Fast charge avec frites: McDonald’s in France gets 150-200kW EV chargers

MacDonald’s, or “McDo” as the French say, is installing 2,000 new fast charging points across 700 car parks in France by 2025. Each McDonald’s charging station will offer 150-200 kilowatts of power, so you can recharge your car in about the time it takes to inhale a Big Mac and extra-large frites.

This speaks to a desperate need for fast charging stations in France. At the end of October last year, the country had more than 111,000 public charging points, but only 8% of them with a power rating of 150 kW or more, with most of those located a highway service stations. With the McDonald’s deal, the rollout in France has already begun, starting on the outskirts of Paris. The points will be provided by Izivia, the EV charging subsidiary of EDF, the companies confirmed in a statement yesterday. Pricing hasn’t yet been confirmed but will be “attractive” and competitive, according to the announcement.

France also now requires businesses with more than 20 car parking spaces to install at least one charging point, with the government targeting 400,000 public charging points by 2030, with 50,000 of those fast charging units. Advenir, a French government program dedicated to EV charging infrastructure, recently announced a further €200 million to add to its pot to expand the country’s charging points.

Christelle Vives, managing director of Izivia, said that the charging points will be “supplied by green energy (wind, solar, hydroelectricity) to guarantee the lowest possible CO2 levels.” Over the course of the 12-year partnership between Izivia and McDonald’s, the fast charging stations will provide an estimated 9.4 billion km worth of power, saving 1.7 million tonnes of CO2, she added.

Carrefour, a French supermarket chain, is also installing 5,000 points by 2025 while offering loyalty card holders free power for the first hours at 22 kW, which is enough to charge up a Renault Zoe.

McDonald’s has similar plans in place in Italy, Sweden, and the UK, the latter where they are targeting 10,000 chargers by 2030 in a deal with Instavolt.