EV charging in France — networks, apps, and the IRVE map

France went from one of Europe's slower EV rollouts to one of its fastest growers in the space of three years. The IRVE (Infrastructure de Recharge pour Véhicules Électriques) national dataset — published by Etalab on data.gouv.fr — now lists well over 100 000 public charging points, ranging from 3 kW destination AC at town halls to 400 kW DC at autoroute service areas.

The operator landscape is more concentrated than in Germany but still requires picking the right app. A handful of national networks (TotalEnergies Charging Services, Electra, Driveco, Allego, Ionity, Tesla, Engie Vianeo) cover most of the high-speed grid; local opérateurs de mobilité layer roaming on top so you don't need an app per brand.

Main charging networks in France

The largest national CPO by count is TotalEnergies Charging Services, which is rolling out HPC at TotalEnergies fuel stations and on autoroute concessions. Electra is the pure-HPC challenger, focused on urban hubs and aire de service sites — typically 200–400 kW dispensers in well-lit canopies. Allego runs a mixed AC/DC footprint inherited from earlier IRVE tenders. Ionity covers the autoroute corridors with 350 kW at most Aire de service A-road service areas.

Tesla operates Superchargers in France and has opened most of them to non-Tesla CCS cars; the V4 stalls accept any CCS car directly. Driveco focuses on retail-park destination charging. Engie's Vianeo brand and Bouygues Energies & Services run multi-CPO contracts for municipalities. Several department-level réseaux publics (e.g. Réseau eborn in the south-east, MObiVE in the south-west, SDEY in Yonne) cover smaller towns.

Autoroute vs. urban — where the HPC is

Every Aire de service on the A-roads now has at least one HPC operator; many have two. The Paris → Lyon → Marseille A6/A7 spine is fully covered by Tesla, Ionity, Electra and TotalEnergies. The Atlantic coast (A10) and the Bordeaux → Toulouse (A62) routes are similarly built out. The northern A1 / A26 corridors and the cross-country A4 (Paris → Strasbourg) finished the big build-out in 2023–24.

Urban HPC is concentrated in retail-park hubs by Electra and Driveco. Paris's on-street network is mostly Belib' (a 7 kW AC kerbside network run by the city) plus a growing DC layer at Total fuel stations and parking garages; Lyon and Marseille have meaningful pole-mounted city DC.

Apps and the Chargemap question

Chargemap is the dominant French EMSP, with a flat tariff that works across most of the country's networks via roaming. It's convenient — one card, one app, one bill — but you'll pay 5–10 ¢/kWh more than via the operator's own app on most networks. For commuters who only charge at a single brand near home, the direct app is meaningfully cheaper; for occasional long-distance trips the convenience of one card often wins.

TotalEnergies, Electra, Allego, Ionity and Tesla all run their own apps with direct tariffs. Ionity's monthly Passport tariff at €5.99/month brings the per-kWh price into a competitive range for anyone doing more than ~250 kWh/month at Ionity. KiWhi and Freshmile are smaller pure-EMSP options popular among delivery and fleet drivers.

What's on the Plugsquare map for France

Plugsquare ingests the IRVE national CSV from data.gouv.fr daily. Operators visible on the map include TotalEnergies, Electra, Allego, Ionity, Tesla, Driveco, Engie Vianeo, Bouygues Energies, Lidl, Carrefour, plus regional public networks (eborn, MObiVE, SDEY, Sydev, etc.). Because IRVE is a single national feed, coverage in France is unusually complete — even tiny town-hall single-plug chargers are listed.