France's public charging network keeps growing, but it is working less reliably. The September 2026 barometer that Avere-France publishes with the Ministry of Ecological Transition, compiled by Gireve, shows that chargers rated at 150 kW and above were technically available 88.3% of the time in September. In September 2025, the same barometer put that figure at 95.7%. Downtime on the fastest chargers therefore rose from 4.3% to 11.7% of the time, nearly three times as much.
How availability is measured
The barometer counts a charging point as available when it is neither under maintenance nor out of service. Occupied chargers still count as available. The rate is calculated over 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so the few sites that are not open around the clock pull the figures down slightly. The method is the same in both years.
| Indicator | September 2025 | September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| AC availability | 92.0% | 89.9% |
| DC availability, under 150 kW | 92.2% | 85.2% |
| DC availability, 150 kW and above | 95.7% | 88.3% |
| Points available 99% of the time | 69% | 63% |
| Points down for more than 7 days in a row | 7% | 9% |
The barometer also measures how often a driver can plug in straight away, meaning that at least one point at a site is free and working. That rate was 93% in September 2026, down from 96% in October 2025, and it has edged down over the past twelve months.
Automobile Propre, which reported the figures on 17 October, says operators are being hit by a wave of charging-cable thefts, in which cables are cut for their copper. The barometer itself gives no cause for the decline.
The network is still growing, but more slowly
France had 202,804 public charging points at 30 September, 13% more than a year earlier and, at 301 per 100,000 inhabitants, more than 300 for the first time. Growth has slowed, however. Since January, 17,301 points have been deployed, but the net count rose by only 2,759 between the end of July, when it passed 200,000, and the end of September. France's target is 400,000 public points by 2030.
The fast end is growing faster. France had 26,803 points rated above 150 kW, against 20,908 a year earlier, up 28.2%. Each public point was used for 32.7 sessions on average in September, against 25.2 a year earlier, and the electricity delivered by public chargers rose by more than 72% in a year. The barometer now also counts motorway sites separately: 4,471 points, or 2% of the network.
What it means for Tesla drivers
The barometer does not break availability down by operator, so it does not show how Tesla's Superchargers compare. It matters most where a Tesla trip in France depends on other networks, such as on routes with sparse Supercharger coverage or when a Supercharger site is full. In September, the average 150 kW-plus point was out of action 11.7% of the time, against 4.3% a year earlier, and much of that downtime sits in long outages: 9% of all points were down for more than a week in a row. Planning a second charging stop is now more useful than it was. From April 2027, new fast-charging stations will also have to display the price per kWh and the power they actually deliver.