electric car and transport, wire news

[moinsdewatt]

thanks to the moderation of suppressing the spammer above and killing the links.

Edit: Remundo has been there.

[moinsdewatt]

Renault to invest one billion euros in the production of electric cars in France

14/06/2018 Usine Nouvelle

The group wants to double the production capacity of ZOE and electric motors. The Douai site joins the French industrial electrical production card for Renault.

Renault is betting big on electricity… with France as a production center. The manufacturer announced Thursday, June 14 its intention to invest "more than a billion euros" by 2022 in the development and production of electric vehicles in France. "The acceleration of our investments in France for electric vehicles will improve the competitiveness and attractiveness of our French industrial sites", specifies the CEO of Renault and of the Alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi, Carlos Ghosn, in a statement.

In detail, the amount should primarily benefit four sites, including the Douai plant (North) in which a new Alliance electricity platform should be introduced. Objective: to create a "second Renault production site for electric vehicles". A breath of fresh air for the site, which suffers from strong global demand for SUVs, while it has specialized in the production of high-end cars such as the Espace, the Scenic and the Talisman.

In Flins (Yvelines), the only factory to produce the ZOE, production capacities should be doubled, while the production of 100% electric motors should outright triple in Cléon (Seine-Maritime), before the arrival of a new engine generation from 2021 on site. Clearly, production capacities in Flins will increase from 60 units per year in 000 to around 2018, while those of Cléon will increase to 120 in 000, against 240 at present.

ZOE success in Europe

Last site to benefit from this decision, Maubeuge. In charge of assembling the Kangoo ZE electric utility, the site should benefit from investments to ensure the production of the next generation of Kangoo. In parallel, Renault recalls its intention to hire 5 people on permanent contracts in France between 000 and 2017, part of which will fuel the transition to the electric vehicle.

Thanks to new investments, the group intends to consolidate its privileged position in the sale of electric vehicles. In Europe, Renault appears to be the market leader with the ZOE, which sold more than 2017 copies in 31. The French manufacturer indicates having a market share of almost 000% for the past year, thanks to increases in its double-digit registrations: 24% increase for all sales of electric cars, and 38% for the sole ZOE model.

https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/r ... ce.N707009

[moinsdewatt]

End of Autolib ': a heavy blow for Bolloré's batteries

24th June 2018

The end of the Autolib 'car-sharing service in Paris inflicts a setback on the Bolloré group's mobility services, and indirectly on its ambitions in the batteries to which they served as showcases, but for the group, the battle is not lost.

By manufacturing its own electric cars, the Bluecars, or by developing its car-sharing offer, Vincent Bolloré's group has always recognized that it was in fact targeting another market, that of batteries and energy storage.

The diversified French group (media, transport and logistics, electricity storage ...) has long been convinced that the mobility of the future will be electric and has invested a lot to develop its own LMP (lithium metal polymer) battery technology in a market world ultra-dominated by lithium-ion batteries of Asian origin.

He claims to have a nugget that could bring him a lot of money, given the strong growth in the market for batteries for cars, buses and storage of electricity.

For Michael Salomon, founder and director of the firm Clean Horizon, specialist in electricity storage, the LMP battery has "advantages and disadvantages which compensate for each other".

"It is safer and presents less risk of fire", but it must remain at a minimum temperature of almost 60 degrees permanently to operate, he told AFP.

Cars fitted with them always consume a little electricity, even when stationary, which means that they have to be left connected when they are not in use.

- Made in France -

The Bolloré group stresses that its batteries do not contain cobalt or rare earths, and that they are entirely made in France.

It is a technology "rather good", estimates Mr. Salomon, but "the problem is that it has few customers today", whereas the Asian competition, in particular Chinese, is more and more severe.

In the automotive sector, cooperation projects with Renault, announced in 2014 with great noise, were abandoned.

PSA still manufactures an electric model of Bolloré, the Citroën E-Mehari, in its factory in Rennes. But its circulation is very low: 500 copies must leave the chains this year and the common projects in the carsharing announced in 2015 with the first French constructor got bogged down.

The winning of the Autolib 'call for tenders and its successful launch in 2011 certainly represented tremendous publicity. "It was a way to prove that our batteries are working well, are resistant and safe," a spokesperson for the group told AFP.

This showcase allowed other conquests for car-sharing offers in Lyon, Bordeaux, Indianapolis, Turin, Singapore or Los Angeles ... Always with the group's electric cars.

But the tumultuous divorce in Paris will tarnish its image and cut off most of its activity on this market. Autolib 'was 4.000 cars in circulation, out of a total of 5.000 worldwide for the group.

- Bet on the future -

At Bolloré, we put things into perspective: the market really targeted is not car sharing "even if we have developed real skills, especially in computer systems and fleet management".

The heart of the business is electric buses, Bluebus, and the development of stationary energy storage systems to stabilize electrical networks facing the boom in intermittent renewable energy, the company says.

But these markets are just emerging. Bolloré has 80 electric buses in circulation around the world, including 48 in Paris, and is awaiting large tenders to operate its French factory with a capacity of 200 vehicles per year.

The Blue Solutions subsidiary, which carries out the battery activities, suffered a 26% drop in turnover last year, to 81 million euros, for a 19 million net loss. However, the Bolloré group, as a whole, is in good shape, with its 18,3 billion turnover and almost 700 million profit over the same period.

Beyond the figures, the mobility and battery activities "remain very important", "it's a bet on the future", in which the group has invested nearly 300 million euros per year since the year 2000, assures the spokesperson, stressing that the shutdown of Autolib '"does not call them into question".

https://www.romandie.com/news/Fin-d-Aut ... 930342.rom

[moinsdewatt]

First ultra-fast charging stations on French motorways]

AFP 26 / 07 / 2018

Two ultra-fast charging stations for electric cars have been installed on two areas of the A10 and A11 motorways, operated by Vinci, a prelude to the deployment of around 80 stations on all French motorways, Vinci Autoroutes, EG Group announced on Thursday and Ionity.

These two stations are equipped with six so-called very high power chargers (350 kilowatts), a first in France. They allow a vehicle to be recharged in less than 20 minutes, compared to more than 30 minutes for the terminals currently present on motorways, details a press release.

They are located in two service stations operated by EG Group (holder of the BP brand in France), the first station near Tours on the A10, and the other near Angers on the A11.

These terminals must allow all electric cars to CCS (for "combined charging system") and Chademo standards, to recharge their battery.

For the time being, recharging is free, but Ionity, which is piloting the deployment of these terminals, is working on the development of a paid framework from September, a spokesperson for the company told AFP.

Ionity is a joint venture created in 2017 by the German car manufacturers BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, Porsche and Audi, as well as the American Ford to develop a European rapid charging network.

Ionity has already started deploying its terminals in Germany (two stations), Switzerland (three stations) and Denmark (one station), and the company is targeting 400 stations equipped by 2020 across Europe, including around 80 in France.

At the end of 2017, it also signed a partnership with Shell to host terminals in some of its stations.

Many car manufacturers market electric vehicles, but they still remain a niche market, accounting for around 1% of new car sales in Europe. Their expansion is still hampered by the lack of charging stations, in particular rapid charging.

"The challenge today is to promote the development of the use of electric vehicles outside urban areas, by making long-distance journeys possible", explained Pierre Coppey, president of Vinci Autoroutes, quoted in the press release.

In addition to the Ionity initiative, other companies are developing ultra-fast charging stations. The Dutch company Allego started this month to deploy its first 350 kilowatt copies. The American manufacturer Tesla, which already has its own rapid charging network, plans to install such terminals in Europe by the end of the year.

Currently, France has more than 28.000 charging points accessible to the public (outside the homes of individuals and those reserved for employees of companies), including around 1.440 fast charging (more than 45 kilowatts), according to data from Gireve, a group of 'French players involved in electric mobility.

http://www.lepoint.fr/automobile/actual ... 84_683.php

[Remundo]

charging stations which will be charged, will not always work with your cards, and will force you to pay € 1/10 km of toll ...

here is an alternative: eat-less-auto / volkswagen golf-gte85-over-the-multifuel hybrid-SYCOMOREEN-t15053-40.html # p342946

[moinsdewatt]

German Post, unexpected pioneer of the electric van

By AFP - July 25, 2018

Small and electric, the “Streetscooter” is already incongruous in a Germany proud of its powerful sedans. But this van also sports the logo of Deutsche Post, which has outstripped the big manufacturers in urban delivery.

More than 6.000 of these yellow machines loaded with parcels now travel through German cities, out of the 49.300 vehicles used by the local Post Office, and the company has just opened a second factory to produce a total of 40 per day.

Wanting to improve its carbon footprint at a lower cost, Deutsche Post first tried to procure electric vehicles from national automobile giants, such as Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler.

But their delay in this niche prompted it to buy in 2014 a start-up that developed its own utilities, to the point of giving this project "a big boost" to electric mobility in Germany, said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, analyst at the Center Automotive Research.

"This van is less noisy, and fits better with its environment," boasts Miroslav Arapovic, delivery man for more than 20 years, maneuvering his Streetscooter in front of a post office sorting center near Frankfurt.

- Minimalism -

Smaller than traditional trucks, this minimalist machine has been designed for city delivery: the battery has a range of around 80 kilometers, which drastically reduces production costs.

It is not surprising that the big manufacturers, with their models cut for the road - therefore the distance and the speed - could not "meet the specific requests of the Post", explains to AFP Stefan Reindl, director from the Institute for the Economy of the Automobile (Ifa).

Their production structures are fairly rigid, dissuading them from embarking on small-scale projects, and they also tend to “cling their cars to technology”, underlines the expert.

Constrained to clean their air, some German municipalities - Hamburg first and soon Stuttgart - have banished from their streets the most polluting diesel engines, prompting logistics professionals to bet on electricity.

- “Zero emission” objective -

And the challenge is far from being limited to Germany: in London, according to a 2017 British study, the traffic of light vans has increased by 30% since 1993, while that of cars and taxis has declined since the early 2000s .

On the pollution side, “last kilometer” deliveries concentrate the problems. Not only does the current fleet run mainly on diesel, but its frequent stops, its low speed and its heavy load degrade the balance sheet in toxic emissions, according to the "Independent Transport Commission", hence the multiple recommendations in favor of electric .

However, the shift towards “zero emission” logistics took the historic manufacturers by surprise, opening up the electric utility market to Deutsche Post, which has been marketing its model outside since summer 2017 for around 40.000 euros.

The Aachen startup announced in late May the sale of 200 units to a British milk delivery company, and in early July electrician Westnetz, a subsidiary of Innogy, unveiled the acquisition of 300 vehicles in as part of a "development partnership".

StreetScooter is also developing a new, larger and more powerful model with the emblematic manufacturer Ford, reduced however to supplying chassis.

The awakening of the giants -

But this advance could not last, now that Volkswagen, Daimler or BMW, entangled in the scandals with repetition on their emissions of pollutants, put the double efforts to catch up.

In 2017, Daimler and the delivery company Hermes, for example, announced a partnership for the development of 1.500 vans, delivered by 2020.

.........

http://www.liberation.fr/futurs/2018/07 ... ue_1668677

[Bardal]

It seems so clear to me that one of the priorities in the fight against greenhouse gas emissions and pollution in urban areas lies in the electrification of the vehicles concerned that I do not understand why we are not tackling it faster.

The operation carried out by the German post office for its delivery vehicles could, with as much benefit, be generalized to all vehicles with the same usage profile: various light deliveries, light breakdown-service vehicles (in particular Enedis, Grdf, municipalities, artisans-convenience stores, couriers ...); this would have the second benefit of greatly expanding the market for this type of vehicle, allowing a very profitable series effect on the price of vehicles.

By slightly widening the reflection, and by specializing the vehicles a little more, we can design, without colossal investment:

- public transport, half supplied with electricity by catenary, half supplied by batteries, covering the entire area of ​​agglomerations.

- household waste services using the same network

- short heavy delivery links (Rungis-Paris type) also using the same network

- urban taxis, or better, automatic shuttles


etc, etc ..., that is to say 90% of transport except International Heavy Transport.


Sacred union against GHG? Hulot tells us ... Chiche, but not to do anything ...


PS In Germany, driving electric (or hydrogen for that matter) means emitting at least as much GHG as with diesel; but that's another story ...

[Ahmed]

The challenge is rather to reduce urban air pollution, therefore locally, even if it means emitting CO² elsewhere (this remark does not only target Germany, which only reflects a generality *).

[Bardal]

However, the German post office relies on its "carbon footprint" to develop this kind of machine.

But it is true that, in the absence of a coherent policy in this field, in Germany as in France and in Europe, the initiative comes exclusively from private companies or local authorities, all actors that one can quite easily suspect of 'com operations' or electoral aims, in the absence of an anti-GHG campaign.

And then, the urban atmospheric pollution, it does not lack interest either ...

ps Urban air pollution is due to transport for less than 19% (11% with diesel) in Paris; the rest is due to heating, contributions from neighboring agriculture, etc.

[Ahmed]

I am not saying that the reduction of urban pollution is devoid of interest, only that moving the problems is much more frequent than their resolution ...
Whoever the institutional actors are, the fight against GHGs falls under the category of wishful thinking, since at the same time a development of economic activity * is desired (which even possibly virtuous (?), Always ends at a certain level by no longer being so, due to the purely accounting aspect of the economy).

* Which explains what is noted in my first sentence.