MOBILITY: The electrified vehicle is accelerating its development
During the second edition of the e-day, this Tuesday, April 5 on the Dijon-Prenois circuit, professionals from the ecosystem of electric vehicles, rechargeable hybrids and hydrogen have drawn up an inventory: “the mobility market electricity has exploded since the end of 2019”.
The energy transition of transport is accelerating. Considered as a lever in the fight against greenhouse gas emissions, electric mobility is gradually seeing the planets align: diversity of vehicle models and prices offered to consumers, increase in the number of charging stations on motorways in particular and development of solutions adapted to companies.
This Tuesday, April 5, the e-days – or professional day of electric mobility – took place on the Dijon-Prenois circuit to take stock.
Organizer, the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Electric Mobility association claimed 700 registered and 1,500 appointments for tests with 31 exhibitors including 23 car brands.
Stands presenting recharging systems, bicycles, utility vehicles, cars… test drives on the circuit… specific conferences and workshops… People who have had enough to gather information and write down concrete solutions.
“Responding to current economic and ecological challenges”
“Electric mobility has been placed at the heart of the strategy of the French automotive industry”, points out Robert Poggi, director of Enedis in Burgundy, the regional branch of the electricity supplier, and president of the association Bourgogne-Franche- Electric Mobility County. “A sector of excellence and a major axis of the reconquest of the country’s industrial technological sovereignty, it is a key element in responding to current economic and ecological challenges.”
The mission of the association is to unite regional players around sustainable mobility solutions: electric vehicles, rechargeable hybrids or using hydrogen. The structure has also implemented a national training program, piloted by AVERE France. Free, it is intended for communities.
Objective of one million electrified vehicles in circulation by the end of 2022
“The electric mobility market has exploded since the end of 2019”, notes Cécile Goubet, general manager of AVERE France, a national professional association which federates the ecosystem of electric mobility and which is the interlocutor of the government.
Manufacturers now offer around 200 models of electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. The market share of electric vehicles has increased from 3% at the end of 2019 to more than 20% at the end of 2021. 830,000 of these vehicles are in circulation. The sector aims to reach one million of these vehicles on the roads by the end of 2022 (600,000 electric vehicles and 400,000 plug-in hybrid vehicles).
The decarbonization objectives set in 2015 by the Paris Agreement (COP 21) would correspond to 40% market share in 2025 and 70% in 2030. Currently, the transport sector represents 30% of French greenhouse gas emissions. tight.
“The decade in which we are characterized by an extremely strong increase in electrification which, in the long term, will come to half of the park being electric”, anticipates Cécile Goubet, “it is progressing really very strongly”.
“The role of the dealer’s advice is essential”
“Trades purely focused on the automobile have really expanded, have changed and will change in the coming years,” warns Vincent Durand-Escribe, director of the trade and distribution division of Mobilians (formerly the National Council of Automobile Professionals ), representing 150,000 companies employing 420,000 employees in the downstream of the automotive sector (sales, advice, maintenance, etc.).
Mobilians notes that 60% of all-electric vehicles are purchased by individuals. Vincent Durand-Escribe therefore calls for support in particular for professionals who, today, prefer plug-in hybrid vehicles (companies represent 75% of purchases of this type).
Mobilians specifies that the distribution represents 7% of the value of a vehicle. The evolution of the sector “requires dealers to reinvent themselves”, according to Vincent Durand-Escribe. “The dealership’s role in advising motorists who switch to electric mobility is essential,” he insists.
The representative of the downstream automotive sector calls on the future President of the Republic to maintain the ecological bonus (currently set at 6,000 euros for the purchase of a light electric or hydrogen vehicle with a maximum CO2 level of 20 g /km and whose price is less than 45,000 euros) as well as the conversion bonus (up to 5,000 euros for the purchase of a new or used electric or rechargeable hybrid vehicle).
17 million electrified vehicles on the road in 2035
The distribution network manager has a role to play in terms of charging infrastructure. Pierre de Firmas, national mobility director for Enedis, anticipates that 17 million electric and rechargeable hybrid vehicles will circulate in France in 2035.
According to him, home charging represents “a major advantage of the electric vehicle” which dispenses with the need to go to a service station. However, one of the issues concerns collective residential housing, which concerns 44% of the French population. Until then, the committed co-owners had to convince the other co-owners of a building to install charging stations.
Legislation is changing to authorize a pre-financing system by charging professionals: it would no longer be up to the condominium to advance the amount necessary to carry out the work. The implementing decrees are awaiting publication.
To anticipate changes, Enedis models the uses of the network and shares information with local authorities, including the Region, the mobility organization authority, in order to consider the network of territories with charging stations.
Average increase in electricity consumption of around 1% per year
“Yes, the network will hold,” launches Pierre de Firmas to answer a recurring question. Electricians are watching carefully the phenomenon of increasing average consumption – projected to increase by around 1% per year by 2050 – as well as potential peaks in demand.
Currently, the peak can reach 80 GW at 7 p.m. on weekdays during the month of January. It is expected to rise by 12% unless charging is managed by favoring charging at night, for example.
The development of the principle of load management could even lead electricians to articulate the production of electricity by renewable energies with the possibility of returning to the network the content of the batteries of the vehicles during the intermittent phases of production.
“All electric vehicles, all diffuse batteries can be cleverly combined with photovoltaic or wind power generation and give an advantage to users”, thus considers Pierre de Firmas.
“The fight against climate change requires the electrification of transport”
“The climate emergency is there”, declares Jérémie Motin, national director of electric mobility for the EDF group, “there is no longer any debate”. “EDF is convinced that the fight against climate change requires the electrification of transport.” Due to the fleet of nuclear reactors, the electrician claims a 97% carbon-free electricity production.
In this context, EDF’s ambition is to “be the leader in the supply of electric vehicles” with 30% of market parts. The group plans to have 400,000 charging points by 2023 in four countries: France, Belgium, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Another challenge for the electrician: “intelligent charging”. “It’s good for the network, good for the planet, good for the consumer,” enthuses Jérémie Motin.
“The automotive world and the energy world must work together,” he insists, setting an example: the EDF group plans to electrify its entire fleet by 2030. day, La Poste has the largest fleet of electric vehicles in France and Enedis the second.
“We continue to attract young people into our professions”
“There is a certain inertia in the car fleet”, recalls Dominique Faivre-Pierret, regional delegate of the National Association for Automotive Training, which supports the development of jobs downstream of the automotive sector (trade, maintenance, control technique, location, driving school, car parks, etc.).
The will therefore be judged gradually, according to the retirements of professions, during the period when vehicles with internal combustion engines and vehicles with electric motors will coexist.
However, the rise of electric mobility will lead users to turn to service professionals: sellers, rental companies, motorway rest area personnel. “We must support these trades in the use of electric vehicles, in the use of charging stations”, warns Dominique Faivre-Pierret.
Hence the blocks of skills integrated into the new training courses for trades in the sector, in particular at the Automobile CFA in Mâcon as well as in the professional baccalaureates of the National Education.
Dominique Faivre-Pierret specifies that “we continue to attract young people to our professions, because these are professions that recruit, more than 50,000 jobs per year, our professions have many development prospects for young people”.
Jean-Christophe Tardivon
Barometer 2021 “The French and electric mobility” carried out by Ipsos for Avere-France and Mobivia
83% of French people say they are ready to change their mobility habits to improve air quality and 82% of French people to fight against climate change.
The distances traveled daily by the French have remained relatively stable between 2012 and 2021 with 76% of respondents traveling less than 50 km per day (29 km on average), without telework having had an effect in recent months.
The 3 quarters of people who say they are ready to choose an electric vehicle could turn to the occasion.
A range of over 500 km, a cost equivalent to thermal vehicles and the possibility of easy recharging are decisive factors for the switch to electric.
1 out of 3 French people consider that they now have the possibility of recharging an electric vehicle, whether at home, at their place of business or via a recharging point open to the public.
The personal car remains essential for most French people.
42% of French people use two-wheelers.
(29% of French people use a bicycle without electrical assistance at least twice a month, and 14% an electrically assisted bicycle);
Interest in buying an electric scooter is growing among scooter users: 56% of them are actually considering buying an electric scooter. An increase in value compared to 2018 (48%) and 2016 (43%).