Yahoo Autos Paris Is Doing Public EV Charging Right
One of the biggest hurdles facing widespread EV adoption in the U.S. is the issue of charging. Even in big EV-forward cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, there just aren’t enough public charging stations, and the ones that do exist are frequently broken, hobbled by annoying interfaces and glitchy payment systems.
But in many European cities, EV infrastructure is much farther along, as evidenced by a trip I recently took to Paris, France. Street parking in Paris is plentiful, and all throughout the city, curbside parking spots offer EV charging stations from the company Belib, which seems to have the ideal strategy for public charging.
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More than 1,200 Belib chargers are already up and running across Paris, with that number set to nearly double over the course of a decade. A rebrand of an existing charging company, Belib is run by oil and gas company Total Energies. Total has pledged to upgrade old equipment and install more fast-charging hubs in underground parking garages in addition to the current curbside network.
The charging stations are equipped with a variety of socket types so just about any EV can plug in, and there are different types of stations that cater to different needs. If you’re in a rush, nab a pricier 22-kW Boost charger; if you’ve got some time, go for a lower-priced Flex charger for 3.7 to 7 kW of juice. There are motorcycle-specific stations that can charge at up to 7 kW, and Belib is starting to introduce more ultra-fast 50-kW charging stations across the city.
What immediately struck me about Belib’s chargers is that, unlike most American charging stations, drivers use their own cables. This essentially eliminates the risk of finding a charging station with a broken cable, the wrong connector, or a cable that won’t reach the charge port on your car. Another benefit to the Belib network is that it doesn’t require a subscription or a smartphone app for payment (though an optional subscription plan offers drivers a slight discount). Subscribers can book a charging station in advance, and Paris locals also get cheaper charging between 8 pm and 8 am.
Also located everywhere throughout Paris are bicycles from Vélib, which has been operating since 2007 and is the world’s largest bike-sharing company. Vélib has 20,000 bikes in the Paris metropolitan area; at least 40 percent are e-bikes, and Vélib says these account for more than half of all miles traveled by customers There are 1,400 docking and charging stations — meaning, on average, you’ll encounter one every 300 meters — and the docking locations are chosen by the local government for optimal accessibility and space usage.
