France issues 14 Commandments to speed up electric vehicle adoptions
The French minister for Environmental Alffairs, Jean-Louis Borloo,
- Launch "enough" demonstration charging stations in 2010.
- Integrate EVs into all new city mobility plans.
- Help universities establishing battery development programs.
- Purchase up to 100,000 EVs by 2015.
- Achieve final passage of the €5,000 subvention for consumers to purchase EVs.
- Make sure all cars can be charged at home using standard plugs.
- Starting in 2012, require all new buildings with parking facilities to include EV charging points.
- For existing developments, create a "right to charge" so no opposition can be made to installing charge points.
- Starting in 2015, require all office buildings to have EV charging points.
- Use and promote the upcoming standard European EV plug.
- Make sure local governments get help to create EV charging stations.
- Organize the development of an EV charging network.
- Assure that non fossil-sourced energy is used to charge cars [this is an easy one, since France uses so much nuclear power].
- Promote battery recycling.
[Source: French Ministry of Environmental Affairs via Le Blog Auto]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Woodenbee 2:23PM (10/08/2009)
sounds good, love the renault concepts, I think I know why the less travelled Americans dislike the French so much , its because they make us look so dumb! we dont even have a high speed train, ooh la la, who can say overloaded, miserable, over priced domestic flights??? we're Number one in those!!
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len simpson 2:32PM (10/08/2009)
never happen, makes too much sense & might thwart the politicos.
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jpm 2:39PM (10/08/2009)
Aggressive plans, I like it. In this country, the USA, the quagmire of political leadership can't achieve anything sensible, let alone an aggressive plan that makes sense. The only things we can achieve benefit the corporate bottom line.
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3n1gma 2:40PM (10/08/2009)
They had me until I got to the part about nuclear power to charge cars... *shudders*
I think it would be a good promotional tool to offer free charging in parking lots while you shop at grocery stores or department stores. Shop here, charge for free. I think France should focus more on clean energy power though instead of nuclear power. Too bad the US wasn't as involved in electric vehicles as France is. We will probably not see these types of things in the US for 10 more years or so.
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amtoro 3:38PM (10/08/2009)
Nuclear energy IS clean.
One of the myths about nuclear energy in the US is that it leaves great amounts of radioactive waste; this is far from the truth as in France, the uranium rods are recycled in up to a 95% after they are used, reprocessed and reused in the reactors around 7 times. At the end, the material is so depleted, that is is minimally radioactive and can be stored easily until a new use for it is found.
In the US, the rods are discarded with only one use, and as at that point they are still very active, they have to be stored in very complicated and dangerous depositories. Not to mention, it creates several times more waste per kWh generated.
xyz 7:12PM (10/08/2009)
I still remember Chernobyl. Thanks but no thanks! You don't know what price you pay until you pay.
And of course now everything is so much different than it was 20 years ago. All people in those days were just stupid can't happen again. Same with Vietnam. Yeah....and again we are getting our ass kicked.
Simon 1:49AM (10/09/2009)
This is how the nuclear waste is handled by some countries...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/26/2697272.htm
You get the mafia to look after it for you. No more problems and nuclear looks like a "nice, clean option".
Boyprodigy1 10:26AM (10/09/2009)
Really xyz? Technology is soooooooooooo much better now. And that was the ukraine. If you want to compare it to anything compare it to 3 mile island. And that technology was ancient. We've gotten so much better now.
spritelygent 2:40PM (10/08/2009)
I find this to be an excellent compilation and a far better showing than what many other countries are doing on any scale with exception to Project Better Place.
The American government is too wrapped in politics arguing things that aren't debatable (is clean air and energy security debatable, yes if the corporations have a say so) to let us get something implemented like this, and if they did the most ambitious plans would be a phase starting by 2025 or so and it would be delayed as it approached. We can't even have universal healthcare for fear of killing the Congress' cash cow overlords, the insurance industry, or reigning in the American empiricism for fear of hurting the defense industry, or this electric car business and it's benefits for fear of hurting the lucrative oil companies.
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3PeaceSweet 5:43PM (10/08/2009)
I'd add more help for buying an EV for those who don't normally buy new cars. If you could put down 20-50% of the price of a new EV and then pay the rest off on a low interest loan out of the savings on running costs I think you will see a lot more interest from buyers.
Charging points will get added naturally at car parking locations and in many cases the cost of the electricity will be far less than the cost of the parking space!
Lots of off peak demand for battery charging will help flatten out Frances demand curve, at present a lot of the electricity is exported to pumped storage schemes in neighbouring countries and then bought back at peak times.
France looks pretty well placed to cope with peak oil with lots of nuclear power, electric rail, a growing wind power industry (doubling ever year for the last few years) It also has good potential for making biogas and using off peak electricty to upgrade the gas to biomethane.
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Andy 9:32PM (10/08/2009)
Ce gouvernement a pour politique intelligente.
Je veux être français. Où puis-je demander?
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Dave D 6:13PM (10/10/2009)
I can use Google translate too!
Vous devez d'abord apprendre à vers le bas sur tout le monde. Mais c'est vraiment un grand changement de politique et les États-Unis devraient avoir la capacité de faire quelque chose comme ceci aussi bien.
edgeofautumn 10:16AM (10/09/2009)
Cool
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Sebastian 8:28PM (10/13/2009)
It sounds dreamy.
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