Operators have pledged to deploy an additional 240,000 electric vehicle charging points by 2030, French President Emmanuel Macron announced, as part of a drive to wean motorists off fossil fuel cars.
Macron called for a “collective mobilization” in France “to make the transition to electric vehicles natural and desirable” as part of a wider plan to switch up energy use in favour of electric power.
Operators have “committed to deploying 240,000 additional charging points” for electric vehicles, “including 60,000 fast and ultra-fast charging points” by 2030, he said.
With more than 185,000 charge points already in use across the country, the additional pledge will take France to a target of 400,000 within four years.
Charging operator Electra confirmed it will invest €300 million by 2030 to install 1,000 new ultra-fast charging points per year, and other investments have been announced by Lidl France, Leclerc, Renault, and Enedis, Macron said.
The push to develop electric vehicle infrastructure was one of several announcements Macron made during a meeting at the Élysée Palace on the electrification of energy use, intended to reduce France’s reliance on fossil fuels from 60 percent of France’s final energy consumption today to less than 30 percent by 2035.
A month after the publication of a government plan aimed at boosting electricity consumption, Macron reiterated that the objective is to make households and businesses less dependent on fuels from imported oil and to re-industrialise France while reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Electricity use in France is expected to increase from 27 percent of all energy consumption currently to 38 percent by 2035, thanks to nuclear and renewable energy production.
READ ALSO How France is forging ahead with solar power
The other key element of this strategy involves the deployment of heat pumps – “a pillar of our strategy” according to Macron.
EDF will allocate €80million to support individuals replacing gas or oil boilers, €80million to aid the purchase of electric trucks or the installation of charging stations, and the same amount to prepare industrial sites intended to accommodate large electricity consumers.
The main investment announced: the automaker Stellantis will begin producing a “new generation of electric vehicles” at its Mulhouse plant in eastern France starting in 2029 .
