Daily guide · FR · 2026-07-17
Charging an EV in France this week: what the prices actually said
All numbers computed from the week's published auction results at publication and frozen — this article is an honest snapshot, not a page that rewrites itself. Reproduce via the API.
The clearest signal this week in France is the gap between midday and evening. The cheap charging window, mostly starting around 12:00 or 13:00, averaged 51,62 EUR/MWh, while the evening peak averaged 150,13 EUR/MWh. That is a 66 % gap, and it held every single day of the week.
The midday window was exceptional on 11 and 12 July, when it fell to -0,01 and -1,06 EUR/MWh respectively, effectively free power in the middle of the day. By contrast, evenings climbed steadily towards the weekend, peaking at 204,51 EUR/MWh on 16 July. In practice, the reader who plugs in at midday and the one who plugs in during the evening are buying very different electricity.
The concrete takeaway is timing. Shifting a typical 150 kWh of weekly charging from the evening peak into the midday window is worth 14,78 EUR this week, or about 768 EUR over a year. If your car sits at home or at work during the early afternoon, set the charge timer for the window that starts around midday and let the schedule do the rest.
Every day at 13:00 CET, an auction sets electricity prices for every hour of tomorrow — separately, for each European bidding zone. Those prices routinely differ by a factor of two to three within a single day, because solar floods the middle of the day and demand peaks in the evening. If you charge an EV, that spread is money: the car doesn't care when it charges, only that it's full by morning. This is what the spread looked like in FR this week.
66%
cheaper to charge in the best 3h window than at the evening peak, on average this week
51.62 vs 150.13
€/MWh: best window vs 18–21h evening habit (week average)
≈€768
a year on the wholesale component, for 150 kWh/week of charging at this week's gap
Day by day: when the cheap window actually fell
| Day | Cheapest 3h window | Window avg €/MWh | Evening 18–21h | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-10 | 12:00–15:00 | 45.37 | 139.85 | −68% |
| 2026-07-11 | 12:00–15:00 | -0.01 | 137.63 | −100% |
| 2026-07-12 | 13:00–16:00 | -1.06 | 113.69 | −101% |
| 2026-07-13 | 12:00–15:00 | 58.43 | 136.14 | −57% |
| 2026-07-14 | 13:00–16:00 | 64.76 | 151.88 | −57% |
| 2026-07-15 | 12:00–15:00 | 95.17 | 167.23 | −43% |
| 2026-07-16 | 12:00–15:00 | 98.67 | 204.51 | −52% |
Local time. Notice the window MOVES — sometimes after midnight, sometimes midday when solar peaks. A fixed night tariff catches some of this; following the auction catches all of it.
Automate it in ten minutes
You don't need to read auction results at 13:00 every day — ask the API for the cheapest window and let your wallbox follow it. One call:
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"zone": "FR", "duration_minutes": 180}' \
https://voltcast.com/api/v1/optimize/cheapest-windowHome Assistant users: the Voltcast integration exposes the same window as a sensor you can automate against; evcc users get a ready-made tariff config. The Home plan (€9/mo) covers one zone of your choice with 7-day forecasts — the free tier lets you test everything on DE-LU first. And if you want to charge on a forecast of tomorrow before the auction even publishes, that's the P50 curve — scored publicly every day so you know exactly how much to trust it.
Method & citation. Prices are hourly means of published day-ahead auction results (native 15-minute periods averaged; ENTSO-E/SMARD, attributed). Wholesale-price component only — grid fees and taxes come on top and vary by supplier. Cite as "Voltcast Research, voltcast.com/guides/ev-charging-fr-2026-07-17".
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