PSA-Venturi partnership selected to provide electric vans to French Post Office
Like Newteon, PSA Peugeot Citroen is eyeing the EV contract for La Poste. PSA is teaming up with Monaco-based Venturi Automobiles to produce battery-powered vans based on the Citroën Berlingo First and Peugeot Partner Origin for the French Post office. The partnership will produce a small batch of vans for a six month test program. Venturi has been developing high dollar electric sports cars and less expensive oddball buggies. For this project, Venturi will contribute a new compact electric powertrain that allows the motor, battery and electronics to be mounted underhood and give the delivery vans a 60-mile range. After the trial ends La Poste, will select a vendor to produce 500 electric mail vans.
[Source: Peugeot]
Venturi Automobiles, in Partnership With PSA Peugeot Citroën, Preselected in International EV Tender By La Poste
Venturi Automobiles and PSA Peugeot Citroën have joined forces to supply Citroën Berlingo First or Peugeot Partner Origin-type electric vans in response to a tender from the French Post Office, La Poste.
Issued in April 2007, the international tender initially involves the supply of a small number of test vehicles. Following a six-month trial period, during which the vehicles with be thoroughly tested, La Poste will select the supplier of 500 mail delivery vans.
As Venturi Automobiles' partner, PSA Peugeot Citroën feels that this phase of real-world testing represents a valuable opportunity to fine-tune the technological solutions equipping these delivery vans, to align them seamlessly with La Poste's expectations.
The Berlingo Citroen / Peugeot Partner will be tested with an entirely new power train proposed by Venturi. This extremely compact technology makes it possible to fit the electric motor, battery and other EV components inside the van's engine compartment, in lieu of the internal combustion engine. This offers the major advantage of ensuring the same load volume and payload as in a conventional version.
The electric Berlingo/Partners will have a range of up to 100 kilometers, which is amply sufficient to cover their mail delivery routes.
PSA Peugeot Citroën will contribute its automotive expertise and experience, particularly in electric vehicles.
Venturi will provide its particularly compact and innovative powertrain solution, as well as its short-run production capabilities
The partnership will enable PSA Peugeot Citroën to relaunch its EV business, where it was a pioneer and European market leader, with nearly 10,000 vehicles sold. The Group believes that in the future, electric vehicles will play an important role in reducing automotive emissions, with sales being driven primarily by city delivery vans.
PSA Peugeot Citroën is the world's leading manufacturer of low-emission vehicles. In 2007, it sold in Europe more than one million vehicles emitting less the 140g of CO2/km.
With operations in 150 countries through its Peugeot and Citroën marques, the Group employs more than 200,000 people around the world.
Since 2001, Venturi Automobiles has led a sustained innovation drive that has made it an undisputed leader in electric vehicles. Its expertise in the world's most advanced EV technological solutions extends from city quad-bikes to high-performance sports cars.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kevin 7:32PM (3/24/2008)
Wow only a 60 mile range!?? There mail routes must be fairly short . the problem with these ev cars and smll companies is that they do not want to seek for help using lithium ion batteries. If they were to use a123 systems battery technology or somebody who know what they are doing , i can guarante you that the range woudl go up and it woudl benefit the world. I say that because when consumers buy these new lithium ion batteries it give the company a profit and more money to generate more efficients lighter weight batteries. So essentially the more we purchase the better the technology gets. But if everybody owns their own rinky dink company and uses 10 12 volt car batteries for ev cars then th e development for lithium ion batteries will be even higher and take longer.
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David Wright 9:10AM (3/26/2008)
"...The Group believes that in the future, electric vehicles will play an important role in reducing automotive emissions, with sales being driven primarily by city delivery vans..."
Kevin - I worked as a postman for many years. Believe me, hopping in an out of a van every 100 yards, there is no way I could cover 60 miles. The majority of postal delivery routes, in urban areas in particular, are much shorter than that.
Electric vehicles are particularly well suited to the stop-start routine of delivery routes, and in which the vans return to their base each night for recharging. That is why companies such as Modec http://www.modec.co.uk and Smith EV http://www.smithelectricvehicles.com are focussed on addressing this market. There are tens of thousands of such return-to-base local delivery fleets all over the world. It is a huge market. SWmith, and Modec, already have hundreds of bigger all-electric vans and trucks in use on UK roads, being used by supermarkets and parcel delivery firms. Smith are ramping up production to 10,000 a year between now and 2010, with new factories being built in northeast England and in the USA.
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