France

The Renault-Nissan Alliance and EDF confirm an experimental electric vehicle project

To coincide with the presentation of the plan to deploy public charging infrastructure for carbon-free vehicles (announcement made by Jean-Louis Borloo, Minister of State for the Environment, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea), ADEME (the French Environmental and Energy Management Agency) has confirmed that it will support the project with €6.5 million funding.

The main project partners, the Renault-Nissan Alliance and EDF, supported by the Ile de France region and the Yvelines General Council, are proud to be able to carry out this full-scale experiment in collaboration with Schneider Electric, Better Place and a variety of other partners.

This project is made possible thanks to a technical and financial partnership involving all of the public and private organizations concerned, under the coordination of EPAMSA (public development authority for the Seine Aval area).

Approximately one hundred Renault and Nissan electric vehicles (saloons and light commercial vehicles) will be tested out by individual customers and professionals on the territory under the Opération d’Intérêt National Seine Aval, in Yvelines. Users will be provided with charging infrastructure at home and the workplace, as well as in car parks and on public roads.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance will supply the electric vehicles, conduct the experiment and study customer uses and associated services, particularly those linked to in-vehicle and external communications. EDF will help set up the infrastructure and analyze user behaviour towards charging and testing business models. Schneider Electric will help build the charging infrastructure and the related energy management mechanisms. Better Place will install and manage the battery switch stations and test the associated commercial offerings.

The details of the proposed SAVE project were submitted to ADEME under the request for proposals on carbon-free vehicles of June 26, 2009. As a result, ADEME has now revealed that the SAVE project has been selected for funding as an experiment to test operational electric mobility solutions.