Funny enough I was reading about this last week after seeing this article Ringer
"Lack of agreement across Europe for a standard electric car plug and socket is threatening the existence of the electric vehicle (EV). That's the appraisal of Elektromotive, a manufacturer of electric charging points.
"In order to give people across Europe sufficient confidence in the EV market so that they will actually buy these vehicles, we need widespread agreement on standards – right now," says Elektromotive boss Calvey Taylor-Haw.
The trade association for European car makers, called ACEA, has said it will agree a standard at some point, but like everything involving big business or government, there's more procrastination than decision making happening.
The issue is that there are two types of socket being considered, with one in particular clearly in the lead, so to speak, among the European countries. Sadly, a few rogue states want the other.
The rogues are led by France, obviously. "At a time when the driving range of EVs is improving, allowing users to cover much greater distances, we have a situation where EV owners in one country could cross a national border and then find they can't recharge their vehicle due to the sockets being different," says Taylor-Haw.
Governments, local authorities and businesses aren't willing to invest heavily in charging infrastructures until a standard system is put in place. And with charging points not widely available, buyers cannot shake the 'range anxiety' associated with EVs, so are reluctant to buy them."
So it looks like we should Nuke the French again
