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Category: electric vehicle

Mobilize Fast Charge, soon 200 charging stations for electrified vehicles in Europe

Posted on by Marine Ait Amrouche

Mobilize Fast Charge, soon 200 charging stations for electrified vehicles in Europe

Located near an expressway, Mobilize Fast Charge stations will allow the recharging of any electrified vehicle… for a short break to be enjoyed in a dedicated space. Régis Fricotté, Sales Director, tells us about this ultra-fast charging network.

  • brand vision
  • electric vehicle
  • energy transition

 

You know the popular belief that it is difficult to make long journeys in an electric vehicle? Mobilize Fast Charge is the answer, so that travelling in an electric car becomes a matter of course, especially across the different countries of Europe.

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far from the metropolises, smaller towns and rural areas carry the change

podcast mobilize
Posted on by Sébastien Besançon
OPEN WORLD

far from the metropolises, smaller towns and rural areas carry the change

(podcast in French)
  • electric vehicle
  • energy transition
  • shared mobility

 

In a society faced with the consequences of global warming and increasingly concerned about its impact on the environment, individual cars are becoming the symbol of an outdated era. So do the decision-makers in the various communities that make up the territories chose to respond to these issues? What solutions do they put in place to ensure their inhabitants’ mobility is both sustainable and practical?

Marie Huyghe, Mobility Consultant and membre of the SCOP Odyssée Création, Research engineer at Laboratoire CNRS-CITERES, and Anne-Lise Castel, Mobility Services Deployment Director, take you on a tour of mobility far from the metropolises.

Intervention of Marie Huyghe, Mobility Consultant:

What does mobility look like today in rural or peri-urban areas?

We can characterize this mobility with many things. I’m going to focus on two of them for the moment. First, the question of modal shares, i.e. what percentage of trips are made by car, public transport, etc.. Today in rural areas, we must admit that cars are mainly used, with a modal shares of around 80 or even 90% in certain areas.

So, the car still has a lot of room, and its modal share is not decreasing much. If we look at the various surveys that have been carried out on a national scale, there was one in 2008 and there was another more recently. We can see that the modal share of the car is not changing much, but we should note that, especially since lockdown, there are interesting signals around us. If we look at what is happening with bicycles for instance, and the use of the bicycle for daily commuting and especially for leisure trips, which is clearly increasing in these rural and peri-urban areas.

The modal share is a first indicator. The other point that is interesting to explore is the distances that people in one same household in rural areas travel today. If we look at the average distances and in particular the average distances for commuting, (i.e., going from home to work), we are at distances of around 15-17 kilometers. These are significant distances in terms of distance, time, and cost for households. That’s the first thing.

And we estimate that households travel around 30 kilometers per day. That is important. However, what is interesting to me when we talk about the evolution of uses and more specifically, of the shift towards active modes of transport such as cycling and walking, is to note that today, 40% of rural trips in France are less than 5 kilometers long. And 5 kilometers is considered a distance that can be covered by an electrically assisted bicycle. Not for everyone, of course, not all the time, but in any case, it is a distance that can be done differently than by car. And as I was saying, today, most of these trips are still made by car.

DO THE INHABITANTS WANT TO CHANGE THEIR HABITS?

There are two things. Their reaction: for example, you must look at what is happening at the moment, what is happening since the increase in fuel prices with the war in Ukraine, etc. We can see that more and more residents and employees are telling their elected representatives or employers about their mobility problems. So today, we can no longer consider that the dependence on the automobile observed in these territories and in the practices of households, is satisfactory. We knew that. Today, we have a whole part of the population that is excluded from this automobile system and that finds itself with difficulties to move, access to employment, access to shops, etc.

We knew that this all-car system was not satisfactory, but today, it is more and more obvious, and households are pointing it out. That’s the reaction. Then your question was: do they want to change their habits? The answer is not so simple. There is a tendency, when we talk about ecological transition, to put a lot on individuals, to say: “Go ahead, leave your car for a while and move on”. But for people to adopt other practices, they must first be in an environment that allows them to do so.

Today, I would say that there are three players who need to get to work. There are the local authorities, whose role today is to develop the environment in which we travel, to develop the territories in a way that is less dependent on the car, to develop alternatives to the car. There are employers who are a very interesting actor, to promote mobility and to encourage their employees to travel differently. And there are individuals, who are responsible for changing their habits, once again, when the environment allows it.

WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS OR INCENTIVES FACING THE TERRITORIES?

Has this changed in recent years? Yes, when I started working on this issue about ten years ago, I regularly spoke with officials who told me, “Don’t worry, there’s no problem. And anyway, we have the electric vehicle”. Then, it changed over the years, hydrogen vehicle, even autonomous vehicle. In any case, the decision-makers had a ready-made technical solution. And the environmental issues that you mentioned at the beginning were not considered at all. The impact of mobility in terms of greenhouse gas emissions was not considered a problem. All this, I think, is evolving and today, we can really say that mobility is considered as an issue that communities must take on. That has changed.

However, I would say that there are still some issues that are a bit taboo when we talk about mobility, like the reduction of the place of the car. Today, the car is not at all dethroned in the countryside. On the other hand, what we see is that local authorities are trying to develop complementary offers to the car, but not alternative offers to the car. They are not trying to replace the car, but simply helping to move around when cars are not available. I think that we are a bit in the middle of the road, and we can still go a long way.

But once again, there are many things that encourage local authorities to act, and, it must be emphasized, many calls for projects with funding from the government, France Mobilités, ADEME. And that really incite communities to develop solutions, strategic documents, etc.

What innovations do you see emerging on your side?

I wouldn’t say that we are talking about innovations. We have to stop hoping that we will find a solution, a miracle innovation that will replace the car, which is an absolutely magical tool. Today, we have nothing that will replace it. We are going to talk about a collection of solutions. What will make move without cars? It’s going to be a package of solutions: public transport, carpooling, active modes, carsharing, if we think about the evolution of car use.

And I mentioned earlier that we also need to work on the demand for mobility, not to try to ensure our travel in other ways, but also to try to reduce our travel needs. This will be done, for example, by developing localities in which its different functions residential, employment, trade, etc., are not at such great distances that we are obliged to go from one to another in a motorized vehicule. Thinking of territories that are a little denser, a little more mixed, is also what will make it easier to get around on foot or by bicycle.

ARE THESE CHANGES ALSO PROMOTED BY THE ARRIVAL OF AN URBAN POPULATION IN THESE TERRITORIES?

There are two things I would like to comment on. The first thing is that, yes, when people arrive in a village or a medium-sized city and say: “We come from a big city, and we don’t want to come here and have to buy two cars and depend on cars”. When we have these demands, this pressure, which is exerted on elected officials, yes, obviously, it helps to move the lines. Just like all the work done by cycling associations, walking associations, etc., when they put pressure on elected officials so that things move. That’s the first thing. Yes, the arrival of new inhabitants with new expectations, new values, other cultures of mobility, helps to change lines.

I want to go back to the question of remote work though. Remote work has been seen as a miracle solution. We always hope for miracles. What is certain is that it is interesting in terms of rebalancing private life and personal life. And indeed, on certain days of the week, we no longer have to endure long, restrictive trips to work. However, we should not consider that remote work leads to a decrease in the distances travelled.

What we observe is a bit the opposite, that individuals who work remotely regularly and several days a week tend to take more trips and to travel a bigger distance overall. Because they travel less for work, but they have other leisure activities, which means that they travel anyway. What we observe is that they are also inhabitants who will, for example, take advantage of the possibility of working remotely to move away, to live in rural areas, in suburban areas, etc. And people who used to travel, for example, by public transport or by bicycle because they were close to their workplace, now become dependent on the car. In any case, we must also consider the rebound effects that this will have.

CAN THESE CHANGES SET IN MOTION A VIRTUOUS CIRCLE THAT ALLOWS AN ADAPTED RESPONSE TO THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY?

Can this start a virtuous circle? Yes. In any case, we can hope that all the crises we are observing, economic crisis for individuals, environmental crisis whose consequences we perceive full force, we can hope that it moves people. But I would say, “One can hope.” Because when you look at what’s happening, yes, things are happening, but we’re still very far from the mark. As I said, the car is not at all dethroned today. We are very far from the mark. We need to go much faster; we need to do much more. Except that when we look at the obstacles today, there are financial obstacles for the communities. Today, the communities have difficulties to finance these mobility projects. That is the first obstacle.

There are difficulties in terms of skills and engineering today in rural areas, whether on a communal or inter-communal scale, which is more relevant to work on mobility. But we don’t necessarily have the skills, this means that we don’t have mobility officers who can work on this issue over the long term. And that’s the difficulty. Today, we operate based on calls for tenders that last two or three years. And the big difficulty is to carry out policies on the long term because we need the long term for people to change their habits, which is something that happens over time.

And there is also a third difficulty, I said financial, I said engineering and skills. It is also, I think, that for some elected officials, the question is so enormous. They are simply asked to change a system that has prevailed for 60 years and that was considered satisfactory for 60 years. And they are being asked to change it completely. They are also being asked, in a certain sense, to oppose or impose constraints on their fellow citizens and voters. It is clear today that it is extremely difficult for these elected officials to move forward with this issue. In concrete terms, there is a real need for support for these loalities, on the part of the State, on the part of the regions and on the part of training institutes that will provide skills and bring a little confidence to these elected officials and decision-makers and tell them: “Yes, you can act at your level”.

Intervention of Anne-Lise Castel, Mobility Services Deployment Director:

How are Renault and Mobilize adapting to the diversification of mobility in rural and suburban areas?

Already, I think that rural mobility is evolving because, more and more, people are sensitive to the use of the automobile. On the one hand, cars are becoming a rare and expensive product. This is due to the crisis in components that we are experiencing at the moment, and also to the fact that people do not use their cars very often. There is a pendular movement when the citizens go from their place, their city, their house to their place of work, can put their vehicle down, or even take a public transport afterwards. And their vehicle is not used 90% of the time. It’s a means of transportation which is quite uneconomical when you acquire a vehicle. What we offer at Mobilize is not to acquire the vehicle, but to rent it for certain services and to pay only for its use.

In other words, we will share means of transport that are private means of transport in addition to public means of transport. And these are requests that we have more and more from cities, including small towns that wish to make car-sharing vehicles available to citizens. So that they can use car-sharing, for example, for commuting, or also to make more spontaneous trips during the day, without necessarily having to buy a vehicle. So, the user only pays for the use of his mobility, often in addition to public transport.

What proposals have you put in place with the territories to meet these challenges?

One example is the city of Nice, which is one of the major cities we have been working with for a few years now, with the Mobilize Share brand, which offers this car-sharing service that can be taken almost anywhere in the city. And in these cases, it is the local Renault dealer who owns the vehicles, who makes these vehicles available to the city of Nice on the public space. These vehicles on the public area have reserved spaces. This is the partnership that we can have with the city of Nice, for example.

And the citizens can take these vehicles, open them, thanks to a Mobilize Share application, and pay according to the use they have made of them. We also work with small towns in rural areas. I’m going to mention a small town called Luitré-Dompierre, which is in the west of France, and which came to us to have a few vehicles to offer to its citizens to facilitate their mobility. We are talking about a few vehicles, between 2 and 5 vehicles.

The same thing is happening – and it is working well – in Belgium, where the local dealer is becoming a player in local mobility and is offering this service to the municipality that wants it. The municipality, and here I am quoting the case of Belgium, wanted to use and pay part of the rent for these vehicles for its own needs. For its employees, so that the people working at the town hall can travel and work during the day. They book these vehicles for certain periods of time and the rest of the time, they are made available to citizens who can book their own vehicle with the application. And as I told you, they pay for the use, and put the vehicle back where they found it. This benefits everyone, both for the professional needs of the city hall employees and for the personal and professional needs of the citizens who live in these small towns.

What are the challenges of this new world of mobility and what is the role of Mobilize to meet these challenges?

Mobilize is really about making mobility accessible to everyone through car sharing, shared mobility, but also accessible, sustainable mobility since most of our vehicles today are electric vehicles. It is accessible through an application, but it is also accessible in terms of costs since users pay per use and do not own the vehicle. So the idea is really to move to another mode of mobility by proposing mobility that can be used as we wish, easily, and for which we only pay for use.

And this will be the last word. Thank you, Anne-Lise Castel and Marie Huyghe, for sharing your ideas and thoughts with us. Thank you for following us and see you soon for new episodes of Open World with Mobilize and Usbek & Rica.

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chap. 2: the battery… what are its (super) powers

Posted on by Marine Ait Amrouche

the battery
[chap. 2] what are its super-powers?

Artefact is the video series conceived by Mobilize that tells the story of mobility through its objects.
Discover the episode focused on the battery of the electric vehicle. Artefact tells you all about this essential link of low-carbon mobility!

  • electric vehicle
  • energy storage
  • energy transition

 

This episode on the battery is broken down into two videos. Here, in the second chapter, Artefact invite you to discover the batteries’ superpowers in the service of the electric grid. Charging your electric vehicle while reducing its impact, is it possible? What is the “second life of batteries”? Mobilize shares its solutions to make the electric vehicle batteries a boost for the energy transition.

 

 

Previously, in the first chapter, Artefact explained the manufacture and operation of batteries. Check it out!

 

the battery
[chap. 1] what is it?

What is a battery? How does it work? How are they made? What happens to them at the end of their life? With Mobilize, the basics of electric vehicle batteries will no longer hold any secrets for you!

watch the video

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chap 1: the battery… what is it?

Posted on by Marine Ait Amrouche

the battery what is it? [chap. 1]

Artefact is the video series conceived by Mobilize that tells the story of mobility through its objects.
Discover the episode focused on the battery of the electric vehicle. Artefact tells you all about this essential link of low-carbon mobility!

  • electric vehicle
  • energy storage
  • energy transition

 

This episode on the battery is broken down into two videos. Here, in the first chapter, Artefact explains the manufacture and operation of batteries. What is a battery? How does it work? How are they made? What happens to them at the end of their life? With Mobilize, the basics of electric vehicle batteries will no longer hold any secrets for you!

 
Want to learn more? The second chapter will go deeper into the benefits of the electric vehicle batteries in regard of the energy transition… Check it out!

the battery what are its super-powers? [chap. 2]

Charging your electric vehicle while reducing its impact, is it possible? What is the “second life of batteries”? Mobilize shares its solutions to make the electric vehicle batteries a boost for the energy transition.

watch the video

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from microwatts to big impact

Roch Drozdowski-Strehl, Managing Director of the Institut Photovoltaïque of Île-de-France, and Yasmine Assef, Performance Director of the Energy Department at Mobilize, take you on a journey to discover the immense potential of stationary storage!

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from electric car battery to energy storage: a virtuous cycle

cycle vertueux
Posted on by Sébastien Besançon
TOP PLAYER

from electric car battery to energy storage: a virtuous cycle

Amaury Gailliez, Battery Business & Operations Director for Mobilize and Matthew Lumsden, CEO of Connected Energy, explain how the two companies collaborate on giving a second life to electric vehicle batteries for energy storage systems. The result? A virtuous circle for end-customers and energy systems.

  • electric vehicle
  • energy transition

What is the nature of the partnership between Mobilize and Connected Energy?

Matthew Lumsden: Connected Energy develops and deploys commercial E-STOR energy storage systems for customers with large-scale storage needs. In a nutshell, we take multiple electric vehicle batteries and link them so they can operate as a larger unit.
For more than 7 years, we have worked with Renault Group to repurpose electric vehicle batteries that have reached the end of their life Because at this stage, the batteries are still working extremely well and find a new life in stationary energy storage applications.

Amaury Gailliez: Our commercial and logistics partnership with Connected Energy aims to make the most of our batteries’ lifespan.
A battery has a first life within the electric vehicle. Its second life is an additional period of use that can last up to 10 years. This not only reduces the carbon footprint of each battery,.but also facilitates access to energy storage on a large scale.

matthew lumsden
Matthew Lumsden, Chief Executive Officier, Connected Energy
amaury gailliez
Amaury Gailliez, Battery Business & Operations Director, Mobilize

What are the main benefits of using electric vehicle batteries for energy storage?

AG: Our batteries are engineered for very demanding usage, which is originally automotive use. Therefore, they are designed to be durable and reliable. When our batteries no longer operate at full capacity, they still deliver high performance in stationary use. It’s hard to think of a better use for them, given how essential energy storage will become to ensure the power grid is responsive and resilient.

ML: More and more electric vehicles on the road means more and more storage units for the future, which can be reused instead of buying and/or manufacturing new batteries. Meanwhile, the battery’s exacting design standards proposed by Mobilize guarantee that we’re offering very safe and reliable products. Linking these batteries together into integrated units, we can then use them to store renewable energy, balance the grid during peak load times, and so on. This suddenly makes energy storage much cheaper, more readily available and more accessible to all. Developing energy storage also means developing affordable, low-carbon electricity—which is good news for all sectors, including electric mobility! It truly is a virtuous circle.

Could you give us some examples of the benefits of this virtuous circle for end-customers of both Mobilize and Connected Energy?

ML: Integrating our supply chain with Renault Group and Mobilize’s makes it easier for us to provide our solutions to more and more customers. They can be utilities seeking to deploy storage solutions for their own consumers, or industrial groups who want to store power from their on-site generation facilities as a backup.
We also cater to companies with specific requirements. Electric vehicle charging stations, for instance, often need backup power because fast-charging multiple cars at once puts a strain on the grid. Organisations that need increased resilience to maintain critical functions in case of grid failure, such as water companies, are another example.
What these use cases all have in common is that they support a more reliable, responsive, sustainable and efficient power grid.

reconditionnement batteries renault flins
E-STOR 60/90 container installed at Statkraft’s Rheidol hydroelectric power station (Wales)
usine renault
Battery reconditioning line at the Renault Group Refactory in Flins (France)

AG: As for Mobilize, working with Connected Energy opens the door to optimising production and logistics. The latter is a crucial link in the chain as batteries are very heavy, cumbersome, and involve all kinds of safety protocols to manipulate them. Having an integrated supply chain enables us to prepare batteries’ second life on a massive scale.
These efficiency gains will be passed on to buyers, who will enjoy a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of both battery and vehicle. This, in turn, contributes to make the vehicles more widely accessible and to putting more and more of these future storage units into circulation. In the end, it truly is a win-win-win for manufacturers, customers, and the environment.

What future developments do you expect to see in the use of electric vehicle batteries for energy storage?

ML: From a business perspective, I believe the growing availability of batteries will keep driving larger-scale energy storage projects as well as large numbers on industrial and commercial sites. For instance, we currently have E-STOR systems operating and being built with capacities of between 60 kW and 6 MW. But we expect to be deploying commercial 20MW/40MW systems by 2024. Ultimately, I expect energy storage will become a normal part of energy consumption for many organisations. Our objective is to maintain its commercial viability relative to other technologies.

AG: We are looking at truly enormous potential, that much is certain. Look at the growth of battery capacity: we started from cars with 22 kWh batteries, and soon we will reach the 100 kWh mark. Even if those were to lose 20% of their capacity during their first life, that is still a lot of power to draw on! The millions of electric vehicles that will take to the road in coming years represent millions of second lives to support a more efficient and responsive power grid.

 

Copyrights: Renault Communication Brésil, Connected Energy, Roland Mouron

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smart charging: when the mobility and energy sectors meet

smart charging mobilize
Posted on by teqsup
TOP PLAYER

smart charging: when the mobility and energy sectors meet

Smart charging not only enables electric car drivers to save money, but it also plays a role in energy transition by helping to balance out the power grid. Alain Thoral, Director Mobilize Energy Solutions, explains.

  • electric vehicle
  • energy transition

You’re developing the smart charging device that notably equips the Renault Zoe and Megane E-TECH Electric. How does it work?

First, let me tell you that smart charging is hardly science fiction; it is here today. Many of our customers are already using it: with the Mobilize Smart Charge app accessible to all Zoe users in the Netherlands, in France and in Belgium. Since the arrival of the 100% electric Megane E-TECH this year, thousands of customers have been using Mobilize Smart Charge. They benefit from the most attractive off-peak tariffs, are likely to receive cashback, i.e. to be paid for using the application, and help the electricity network to pass peak demand more easily.

Smart charging is recharging your electric vehicle battery at the right time thanks to your car’s connectivity. This means triggering a charge cycle to avoid stress on the electricity grid, to promote the use of renewable energies and to enable everyone to better use their own solar production. In other words, charging becomes flexible and involves the electric car in balancing supply and demand on the electricity grid.

Why is it important for the power grid to be balanced? And what is the interest for the user at the time of recharging his/her Renault Zoe for example.

The energy sector is facing two trends: on the one hand, an increase in electricity demand with the rise of electric transport, and on the other hand, the development of renewable, intermittent, scattered energies, which are much more difficult to control than conventional channels (nuclear, hydraulic or gas). As a result, managers of electric grids are faced with a higher demand and more fluctuating electricity production. However, a real-time balance between consumption and production is essential to keep the power grid functional. This means a constant frequency of 50 Hz.

In this context, the arrival of electric vehicles on the market should not be seen as an added constraint, but as an opportunity! This is because adapting an electric vehicle’s consumption habits is relatively simple. When the car is plugged in long enough, it transitions into smart charging mode.

Smart charging also allows the driver to reduce the cost of using their electric vehicle. In practice, it saves drivers from having to switch subscriptions when electricity needs increase, or from paying too much for electricity. It can even get drivers paid for having helped rebalance the grid.

 

 

“With bi-directional charging, the car will be an integral part of the power grid. It will store renewable energies surpluses and send it back into the grid when consumers need it most.”
Alain Thoral
Director Mobilize Energy Solutions

What is Mobilize’s role in the field of energy?

Multiply the current 40 kWh stored by the battery of Zoe E-TECH Electric by a fleet of several thousand electric vehicles: you obtain a significant energy bank that will help stabilise the grid and assimilate renewable energies.

Charging is not only smart, it’s also reversible. Soon, with bi-directional charging, the car will be an integral part of the power grid. It will store renewable energies surpluses, and send it back into the grid when consumers need it most. The vehicle-to-grid (V2G) principle is key to rolling out electric vehicles on a large scale and at reduced costs.

Several Zoe prototypes with this V2G technology onboard have been in circulation in Utrecht, the Netherlands. They can transform direct current (DC) from the battery into alternating current (AC) to be used by the grid. All our customers will soon be able to benefit from this, as we will launch V2G on new Renault Group electrified models from 2024.

 

 

What are the challenges that need to be met in order to boost the interaction between the electric vehicle and the power grid?

Connectivity is the first step. With our smart charge smartphone apps, we have chosen to make our cars connected, without having to depend on the station connection.

But besides the technical aspects, the bigger challenge lies in how we work. At Mobilize, we go beyond automotive, because the stakes behind the electric vehicle pertain to multiple areas: mobility, energy, data, locality, accommodation, etc. Innovation has to go through collaboration. We bring different stakeholders together even when they are not used to working together.

This includes large companies as well as startups, network providers, electricity suppliers, data specialists, and of course public decision-makers, on different scales. For example, we are currently working on the issues behind interoperability and network integration, and we’re participating in the discussions around next-generation regulations. The electric vehicle, with its smart charging, especially reversible, has a real place in the energy market!

A good relationship between all of the value chain’s players is paramount, and the interest of the customer must be kept at the centre of all discussions. In short, the adventure is only just beginning.

 

Copyrights: Halfpoint, Renault Group

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the first all-electric boat on the Seine

bateau seine mobilize
Posted on by teqsup
TOP PLAYER

the first all-electric boat on the Seine

The company Seine Alliance has converted one of the vessels in its fleet, the “Black Swan”, into the first all-electric boat designed to navigate the Seine. The result of a partnership between Mobilize and integrator Green Vision, it is propelled by second-life batteries from electric vehicles. This is a project that heralds a new generation of “zero emissions” boats. Seine Alliance CEO Didier Spade answers our questions.

  • electric vehicle
  • energy storage
  • energy transition

What is Seine Alliance and how is it committed to sustainable development?

Having operated on the Seine for some 30 years, the company – under the brand name “Paris Yacht Marina” provides its clients with a quayside loft space and moored boats at the Port de Grenelle in Paris’ 15th district. Sustainable development is in our DNA. We have always sought out the most environmentally-friendly propulsion solutions for our boats. On that note, we’re the first company to have embarked on the process of going electric with our entire fleet, which is set to be complete by 2024.

Is the Black Swan electric boat operational?

Sure! It is an elegant offshore that offers a smooth cruise on the Seine, in the heart of Paris. It’s propelled by two electric motors powered by second-life battery modules from Renault vehicles, notably the Kangoo E-TECH Electric. That means no engine noise, no smell from fumes and no environmentally-damaging emissions. All in all, it’s a unique passenger experience! The Black Swan, which is moored at Port de Grenelle, has room for 10 people, including on-board service, for 2-hour cruises between its home port and the Île Saint-Louis. We are aiming to run 150 to 200 cruises per year.

The challenge is first and foremost to show that it’s possible to run all-electric boats powered by second-life batteries efficiently and reliably… And to make all boat-owners want to go electric.

What made you opt for second-life batteries from electric car battery recycling, and why partner with Renault Group?

Wastefulness is destroying our planet. We’ve got to try to use our natural resources in a smarter way. And there’s actually no point in using new batteries to run riverboats. With second-life batteries we can easily reach the required speed, which is limited to 12 km/h in Paris, and charge them between cruises. There are no weight issues, so we can install more batteries to offset the difference in capacity without affecting the boat’s performance. With this in mind, it was only natural for us to partner up with French manufacturer Renault Group, an electric vehicle expert committed to the circular economy of its batteries, and more particularly with its Mobilize brand specialising in energy transition. Green Vision is providing us with technical guidance. This is the first time that three French companies have teamed up to develop a system like this. It’s a real challenge that’s inspiring big ambitions!

What are the challenges facing this pilot project?

First and foremost: to show that it’s possible to run all-electric boats powered by second-life batteries efficiently and reliably. The challenge is to make all boat-owners want to go electric. In Paris, 150 boats could potentially be optimized with electric or hybrid technology.

We want to raise awareness of the subject with the authorities, too, starting with the bodies that manage French waterways. This is so that the regulations, which are currently pretty restrictive for boats carrying more than 12 passengers, can be revised to give a fleet of electric riverboats the chance to develop.

Do you think you can apply this technology to other projects, notably that of the new ship France that you’re involved with?

The new France* is set to be a revolutionary ship, so it has to have a propulsion system that performs very well in terms of environmental impact. The appeal of second-life batteries is obvious – not least for maneuvers in ports and for the optimization of on-board power, which includes the electricity consumption of the galley, lighting, air conditioning, etc. As there are no weight issues with liners, loading one up with several tons of batteries is something we can consider.

More generally, this is a major opportunity to consider at a time when combustion engines are prohibited in some parts of the world, such as in a number of Norwegian fjords for example.

What does the future of river boating look like to you, especially regarding electric boat motor, in Paris and other cities worldwide?

The general shift towards electric energy, amplified by increasingly restrictive environmental standards, is irreversible. Provided that regulations are revised, battery-powered electric propulsion is already perfectly suited to some activities, like floating restaurants that navigate at low speed over lunch and in the evening. That said, for towboats and self-propelled boats, which make long crossings at full throttle, there is no realistic solution as yet. But research is making good progress. Like when aviation was in its infancy, there’s every reason to be hopeful!

 

* Le France is a former French transatlantic liner commissioned in 1912.

 

Copyright: Seine Alliance

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giving a second life to electric car batteries

eolienne mobilize
Posted on by teqsup

giving a second life to electric car batteries

Amaury Gailliez is Battery Business and Operations Director for the Mobilize brand. What’s one of his main tasks? Giving a second life to your electric car battery, often for stationary use.

  • electric vehicle
  • energy storage
  • energy transition

What’s your department’s role in the life cycle management or even the recycling of electric car batteries?

At Renault Group and Mobilize, we are responsible for batteries, from their use in the car up until the end of their lifecycle. This includes its financing by the customer, its guarantee, but also its repair if necessary, which takes place in the Renault Group Refactory in Flins.

After all that, i.e. after its life in a vehicle for automotive use, the battery still has an average recharge capacity of 70%… which is no mean feat! This is where the Battery Business and Operations Department comes in. We recover the battery and give it a second life, for many more years of use before the final stage of recycling.

What potential second lives does Mobilize find for Renault Group electric vehicle batteries?

A battery is often repurposed for stationary use, which requires less power than mobile and especially automotive use. A battery is often reused in private residences or in larger public buildings. For the most part, they are used to store energy from local solar panels or wind turbines. Batteries charge when the sun shines and the wind blows, so that no kilowatt of green — and free — electricity is lost!

“Second life batteries charge when the sun shines and the wind blows, so that no kilowatt of green — and free — electricity is lost!”
Amaury Gailliez
Battery Business and Operations Director, Mobilize brand

We also use second-life batteries to boost certain electric vehicle charging stations. This is the case for quick-charging terminals along the motorway, which need a lot of energy over a short period of time. The operators of these terminals can therefore reduce their energy costs. Several such stations are up and running in Germany and Belgium, and we have recently announced the installation of battery containers associated with the Mobilize Fast Charge project: the new ultra-fast charging network in Europe.

There are also other applications for the electricity grid, including large-scale stationary storage systems called Advanced Battery Storage. Their goal is to manage the electric supply-demand balance in order to keep the network stabilised at 50 Hertz.

Finally, we even find second lives that keep our batteries moving! They power a refrigeration system on Kangoo and Zoe E-TECH Electric…, or even run electric boats.

Why should we give a battery a second life?

The main reason is to reduce the battery’s environmental impact. Instead of using the battery only for the life of the vehicle, it is given a second life of at least another 10 years. This makes it possible to postpone the need to recycle. In addition, the repurposed battery is often used to store green electricity, which favours the rise of renewable energies.

There is also an economic impact. This second life gives added value to the battery. This is important for making electric vehicles more and more affordable.

Companies that choose to buy a second-life battery from us are also getting a deal since they are paying about 30% less than they would for a new battery for stationary use. These are very robust batteries, designed in line with demanding specifications. Once the storage system has been developed, our batteries are immediately adapted to stationary mode.

What would be Mobilize’s most emblematic achievements in the field of second life batteries?

There are many, as we have seen! What is exciting is that our achievements concern applications on very different scales…

There are small-scale systems, such as the production of non-polluting generators, developed in partnership with the start-up betteries, from battery modules at the end of their automotive life, assembled in our Refactory in Flins.

There are medium-scale systems, such as the local electricity network in Belle-Île-en-Mer (France), designed by Morbihan Energies and Mobilize, which relies in particular on stationary storage in second-life car batteries to make maximum use of green electricity from solar panels.

And of course, there are large, even very large-scale systems such as stationary storage (which we call “Advanced Battery Storage”) with a capacity of almost 20 MWh in France and 3 MWh in Germany. Second life batteries are installed in several containers connected to the high voltage distribution network, to help it use as much green electricity as possible as soon as it is produced from renewable energy.

For Mobilize, the applications for energy storage in second life batteries from electric vehicles are therefore almost endless.

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towards decarbonation of our mobility

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towards decarbonation of our mobility

The first solar-powered plane trip around the world? You can thank him for that. When Bertrand Piccard isn’t advising the Pope, global leaders, or economic giants, he’s busy with another grand pursuit: namely, the reconciliation of economics with ecology.

  • design
  • electric vehicle
  • energy transition

As the aviation world undergoes a major existential crisis, Bertrand Piccard, aeronaut, psychiatrist, and president of the Solar Impulse Foundation, is busy holding interviews and roundtable discussions around the possible futures for an industry that’s being forced to reinvent itself. “Let’s not give in to dogmatism or the temptation of naming a scapegoat. If there’s one industry that can rise to the challenge of its own transformation, it’s the aeronautics industry,” he and world aerobatics champion Catherine Manoury wrote in an op-ed for French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche. But it’s not just the future of the aerial industry that Piccard concerns himself with. Lately, he’s got a new interest: the democratisation of hydrogen cars.

bertrand piccard
Bertrand Piccard, Swiss aeronaut and founder of the Solar Impulse Foundation

Profitable solutions that protect the planet

Dozens of business leaders and top-tier investors have already made their case to European authorities for the necessity of a recovery plan focused on a digital-powered, green transition. “Delivering Europe’s long-term ambition to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050 requires an extensive set of urgent measures to scale up action. From a business and investor perspective, clarity on the net zero transition pathway and timetables for each sector, as well as policy that enables substantial investments in carbon neutral solutions is essential. This in turn would provide us with the confidence needed to invest decisively at the necessary pace and scale to reduce emissions, create decent green jobs, drive innovation, and accelerate the rebuilding of a resilient zero carbon economy,” reads the letter signed by the European directors of companies like Microsoft, Unilever, and even IKEA. Among the signatories listed is a certain Bertrand Piccard—and for good reason: he’s been working hard on coming up with solutions and funding for such a green recovery plan. His foundation, Solar Impulse, is dedicated to presenting decision-makers with profitable solutions that help protect the environment. Today, the foundation boasts a selection of 1,200 solutions, plus 400 bearing an official ‘Solar Impulse Efficient Solution’ label. The selected solutions include sustainable technologies within the domains of air pollution, industrial manufacturing processes, water, agricultural production, and last but not least: mobility.

Carbon-free mobility: and if it was time for hydrogen cars?

When asked about the future of transport, Piccard responds: “Hydrogen-powered mobility is not a solution for the future, it’s a solution for right now. Electrification is the best option for carbon-free transport under 300km. Beyond that distance however, hydrogen is the fuel to use. In California, in Japan, and in France, hydrogen fuel stations are under construction. In Germany, the first hydrogen trains were introduced, replacing diesel trains. Cars, trucks and buses that run on hydrogen are already on our roads, and NASA researchers are exploring the possibility of powering an aircraft with nothing but hydrogen.”

To prove hydrogen’s potential for use in transport, this Swiss aeronaut certainly gives it his all: November 2019, Piccard broke the world record for the distance travelled by a car on a single tank of hydrogen. “Another important advantage of this technology is that hydrogen can make friends where batteries are making enemies,” he says.

pompe à hydrogène mobilize
Hydrogen pump

The French government has certainly gotten the message. They’ve agreed to invest more than €7 billion of their €100 billion recovery plan in hydrogen energy between now and 2030. “We saw a first wave of electrification with electric batteries. To achieve greater vehicle autonomy of between 500 and 700km, with a record charging time of five minutes, we’ll need another form of electric energy powered by hydrogen,” explained Pierre-Etienne Franc, global director of hydrogen energy activity at Air Liquide, France’s biggest hydrogen produce, speaking to French newspaper Le Figaro.

As Piccard says: “For 20 or 30 years, everyone’s been talking about hydrogen mobility, but no one is actually doing it. Because all this time, anyone who’s tried has found themselves faced with people saying, ‘It’s impossible!’ But ‘impossible’ doesn’t exist in reality—it’s just in our minds, in our beliefs, and in our existing paradigms.” From here on out, thanks to significant investments from Europe, it seems hydrogen is finally being taken seriously, moving out of its adolescent phase and being invited to sit at the table with the adults.

 

Sarah Sabsibo, L’ADN journalist

L’ADN is the media on innovation that every day analyses the best concepts of the new economy on the web and in magazine format.

 

Copyrights: Renault Group

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from space conquest to electric flying

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from space conquest to electric flying

A few years from now, electric-powered aerial cars may begin zipping through the air. Anita Sengupta, a leading figure in spatial engineering and alumnus of both NASA and Hyperloop, is working on how to democratise them. But there are lots of challenges to overcome before aerial mobility becomes a reality…

  • connectivity
  • design
  • electric vehicle
  • energy transition

A new kind of road map for the mobility sector has been published across the Atlantic. The World Economic Forum and the city of Los Angeles laid out seven principles for ethical urban air mobility. Is this the last step before we’ll be able to get around cities… through the air? In any case, interest in the aerial transport sector is building: transport builders and manufacturers are seeking out more partnerships and increased funding, working to improve technology, and are well on their way to turning the sky into a new space for clean, quiet transport.

CHALLENGE 1: democratising urban air mobility

After 20 years spent developing the technology that’s allowed us to explore Mars, asteroids, and deep space and earning a PhD in ion research from NASA, Anita Sengupta worked at Virgin Hyperloop as Vice President of Engineering Systems. Her impressive career path paved the way for the creation of Airspace Experience Technologies, which she co-founded. Based in Detroit, A.K.A. The Motor City, and historic capital of the American automobile industry, this startup is working to design the future of aerial mobility.

According to the Roland Berger consulting group, this sector will be worth 80 billion dollars per year by 2050: “To start with, we think aerial services will be quite highly-priced and exclusive, but in the longer term as operating costs evolve, it will be more like today’s premium public transport services, such as taxis,” says Manfred Hader, director of Roland Berger’s aerospace and defense practice. These taxis are exactly what Sengupta is working on. This certified rocket scientist promises we’ll have on-demand flying cars that will get you to your destination five times faster for the same price as an Uber ride—and in just a few years from now.

CHALLENGE 2: solving the economic equation of the car of the future

Safer, cleaner, and quieter than helicopters, these flying vehicles would also be capable of carrying more passengers. The result, according to British consulting firm Ayming, is that more than 100 companies are currently working on the development of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircrafts. These include Sengupta’s company, which joined forces with global aircraft manufacturer Spirit Aerosystems to develop Mobi-One, a quiet, eco-friendly aerial transport vehicle that will be able to carry up to five people at a time.

Their goal is to mass-produce vehicles and minimise costs before Mobi-One arrives on the market. The first challenge aerial vehicle makers will face is how to commercialise these futuristic mobility services. Flying is expensive: Japanese company SkyDrive is planning to sell its two-seater VOLT, scheduled to arrive in 2023, at anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000. German startup Volocopter offers 15-minute rides for $354. And then there’s the question of energy storage. Specialists say that achieving the level of battery autonomy necessary to run vehicles like these will require us to develop new, higher-cycle lithium-ion batteries. Both engineers and cities are also concerned about security: how do you avoid collisions and traffic jams in the air? According to an article featuring Sengupta in the Financial Times, “They would not be crowded with air taxis zooming along in proximity… aerial taxis would need to be properly spaced for safety… with ‘an airspace bubble’ around them in case of emergency. Take-off times would be regulated, possibly by an air traffic control system that would have human overseers as long as safety considerations required it, before eventually becoming autonomous.”

anita sengupta
Anita Sengupta, spatial engineering specialist

CHALLENGE 3: registering the aerial car in the regulations

Further challenges exist in this space race around safety certification and infrastructure. What kinds of standard regulations should apply to eVTOLs? Where will they take off and land in large cities full of skyscrapers? And that’s all to say nothing of what the public’s enthusiasm will be for transport like this. “Generally speaking, the use of urban airspace means there will be less pollution and a more pleasant environment for pedestrians,” predicts Sengupta. It’s a strong argument that could help convince everyday citizens to climb aboard an aerial electric taxi in the future, from an engineer who likes to regularly remind people that “the sky is not the limit—only the beginning.”

 

Sarah Sabsibo, L’ADN journalist

L’ADN is the media on innovation that every day analyses the best concepts of the new economy on the web and in magazine format.

 

Copyright: Lloyd Horgan, iflyasx.com

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