PARIS (Reuters) -- The French government plans to make it easier for drivers of electric cars to charge their vehicles by unifying certain features of the country's various EV-charging networks by decree before the end of this year, financial daily Les Echos reported on Monday.
The government wants to make sure that owners can charge their EVs at all stations in the country without having to take out subscriptions to various EV networks such as the Autolib network run by Bollore, French state-controlled utility EDF and local authorities.
At the request of French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, several charging network operators - including Bollore, EDF unit Sodetrel, Engie unit Cofely Ineo, Bouygues Energy Services, Renault, and Vinci Energies - have created the Afirev association to boost network interoperability.
A new platform, Gireve, has also been created to exchange data and payments between network operators.
France has some 9,400 charging points and expects to have 40,000 by 2020, the paper quoted an official as saying.
