Paris Electrified 2.0 – CleanTechnica

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About two years ago, March, 13–20, 2024, my wife and I spent 8 days in Paris. We observed how Paris had electrified at that time. I wrote an article for CleanTechnica that I would now call “Paris Electrified 1.0,” while I would call this one Paris Electrified 2.0.

This year (2026), we spent February 7^th to 18^th housesitting 2 donkeys, 3 geese, 8 ducks, and a dog in Central France. On February 18, we drove back to Paris and spent 36 hours there before I flew back to the US and my wife and daughter flew on for a wonderful stay in Tangier, North Africa. What progress in electrification has Paris made in the last two years?

Paris is swarming with EVs and ebikes. We saw numerous battery electric cars, trucks, buses, and bikes.

Historical Electric Travel in Paris

In 1975, 50 years ago, my wife and I lived in Paris for 6 months with our two little girls (see photo above). The younger of the two, 5-year-old Marta, is now 55 and just now she shepherded her 80+ year-old parents around Paris on this visit. In 1975, we had monthly Carte Orange transit passes which were good on the electrified Metro (Subway) system as well as on the buses. We frequently traveled around Paris and always used the transit system or walked. I don’t recall ever taking a taxi.

On this visit, we did use the Metro for one trip, as you see in the photos below. Traveling by Metro requires considerable walking and navigating stairs connecting between lines. There are virtually no escalators in the Metro system. I’m 85 and my wife is 83, so we are quite limited in the amount of walking and stair climbing we can do. Also, with three of us, hailing a ride was quite economical. Back in 1975, cell phones hadn’t been invented yet, so there was no such thing as Uber. In 2026, our daughter often arranged an Uber ride for us which would pick us up wherever we were standing and deliver us to the required address with payment already made via the Uber app. Both my wife and I have often used Ubers when traveling by ourselves in the States.

Traveling in Paris by Metro

Paris has an incredible electric powered Metro system. In Central Paris, you are seldom more than a short walk from a station. The cars are clean, usually not too crowded, and you can usually get to your destination station in 10 or 15 minutes. The photos below are from our one Metro trip in our 36-hour stay in Paris.

EV Ubers in Paris

Since both my wife and I and our daughter have Teslas, specifying an EV Uber was something we requested on occasion. We were pleased to learn that there is no price penalty to using an EV Uber in Paris. I was quite surprised to find that our first EV Uber was the BYD Seal that you see below. I am well aware that BYD recently beat out Tesla as the most sold BEV manufacturer in the world. However, they are not permitted to be imported into the US, so we don’t see them here. Our second EV-specified Uber car was the weirdly named Toyota bZ4X also shown below. The bZ4X is available in the US, but I have yet to see one here. Both the BYD and Toyota had very large display screens that go beyond what Tesla is using in my Model 3 and new 3s and Ys.

Not just are the Ubers electrified, but many of the taxis are battery electric as well.

Paris is swarming with EVs. We see Teslas everywhere, and other brands of EVs as well. Level 2 charging should be standard in Europe for any electrical outlet. I personally had installed NEMA 14-50 plugs in garages in northern Wisconsin and southern Utah that had 220V service for less than $200 each. With the proper connector for the EVSE cable that came with my Tesla, I was able to do level 2 charging at about 25 miles/hour, instead of the 4 miles/hour that I get on 110V. Since Europe is universally on 220V power, they should be able to get level 2 charging from every electrical outlet.

While in 1975 all the buses were diesel powered, in 2024 and again in 2026, we were seeing 100% battery electric powered buses all over Paris.

We observed not just the totally electrified Metro, the often-electrified buses, taxis, and Ubers, but also delivery trucks that are often electric as well. Then come the ebikes.

While electrified automobiles burn no fossil fuels while operating, ebikes are even more efficient. Once again, we saw Paris swarming with bicycles, many of them ebikes as we see below. Those of us who ride ebikes regularly know that they are a huge help going up hills. Much of Paris is quite level, but the hill going to Montmartre is steep and an ebike makes that climb a piece of cake. I regularly ride my ebike in the US 20 miles/day and I return home with a decent workout but without breaking a sweat. This is particularly useful for commuters who want to arrive at work fresh not sweaty.

When we lived in Paris in 1975, we actually owned a small Simca automobile. However, we used it only for weekend trips outside of Paris. It makes no sense for tourists to rent a car in Paris, because parking is too difficult to be useful. For tourists and residents who want to save the price of a taxi or Uber, there are ebike rental stands as we see below all over Paris.

With the nonstop Delta flight from SLC to CDG Paris only 40 min away for us, another trip to Paris is probably in the cards for us. Next time we would like to take a couple of grandsons who have never been overseas. In 2024, we were enticed by $500 fares, and this time a 14-day free housesitting stay in Central France.