Paradox: Big cities are an ideal playground for electric mobility, and yet it is there that it is most difficult to make it prosper due to the lack of density of charging stations.
How often do we hear city dwellers say that if they had the means to charge worthy of the name, they would switch to so-called ‘zero emissions’ mobility without hesitation?
But things are changing quickly, as evidenced by the weekend’s big announcement: the opening of the largest electric car parking in France, equipped with 505 charging points, located in the heart of Paris.
The Madeleine-Tronchet car park, managed by Saemes (public company that manages the car park of the City of Paris), thus offers terminals in 7 and 22 kW (ie semi-fast) spread over the six levels from the underground car park . The advantage of this very central location is that it is very easy to come and “refuel” for a few hours.
In addition, the rates remain reasonable (for Paris of course) at 40 cents per kWh, to which, however, another 50 cents must be added for access to the service and of course the right to park in the car park (13, €2 for 3 hours for example) .
However, this commitment is good news for Parisian electricians, who will be able to take advantage of nearly 600 other terminals in two other Saemes car parks by the end of the year (Jean Bouin car park in the 16th arrondissement and Bergson-Saint-Augustin in the 8th) , bringing the total number of terminals to 1,100.
These terminals will complement those of the Belib’ network, which already has 2,200 devices on the street, and the goal is to reach 8,400 charging points in the capital by 2024.
On the loading front, things have moved quite quickly since the beginning of the year. There are currently nearly 58,000 delivery points open to the public, a figure that reflects a 54% increase in one year.
† While the “number of vehicles per charge point” ratio deteriorated sharply in 2020 – we were at 10.32 100% electric vehicles per charge point, there has been a real improvement since the end of 2021 “, welcomes Avere-France, association for the promotion of electric mobility. † To date, the ratio is 9.68 100% electric vehicles per charging point. This confirms that the speed of the implementation of charging points finally seems to be above registrations. †
There are currently around 800,000 plug-in hybrid and 100% electric cars in France, with plug-in cars accounting for 20% of new car sales since the beginning of the year, compared to 14% a year earlier.
Demand is growing, despite the shortage of components and the still high cost of electrified models, which still reserve them for a small part of the population.
The other good news, in terms of charging, comes from condominiums. According to an assessment by the FNAIM, 50 to 60% of collective car parks are equipped in charging stations within 5-6 years. In the coming months, training courses will be organized for trustees and social landlords.
It goes just as fast on the supermarket side. This includes Carrefour, which will offer 5,000 charging points in its parking garages by 2025, with a capacity of 22 to 300 kW. Casino, for its part, will bet about thirty Tesla Superchargers in its parking garages between late 2022 and 2023. Said Superchargers will be accessible to owners of other brands.
Motorway companies are also committed to deploying fast terminals that are essential for long-distance mobility.
La Sanef, which operates 1,800 km of highways, will offer around 500 fast-charging points in 72 areas by the end of the year. Vinci Autoroutes, which already has 348 charging points in 99 areas, will have its entire network equipped by 2023.
The ecosystem of electric mobility is therefore being set up step by step. With the intensification of the use of electrical terminals, shortcomings in the charging infrastructure will soon no longer be an excuse to continue thermal driving.
Under these circumstances, we can only encourage manufacturers to develop accessible electric models, in the spirit of: Dacia Spring† Instead, they keep dangling high-end models, one more advanced than the next.
Last week, the chief financial officer of the Volkswagen Group told the Financial Times that the company would now be more interested in its margins than in growing its sales in the context of electrification.
In other words, top priority for one of the largest automotive companies in the world! However, only the development of cheap models will make it possible to carry through this so-called “clean” mobility revolution that concerns us all today.
