French Road Trip in Mach-E a Very Positive Experience

[Dunc999]

Hi all,

Recently back from our first driving holiday in the Mach E from June 22-July 8, 2023.

Mine is a Dec '22 RWD SR.

We used Eurotunnel and the itinerary was:

Paris (central) for 3 days, car stayed in undergound car park!
Amboise Loire Valley 2 days, car stayed in car park.
Aubusson (Limousin east) 3 days - toured around area each day, including trip to Clermont Ferrand
Rochechouart (Limousin west) 3 days - again toured round and including on drive over from Aubusson
Ile de Re 4 days - small amount of touring (maybe 30 miles)
Abbeville overnight en route back to Eurotunnel then home (Surrey)

Experience was very positive, chargers easy to come across, but big variations in cost. I sought out Ionity or Tesla where I could as the speed reliable, and Ionity worked out at 27.5p/kwh with Ford app!

All of the chargers I used worked seamlessly with the Ford RFID card and charged back to my account.

Other reliablly fast chargers on motorways were Engie (54p/kwh) or Total Energies(69p/kwh), so not as cheap. Tesla was either .45 or .43 EUR/kwh, so cheaper than over here.

Tesla chargers at French side of Eurotunnel cable weren't long enough to reach (but fine at Folkestone), so had to use the more expensive Engie ones.

The smaller chargers in some villages, towns supermarkets seem to have a standing charge and then by time in some cases so need to be more wary next time.

Anyway, total mileage was 1605 miles for a cost of £172.80, so 10.7p a mile - being a geek I worked out that if I could have done it all on Ionity, it would have been £108.05, 6.7p a mile, so a big difference, worth seeking them out and there are more over there.

Roughly 2/3 was motorway or dual carrigeway driving, where we didn't hang about and were doing 75-80 on motorways and 70 on DCs, so not driving hyper-efficiently, so pleased with those figures.

The funniest was heading to Clermont Ferrand, where there had been lots of hills en route, and the when the battery hit 10% with 15km my wife was starting to get twitchy (I had a well thought out charging plan for in the city while we were sightseeing) Cue a massive descent all the way in, and when we parked up battery was back on 17%!!!

Car was packed to the gunnels and went like a dream, got some great looks (only saw one more in the whole time) especially at the Tesla chargers and I even got an OTA update while out there!! I still love it!


Conclusion is, wouldn't hesitate to do it again!

My previous BMW 520D still probably more suited to such a road trip though to be fair (especially to Alps in winter!)

 

[MellowJohnny]

Sweet! I lived in the UK for a year and had no ambition to drive on the "opposite" side of the road, and I assume you do this with relative frequency on the Continent, but still brave.

Did you find charge points were more plentiful in France vs. the UK? How busy were they? I've heard lots of complaints about long queues at the UK services...

Well done!

 

[Maquis]

Sweet! I lived in the UK for a year and had no ambition to drive on the "opposite" side of the road, and I assume you do this with relative frequency on the Continent, but still brave.

Did you find charge points were more plentiful in France vs. the UK? How busy were they? I've heard lots of complaints about long queues at the UK services...

Well done!

I never had a problem driving on the “other” side when I was in the UK. But the car always had the steering wheel appropriately positioned. I’d think it might be more of a challenge driving opposite with the driver’s position away from the centerline.

Apologies to the OP for the tangent!

 

[MellowJohnny]

I never had a problem driving on the “other” side when I was in the UK. But the car always had the steering wheel appropriately positioned. I’d think it might be more of a challenge driving opposite with the driver’s position away from the centerline.

Apologies to the OP for the tangent!

Right hand drive in France is gutsy

 

[Maquis]

Right hand drive in France is gutsy

I think so, too. My British friends don’t seem to have much trouble with it.

 

[Dunc999]

Thanks for the replies guys.
I think chargers were more plentiful over there than the UK, certainly more stalls at each location on the motorways. Typically on the motorways here there are only 2-4 bays at each service station. I haven't found a problem with queues though.
As for driving on the wrong side of the road, not a problem at all, apart from on the smaller roads when you want to overtake, you have to allow your passenger to make the call as they can see down the other side! It helps to have the instant acceleration of the Mach E though!!

 

[MyLittlePony2022]

Nice to hear stories of MME trips from across the pond. We need more of them. With the MME being sold in Australia, hoping we can get more people from Oz.

@Dunc999 Your trip sounds amazing. I hope your trip was filled with great food and wine. We did a car trip, years ago, from Champagne down to Avignon. My wife had so much fun. We ate and drank our way down France. Yum!

I lived in Ireland for a bit. I felt driving on the "other side" of the road was not that hard. I think we all have that fear of how different it will be and difficult to learn. If you are good driver, it just takes a bit of attention at first and then it become second nature. After the first 30 seconds of fear, you got it. My one Irish colleague would not drive with me again after we went driving down a narrow country road at 100 kph (~62 mph) and we had make room for a lorry going the opposite way. It was a choice of clicking mirrors or putting him close to the ditch. I think you could have heard him streaming the next county over. I cannot image driving a right hand car in a left hand drive country. That would be a bit odd.

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