Abstract:

This report investigates the amount, type, and distribution of charging infrastructure that will be needed to support the transition of the electric passenger car, taxi, private hire vehicle, and light commercial vehicle fleets through 2035 to put France on a path toward achieving 100% fully electric vehicle sales by 2040. The number of chargers is estimated at the level of metropolitan France departments for six charging settings: home, workplace, depot, public normal, fast urban, and fast highway chargers. The resulting estimates for public normal and fast charging needed in France suggest that building sufficient charging infrastructure is a real but surmountable challenge. Powering 8.5 million battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in 2030 will require 350,000 public chargers, implying an annual growth rate of 28% from 2020. Overall, 8.6% and 12.7% of France’s 2030 normal and fast (respectively) public charging needs were in place by 2020 as shown in the figure below. Results varied greatly across France, with regions having between 1% and 25% of their 2030 overall public charging needs met through 2020. The results of the analysis lead to four high-level findings. i.e. (1) The growing French electric vehicle market requires a greatly expanded charging infrastructure network; (2) Urban areas, which tend to lead in electric vehicle uptake, show the largest increase in charging needs, but major infrastructure support is also needed across France’s rural areas; (3) Projected growth in energy demand for electric vehicles is manageable; (4) A new coordinated charging infrastructure framework could galvanize investments.