France leads the European EV chargers market

In the first nine months of this year, France added more public charging points for EVs than any other European country.

In the first nine months of this year, France added more public charging points for EVs than any other European country. There are now nearly 137,000 charging points available to EV drivers in France, with more than a fifth of them deployed by 2024. The momentum has been driven by the expansion of major networks (including a near doubling of the footprint of French power group EDF), increased competition from more than 50 new entrants, and low electricity prices. Advenir, a €320 million ($338 million) government program to subsidize the construction of charging stations that ends next year, may also have spurred the construction of charging points.

France, Europe’s third-largest EV market, is not the only country currently on a roll, with Belgium and the Netherlands both breaking 20,000 new charging points this year. But Germany and the UK have hit the brakes. In the first three quarters of 2024, the UK added just 8,000 new charging points, less than half the number in the same period last year. While EV sales in the UK are growing, high electricity costs for operators and grid costs are weighing on the economics of running charging sites.

According to New Energy Finance, the UK is the European market with the highest charging costs for new energy vehicles, with an average fast charging cost of $0.97/kWh. France has the lowest cost, at $0.54/kWh, and is one of the few countries where fast charging costs are cheaper than gasoline.

Charging operators are weighing the motivation and cost of expanding the network. The correlation between the number of charging piles, prices and new energy vehicle sales does not hold true in all markets, but the large-scale construction of charging piles and low charging prices can only benefit new energy vehicle owners.