Bollore Group launches Bluly - Autolib in Lyon

Lyon is the third biggest city in France and Bollore, after his success of Autolib in Paris - 80,000 subscibers & 2 million rentals - is now providing 130 Electric BlueCars for this new service called Bluely

Rental plan for a year will be 99 EUR and 6 EUR per half hour of rental

Charge your Electric Car in your Garden from Solar

This British company offers simple & nice wooden integrated solution to park your EV in the shade and charge it from solar panels



Source: My Solar Port

DBT-CEV installed all the charging stations at Leclerc

As you already know, Leclerc supermarket chain has revealed a partnership with Renault, buying their Twizy and Zoe and making them available to their employees and customers, last week at Pont l'Abbé in Brittany, France.



Douaisienne de Basse Tension (DBT)'s CEO Hervé Borgoltz on the left, Leclerc's CEO Michel Edouard Leclerc on the right


Little was said about this now famous French charging station maker DBT / DBT-CEV providing the charge infrastructure on Leclerc's parking lot; They call it the first wave of  " ZE Ready " stations, meaning that they are compatible with all EVs.




Two Zoe plugged in and charging


" ZE Ready " Charging Stations


Michel Edouard Leclerc and Carlos Tavares from Renault plugging in


Brand new EV only parking spots ... Already ICEd ...

ZOE : Leclerc and Renault team up for EV adoption in France

The famous French supermarket chain Leclerc received 10 ZOE from Renault at a Leclerc supermarket located in brittany (north ouest of France), for a start

Carlos Tavares, CEO of Renault, and Michel Edouard Leclerc, CEO of Leclerc were there to launch this partnership of EV rental cars, along with charging stations on the supermarket parking lot, and a nearby Renault dealer providing charging stations too.

These 10 first ZOE will be used by the employees of this supermarket and each of them had a Wallbox - EVSE - installed at home; So they will be able to charge at work, at the Renault dealership nearby, and at home ...

This partnership should expand and more Leclerc supermarkets / hypermarkets should have EVs for their employees, and their customers as rental cars, with a Renault dealership nearby   

TeleWatt - Charging Stations from Street Lights

For quite a while now, I have had this idea:

Why not set up a small waterproof charging station (composed of 3 outlets: 2 for electric cars, 1 for electric scooter) on every street light we already have on the sidewalk ?

People would park, plug in their Electric Car and recharge, even at a small pace (let's say 220V at 8A or 10A), but when they are parked for the whole night, it is more than enough to go to work the next morning;
People who don't have an EV want fast charging stations everywhere; like they are used to see gas stations, but, when you own one, drive it daily to commute and more, you realize that you do not need them, because you mostly charge at home, at night, slowly and when the electricity is cheaper
For people who do not have a parking/garage where they can install and outlet or wallbox, this street based charging possibility is a the key

Well, reading this article about ADEME (French Environment Agency) projects, I realize that this idea is going to be experimented for real in France soon by a project called TeleWatt with Citelum


Here is the transcript of their mission:

Develop and test a new solution of recharge from the existing network of public lighting

High amounts and time of return on investment, the importance of civil engineering, operations and strengthening connection of electrical networks and consequently delays implementation of equipment represent a real obstacle for the development of infrastructure recharge. TELEWATT project aims to deploy a network of intelligent charging stations quickly and on a large scale using existing infrastructure and public lighting.

This project has three main innovations:

• The simultaneous monitoring of electrical networks (power consumption, condition, etc..) And the establishment of a centralized management system to manage particular user access to the network.

• The establishment of taken "plug & play", with identification by IP address, which does not require installation engineering. This device can be deployed in the short term and may be taken simply displaced, according to the evolution of urban development and the needs of users.

• The development of a user interface on mobile phones to book, track and manage remotely and at any time the load of the vehicle.

I also had the idea of making this more simple, hallowing anybody to plug in for free (as a public service) to charge an electric vehicle, and replacing high consumption light bulbs with LED bulbs, reduicing the load on each charge point and saving money to the community / city ...

But this is a good first stetp, and I am really looking forward to hearing more about this !


Read more about this project here: ADEME (PDF file)
Citelum (street lights): Citelum & their Telewatt project

LEAF Link iPhone App updated - version 1.1.3

LEAF Link iPhone App has been updated to version 1.1.3 on Apple App Store with the charging stations connector type selection, and other maps behaviour improvements

Renault ZOE Test Drive - My Video !

This is the 4th video featuring the real (not concept car) Renault ZOE, after the two BFMTV videos, a very short one just before the 2012 Paris Motor Show , the second one with French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg, and AutoMoto test the  last week.

More Pictures here ...
Another Video here ...
And another one here ...

Mon Essai Renault Zoé :-)

This Fully Electric ZOE is going to be a Hit, there is

 no doubt about it !

Why ? => Small Price, Beautiful Design, & Performance

This morning I had the chance to test drive the Renault ZOE at the Renault EV Center and test track on Ile Seguin, in Boulogne Billancourt, next to Paris

I would like to thank the whole team there for the warm welcome and kindness to let us test drive at the last minute without any appointment; It was very nice from them :-)

ZOE sunny line up

The beautiful rear end

It all started with this: The ZOE test drive badge

Renault Ile Seguin Test Center, where all the Renault Z.E. test drives are taking place 

Then an interesting 20 minutes ZOE presentation,
 with a coffee (LED ligthting in the room)


Then came the test drive with the person who did the presentation
and he knew what he was talking about (it is not always the case 
when it comes to Electric Drive)

Our co-test drivers, a father and his son, like us, were very impressed 
with ZOE's acceleration (again with 5 people in the car)

The overall impression after few minutes of test drive is very good: Acceleration feels very similar to my Nissan LEAF, although we were five in the car (4 adults and my son) and the motor is theoretically less powerful, I did not feel any difference

Even with this top of the line version of ZOE (Intens at 15.500 EUR with incentive), the confort is a bit different from the LEAF, but for that price, it can not be beaten I think; Congratulations to Renault for offering such a well designed Fully Electric Car with that small price tag !

I even got in touch with a sales person who will study the possibilty of taking my LEAF back (we will see what they offer of course) and buy a ZOE instead... who knows, for the miles I am driving anyways, I could be a good idea, financially speaking ;-)

My son wanted to drive ... maybe in few years I said

This picture made me think of this slogan:

ZOE : An affordable Electric Car for the Future Generation, Available Now !

ZOE and Meudon hill in the back, beautiful ... (click to see a better quality picture)

Now, more about charging :

The charging equipement installed is from Schneider Electrics, 3kW and 22 kW AC charge stations

Schneider Electrics power supply central equipement for charging stations

Display close up (sorry for the sun reflection, that is the best I could do)

Charge stations, supplying 3kW , or 22 kW for faster charging of the ZOE 22kWh battery in just 1 hour ! ... 43 kW charging will be also be possible thanks to Three Phases AC 400V supply

... through the (French only) Type 3 outlet (should change later on to Type 2
 to become compatible with other European countries) 

Pretty cool charge station, showing outlet status and state of charge also !


Nice, very nice test center on this island "Ile Seguin", 
where used to be Renault's main factory for decades

More pictures of this Test Drive here

More about Renault ZOE (lots of pics & videos)

More about ZOE versions, prices and incentives

ZOE Colors available

Book yours today on Renault Z.E. (Zero Emission) Website

If you wish to come and test drive the Renault ZOE, please call or email them here for an appointment:

Philippe Hirtzman - Special Mission for EV Charge Stations

French government has launched a mission for the deployment of charging stations and development of electro-mobility. It also negotiates the financing of other measures with highway concessionaires and local communities.

Arnaud Montebourg, Philippe Hirtzmann, Delphine Batho & Frédéric Cuvillier

Wednesday, October 3, 2012, Arnaud Montebourg, Minister of Industry, Delphine Batho, Minister of Ecology and Frédéric Cuvillier, Minister for Transport, announced the launch of a mission "dedicated to the deployment of charging stations for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids and development of electro-mobility".

Entrusted to Philippe Hirtzman, Chairman of the Board of the National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks (INERIS), the mission is "designed to bring out and support infrastructure projects in the areas of recharge ". The main objective is to break the self-sustained vicious circle of the limited range of electric vehicles and the weakness of the charging network.

The creation of such a mission was originally announced as part of the plan presented by Arnaud Montebourg car July 25.

Philippe Hirtzmann

Presentation of the mission Hirtzman

Create a network of charging stations

Departments reported having attended for this mission, all the actors involved in the development of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure: local authorities, energy suppliers and distributors, supermarket chains, fuel distribution, freeway companies, parking lots, recharge equipment manufacturers and automobile makers.

For funding the deployment of charging stations, the Ministers recalled that 50 million are already enshrined. The "mission launch Hirtzman occured in the presence of the Commissioner General for Investment which enshrines the future investment program a budget of 50 million euros to finance the deployment projects of charging stations" explained the three departments.

Will be eligible, projects of large scale deployment of charging stations in agglomerations of more than 200,000 inhabitants, or those carried by region and, for a limited time, those to accelerate the deployment of charging stations on highways, parking lots, and parking lots open to the public such as supermarket parkings.

Who will pay the preferential tariffs?

In addition, the government "wants the establishment of a preferential tariff on freeway tolls and parking for electric vehicles." The measures for this are not yet announced, however, some advocates of electric cars made proposals to Bercy to find a solution that does not burden the public finances.

Regarding preferential freeway tariff, a lead mentioned would be the payment to the owners of electric cars of a certain amount usable the French freeway network. This amount could go up to 2,000 euros, would be paid by freeways companies, for example, the provision of prepaid toll card. In return, the freeway companies would get a lengthening of the duration of their concessions.

As for the alleviation of parking rates, it can not be done without the prior approval of the local authorities concerned who establish the rules of paid parking in accordance with the General Local Authorities Code.


In addition, the bonus for electric vehicles set to 7,000 euros will be extended in 2013, "by extending the eligibility of enterprises and public purchasers to these bonuses and engaging in a process of public procurement, which will be 25% electric or hybrid " indicate ministries, adding that recharges terminals will be installed in the ministries and administrations.

Charging station sign in Paris

Industrials in order of battle

Meanwhile, the Caisse des Dépôts (CDC), ERDF, PSA Peugeot Citroën and Renault announced they have signed, at the end of the press conference of ministers, "a protocol for the establishment of a common framework for developing roaming charging infrastrusture for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, "the Groupment for roaming recharges of electric vehicles (GIREVE).

The four groups intend to offer users a range of  "a la carte" services. "Drivers can locate and use the existing charging stations, regardless of owner: local, owner of parking, mobility operator etc.," they say, adding that "IT applications on GPS or " smartphone " will locate all available terminals and possibly the book. "

In addition, the GIREVE will create standards for data exchange, enabling payment clearing services between operators, and represent France vis-à-vis other countries that these standards extend to cross-border trade.

Providers of charging stations rejoice, like DBT-CEV who "is delighted to support measures to develop the development of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure in France." The French manufacturer, which participate in the work of the mission Hirtzman believes that this is "a new kick" to expand the market for electric cars.


Philippe Collet

Source: Actu-Environnement, translated with Google Translate & Me

Autolib sends me a windshield sticker for third party EV Charging

Last night, I received this in the mail: Autolib sent me a windshield sticker for third party EV Charging 

From now on, I will have to have this sticker visible whenever I use a third party charge Autolib spot, otherwise I will get a parking violation and my car or scooter will be towed     :-(

IBM and ESB make important progress on EV smart charging

For years (literally) I have been griping and whining that vendors and utilities are spending too much time on electric vehicle hardware and not enough on smart charging. Smart charging, after all, is what can unlock the benefits of EVs for consumers and utilities alike. Smart charging is essential if we want to use EVs to take advantage of late night wind energy, for example. And if we want to avoid excessive peaks and other potential EV problems.

My power engineering friends tell me that I'm some combination of impatient and naive. That the industry first had to settle on the easy stuff like plugs and basic standards. THEN they could get to work on smart charging.

Here's one example of progress: IBM is working with ESB ecars to set up a smart charging infrastructure in Ireland that will manage about 1,000 public charging points. Much of the effort is around payment options and infrastructure monitoring, but some of it touches on the utility-side software needed to properly manage EVs when they start to show up in volume. If successful, it could become a template for future, larger EV infrastructures.

According to the announcement (which you can read on page 2), the IBM EV platform will connect ESB Networks with the energy retailers and the charge-points, allowing all three to communicate energy usage and financial data directly, providing the analytics and intelligence needed to better forecast and balance the load on the power grid.

"Infrastructure readiness and consumer acceptance are and will continue to be imperatives to the success of electric vehicles, however the industry must now focus on the management aspect. It will be how we support EV market growth from an interoperable and scalable level," noted Allan Schurr, Vice President, Strategy and Development of IBM's Global Energy and Utilities Industry.

"For utilities, this project tackles both front and back office operations by addressing business services such as billing, yet at the same time, also provides continued access to real-time data needed to monitor and forecast the impact on the grid," Schurr added.

Jesse Berst



Press Release:

IBM teams with ESB to develop 

an Electric Vehicle

Smart Charging IT System in Ireland

Adds Flexibility to Smart Grid Operations during Mass-Scale EV Charging across Ireland


ARMONK, N.Y. and DUBLIN, Oct. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it has teamed with ESB to implement a fully integrated smarter charging IT system that will help manage electric vehicle public charge-points, which are being rolled out across Ireland by ESB Networks.

Together the companies will add a layer of intelligence and convenience to the recharging process, allowing EV drivers to access, charge and pay, using an identification card. Additionally, this project will provide utilities with access to energy usage data that can help improve smart grid operations, reduce power strain during peak charging times, and ensure reliable energy distribution to customers.

With approximately 1,000 public charging-points currently available, ESB Networks is on track to deliver one of the largest integrated and operational electric vehicle infrastructures in Europe. ESB Networks will use IBM's Intelligent Electric Vehicle Enablement Platform to provide the services needed to operate and manage the charge-points installed throughout Ireland.

This project is bolstered by Ireland's energy policy to increase sustainable energy use in the transportation sector by 2020. Today, the goal is to produce 40 percent of the country's current electricity consumption from renewable energy and have electric vehicles represent every tenth car on Irish roads. Already on the renewable fast track, this integrated EV charging network will allow Ireland to also contribute to the European Union legislation to reduce greenhouse gas pollution levels by approximately nine million tones before 2020.

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD said: "Green energy and cloud computing are key sectors being targeted by the Government as part of our Action Plan for Jobs. This innovative partnership between an Irish energy company and a global IT leader puts Ireland at the forefront of global developments in the electric vehicle sector by using cutting edge cloud technologies, and represents a clear demonstration of what is possible in this area. Ireland will now be the first country globally to put in place this system on a national basis, and I am determined to ensure that through continued implementation of our plan we will see further examples of leadership in these areas."

The platform will connect ESB Networks with the energy retailers and the charge-points, allowing all three to communicate energy usage and financial data directly. This will provide the analytics and intelligence needed to better forecast and balance the load on the power grid as well as help ESB Networks to monitor the health and status of the charge-points to ensure service reliability.

Additionally, the project will create a scalable payment transaction platform for utilities and consumers by combining financial, settlement, and management services. As the IBM Intelligent EV Enablement Platform is a cloud delivered service, it provides operators such as ESB Networks the flexibility and scalability to add charge-points, incorporate new functionality, and support more electric vehicles as the market grows.

ESB Networks will have the capabilities to securely maintain customer and charge point data such as energy consumption, charging location, and settlement data. This information can then be used to calculate and reconcile the energy market. With this level of financial insight, industry participants can manage regular and interruptible tariffs and calculate the appropriate billing costs.

ESB Chief Executive, Pat O'Doherty said, "ESB Networks is rolling out a smart recharging network nationwide and committed to offering a service that will benefit the consumer, electricity retailer as well as the electricity grid. This project has the potential to significantly improve efficiencies in EV charging, streamline management services and contribute to the overall reduction of CO2 emissions," he said.

The new system accommodates the needs of all EV owners. The IBM EV platform will enable EV drivers to select convenient payment options and access all charge-points using one ID card – a process that will aggregate usage costs and simplify billing. This smart charging capability allows consumers to charge anywhere at anytime, regardless of their electricity provider and without the need to carry multiple access cards. Additionally, drivers will also have the option to use a mobile device or browser to locate the nearest charge post, check its availability, and make a reservation if the post is available. '

"Infrastructure readiness and consumer acceptance are and will continue to be imperatives to the success of electric vehicles, however the industry must now focus on the management aspect. It will be how we support EV market growth from an interoperable and scalable level," said Allan Schurr, Vice President, Strategy and Development of IBM's Global Energy and Utilities Industry. "For utilities, this project tackles both front and back office operations by addressing business services such as billing, yet at the same time, also provides continued access to real-time data needed to monitor and forecast the impact on the grid."

This initiative along with the recently announced Smarter Charging demonstration with American Honda Motor Co,. Inc. and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), as well as the EKZ Smartphone Application pilot, demonstrates IBM's ongoing focus to improve driver services, increase renewable generation, and intelligently manage electric vehicles.

About ESBESB Networks is responsible for the roll out of electric vehicle infrastructure in Ireland and the operation of supporting IT/communications systems. A comprehensive network of charge-points is being developed, with open systems and platforms, so they are accessible to all electricity supply companies, and all types of electric cars. The primary activities of ESB and its subsidiaries are the ownership and of the electricity distribution and transmission networks and operation of the distribution system in Ireland and Northern Ireland and the generation and supply of electricity in Ireland and internationally.

For more information visit www.esb.ie/ecars, www.facebook.com/ESBecars

IBM and Smart GridIBM is involved in more than 150 smart grid engagements around the world, in both mature and emerging markets. More about IBM's vision to bring a new level of intelligence to how the world works—how every person, business, organization, government, natural system, and man-made system interacts, can be found here: http://www.ibm.com/ smarterplanet

For more information about Smarter Energy at IBM, please visit: www.ibm.com/press/ smarterenergy. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.



Source : Smart Grid News & IBM

Carlos Ghosn and Andy Palmer at the Paris Motor Show

2012 Paris Motor Show

Carlos Ghosn was interviewed at the Paris Motor Show for Renault Zoe's launch

He said that the future of the automotive industry will be Electric, there is no doubt about it, it is just a question of percentage and how fast it will grown

He also mentionned the poor count of charge infrastrutures and his will to accelerate this key point for EV adoption

He repeated that there is zero problem with the Nissan LEAF battery: "Z-E-R-O Problem", look at his hand ;-)

He is happy with the French government incentives encouraging and helping people to buy electric cars 

Andy Palmer presented the Terra Fuell Cell Prototype but did not say a word about the LEAF battery capacity loss problem (or did I missed something ?)

Nissan to install 400 Charge Stations in France by the end of 2012

2012 Paris Motor Show

Good news !

Nissan forecasts the installation of more than 400 Charge Stations in France by the end of 2012:

- 45 DC Fast Chargers in Nissan dealership

- 40 DC Fast Chargers, interconnecting major cities

- 320 regular 220V outlets, spread all around the hexagone