this aspect 😅) but does it actually need this degree of detail?

France and Switzerland are hardly charging deserts and your car has a real world range of 150-180 miles.

I’d just jump in and drive.

 

[Laforêt]

I daresay it's overkill, but bear in mind this is our first long-range trip and the e208, at a usable 46.3 kWh isn't an autoroute warrior. 80%»20% is about 215 Kms in benign conditions and probably only at speeds under 100-110 Kph. Also, the Peugeot satnav is entirely useless as far as EV integration goes: it has no idea of the SoC or how much charge% is going to be needed when you enter a destination, let alone monitor real-time energy consumption against a route plan.

The post probably overstates the complexity. For an occasional long-distance trip, it's just nice to have the table to hand and makes us less reliant on having to use route planning apps while on the move.

 

[Todor]

I daresay it's overkill, but bear in mind this is our first long-range trip and the e208, at a usable 46.3 kWh isn't an autoroute warrior. 80%»20% is about 215 Kms in benign conditions and probably only at speeds under 100-110 Kph. Also, the Peugeot satnav is entirely useless as far as EV integration goes: it has no idea of the SoC or how much charge% is going to be needed when you enter a destination, let alone monitor real-time energy consumption against a route plan.

The post probably overstates the complexity. For an occasional long-distance trip, it's just nice to have the table to hand and makes us less reliant on having to use route planning apps while on the move.

Before reading this, I would have agreed with @simcity .

But now, all I can say is: well done, you have done a nice plan for your trip! And when do you leave?

 

[chapmandu2]

OK I've driven this route multiple times and I would say that you're making way too many stops, and also stopping with too high a state of charge which means slower charging times. I would usually make one stop between the tunnel and Troyes (St Quentin)! If you're worried about contingencies (which you're right to be if stopping at Aires since it can be a long way to the next one!) my suggestion would be to use off-autoroute locations because then it is much easier to find an alternative. For example, if you planned to come off the autoroute to use Champfleury, if there is some catastrophic problem with the site then you have all of Reims to choose from to find an alternative. However if you used Reims Champagne Sud then it's a long way to the next charger. So my suggestion would be to go deeper but come off the autoroute.

I think you should be absolutely fine with somewhere around Bethune/Arras whether that's one of the Aires or there are a few options just off the autoroute at Bethune, St Quentin Supercharger (backup Powerdot across the road), Reims Champfleury and onto Troyes (I would stop in Troyes rather than Magant for an overnight as more choice but also a bit more of a detour).

 

[Parkwood]

I have taken for granted the Mercedes navigation and now understand why Tesla’s also get such a high recommendation….I think integrated navigation should be required by construction regs actually.
You will have the comfort on knowing you have a plan plus as you discover how the charging landscape looks here you will no doubt become more blasé about the need to plan as in my case I know I will find something close…
Enjoy your trip and Bonne route!

 

[Jon99]

I'm planning a trip next year to Deauville in France. Charging is fine. The journey from Le Shuttle in Calais to my destination is well within my car's range.

Does anyone have experience of using the toll roads on this journey? Any tips or things to avoid? Thanks.

 

[SueH]

Did the Autoroute des Anglais last week for the first time and also made a quick and dirty list of potential stops, but gave up as I got further south towards the A40 which I travelled last year.

Tesla at Champfleury was handy and we had a shop for a few bits in the supermarket. Can't remember where else we stopped but it was all very easy, and we had no particular strategy.

There's a SC in the town we are based at in Italy so topped up there which is also handily next to the supermarket.

In the mountains be careful on range: yesterday we gained 49km on the return trip!