Electric chargers in city centres: where do we stand?
France has passed the 200,000 mark for publicly accessible charge points: 200,045 as of 31 July 2026, up 15 percent in a year according to the Avere-France barometer, produced with the Ministry of Ecological Transition from Gireve data. But a national figure does not tell you whether you will find a free charger near your front door. Here is what is known about the big cities, with figures.
What INSEE says: the ratio to electric vehicles
In a study published in November 2025 (Insee Premiere no. 2082, May 2025 data), INSEE counts an average of 23 charge points per 100 electric vehicles in cities of more than 200,000 residents. The gap is wide: from 9 in Orleans to 40 in Grenoble. Among the largest cities, Paris has 24 points per 100 electric vehicles, Nantes 23, Lyon 17 and Marseille 15.
INSEE also notes that, all zones combined, there are about 2.1 charge points per 1,000 residents in urban areas against 1.6 in rural ones (21 and 16 per 10,000): cities have an edge, but a more modest one than you might think.
City by city: how many points for how many residents?
To go further, we recounted publicly accessible charge points from the national open infrastructure database (data.gouv.fr, consolidated version of 21 September 2026), after removing duplicates, and divided them by INSEE's 2023 municipal population. Caution: this database lists about 149,000 distinct points, against 200,000 counted by Avere-France. The figures below are therefore minimums, best read as orders of magnitude, and the ranking may change depending on which networks report their points.
| City | Charge points | Residents | Per 1,000 residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paris | 5,570 | 2,104,000 | 2.6 |
| Marseille | 940 | 886,000 | 1.1 |
| Lyon | 520 | 519,000 | 1.0 |
| Toulouse | 700 | 515,000 | 1.4 |
| Nice | 980 | 358,000 | 2.7 |
| Nantes | 200 | 328,000 | 0.6 |
| Montpellier | 460 | 310,000 | 1.5 |
| Strasbourg | 300 | 294,000 | 1.0 |
| Bordeaux | 1,050 | 268,000 | 3.9 |
| Lille | 260 | 238,000 | 1.1 |
| Rennes | 400 | 231,000 | 1.7 |
On this basis, Bordeaux (3.9 points per 1,000 residents), Nice (2.7) and Paris (2.6) sit above the national average of about 2.2. Toulouse, Montpellier and Rennes fall between 1.4 and 1.7. Lyon, Strasbourg, Marseille and Lille hover around 1 point per 1,000 residents, and Nantes closes the ranking with 0.6.
Two precautions when comparing: the ratio to population is not the ratio to the electric fleet (the one INSEE uses), and municipal boundaries leave out the large fast-charging stations built on the outskirts. A city can therefore look less well equipped than it actually is for its residents.
Where are the chargers, and how powerful?
The split changes a lot about practicality. Among the charge points listed in each city, we distinguish those installed on the street (along roads, in public parking spaces) from those in car parks (public car parks, shopping centres or private sites open to the public). In Lyon, about 84 percent of points are on the street, roughly 435 of the 520 listed. The same goes for 88 percent of points in Bordeaux, and close to 60 percent in Paris and Marseille. Conversely, in Nantes and Strasbourg most points are in car parks: only about 9 and 6 percent of them are on the street. A street point is in front of your home; a car park point means walking there and being able to get in.
On power, there are four categories. Nationally, according to INSEE, out of every 100 charge points: about 13 are slow (under 7.4 kW), 62 accelerated (7.4 to 49.9 kW, which covers most city chargers), 10 fast (50 to 149.9 kW) and 15 ultra-fast (150 kW and above). In cities, the share of fast charging, meaning points of 50 kW or more, varies widely: in Paris, fewer than 2 points out of 100 qualify (the offer there is mostly moderate power, from 7 to 22 kW), against about 20 out of 100 in Marseille and Lyon, and more than 40 out of 100 in Montpellier.
The practical side: what these numbers change day to day
Time first. At 7 kW, a vehicle recovers roughly 40 kilometres of range per hour: that suits overnight or several-hour charging, not a ten-minute stop. Fast and ultra-fast chargers can recharge in about half an hour, but there are fewer of them in the heart of cities.
Then availability. A street charge point is also a parking space: when it is taken, including by a car that has finished charging, you have to look for another. Depending on the network, overstay fees may be added to the price of the energy, which generally remains noticeably higher than at home.
No garage: is it workable?
It is possible, but it takes some organisation. Three avenues to explore before buying: charging at work, if it offers chargers; a charge point a few minutes' walk from home, to be checked on the official maps at different times of day; and, in a co-owned building, the right to a charging socket, which lets you ask for a charge point to be installed in the building's car park. If none of these is realistic, a recent hybrid or petrol car often makes more sense than an electric one.
What Compar'Car takes into account
That is why the profile asks whether you can charge at home, your type of trips and your annual mileage. In town, these answers weigh more than the sticker price: they steer the score of each vehicle in your selection, whether electric, hybrid or petrol, new or used.