Unless you live in one of the larger towns or cities in Deux-Sèvres, you’re unlikely to have easy access to public transport, so owning a car is almost essential to your life in France.
If you watch any French TV, you’ll notice that nearly all of the advertisements for cars are for electric vehicles, occasionally for hybrid cars and none for petrol or gazole (diesel) cars.
The EU has declared that the sale of new petrol/diesel cars will end in 2035. However, that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to buy petrol and diesel after that date nor we will see the complete end of internal combustion engines (ICE) from then onwards. Existing cars and the sale of older petrol and diesel cars will still be permitted after 2035. (See https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20221019STO44572/eu-ban-on-sale-of-new-petrol-and-diesel-cars-from-2035-explained)
The decline in production of new petrol and diesel cars has already started with manufacturers moving across to hybrid and fully electric cars and vans.
Also, there is an increasing number of zones à faibles émissions (ZFEs or low emission zones) in France where cars and vans are required to display Crit Air stickers. Some classes of vehicles are now banned from entering and circulating within town and city boundaries.
One example is Rouen which is on a popular route for people travelling back to UK from Deux-Sèvres via the ferries or the Channel Tunnel. It has a ZFE which covers the major routes through the city, even on the ones that bypass the city centre. You have to have a fairly recent diesel vehicle of Class 3 or lower otherwise you might face a fine of €68 for a car or €135 for a heavy vehicle.
I will say up front that driving an electric vehicle is quite a change, especially if like me you have been driving a petrol/diesel car for a few decades, initially a manual and more recently an automatic. There are many things you will need to know before you take the leap to the ‘other side’
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- What is it like to own and drive an electric car?
- Should you consider a hybrid instead?
- What are the advantages of going fully electric?
- What should you consider when buying an electric car?
- How do you charge your electric or plug-in hybrid car?
- ‘I don’t understand all this new terminology, Volts, Amps Kilowatts, etc…’
- How far can I travel before I need to recharge and does it take a long time?
All these questions and more I hope to cover in more detail in the next few months here in The Deux-Sèvres Monthly.
What makes me qualified to report on this topic? I went over to the ‘other side’ two years ago. I had been interested in electric vehicles for a number of years before that. I’m a retired radio communications engineer with an electronics background, so the technology wasn’t too difficult to grasp.
I hope I can share my experience and understanding with all the readers considering going electric. I’ll be breaking the topic down into bite size chunks and hopefully help you to make your own decisions about going electric.
Glossary of words associated with Electric Vehicles
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- ICE – Internal Combustion Engine – Petrol or Diesel or LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) (GPL in French)
- EV (VE) – Electric Vehicle (Voiture Électrique)
- BEV – Battery Electric Vehicle – Full electric, no petrol or diesel engine – Zero Emissions
- HEV – Hybrid Electric Vehicle, the vehicle typically will have a petrol engine as well as an electric motor and battery. The battery is charged from the engine or motor on deceleration
- PHEV – Plug In Hybrid Electric, the vehicle will have a petrol engine and a larger battery than an HEV, but the battery can also be recharged by plugging it in to a mains supply as well as it being charged on deceleration.