Electric Vans for French Post Office

Electric Cars Gather Speed
David Gauthier Villars, Wall Street Journal Online (subscription required)

In late 2005, France's state-run postal service began a trial of eight experimental in an effort to meet a government requirement to reduce pollution.

Not only did the vans work well and prove cheaper to operate than gasoline-powered ones, but the mailmen who drove them reported higher job satisfaction. Now, La Poste is working on a five-year plan to replace the bulk of its 48,000-vehicle fleet with electric cars.

"The car works great, with almost no maintenance," says Patrick Widloecher, La Poste's director for environmental affairs. "We're ready to order more." ...

The cars La Poste used were developed by Société de Véhicules Électriques (SVE), ... and were outfitted with a specially designed lithium-ion battery developed by a joint venture of Milwaukee car-parts maker Johnson Controls Inc. and French battery company Saft Groupe. ...

SVE has yet to settle on a price for its electric car, and it isn't clear how much La Poste will have to pay to increase its fleet. But the car will be significantly more expensive than a traditional gasoline-powered vehicle because of the high cost of the lithium-ion battery, which La Poste says would account for about 60% of the unit price. The mail company says it will save on operating expenses because charging the electric car with electricity costs about one-sixth what it would spend to fill up the tank with gasoline.

SVE plans to make only a few cars at first. The French company expects to begin volume production toward year end with the assembly of 1,000 vehicles and, from 2009, gradually ramp up production to about 20,000 a year. That would be a fraction of the two million vehicles sold in France every year, though still more than all the other electric cars ever produced.

To widen the potential market for its electric vehicles, SVE has developed a version of its van equipped with a small diesel engine. The engine can help recharge the battery on the go or provide additional torque on highways, removing the range cap that hampers purely electric vehicles. Such cars are often called "plug-in hybrids" because they can be recharged on a plug or with gasoline.

I have suggested this idea several times for the U.S. post office. I wish that they, along with other government agencies, would spearhead a drive for BEVs and PHEVs.

Article may be viewed in full at CalCars

Comments

[Thomas Pedersen]

It's easy to get frustrated and impatient with development and roll-out of electrical vehicles if you follow blogs like this on a daily basis. However, it will most likely take years, if not decades before something seriously happens. And when it does, government agencies will probably be the first to adapt. That's why it is very, very positive to hear the positive review from La Poste! It's great marketing, coming from an independent authoritative source (at least to the French public, I guess)

Next step is noisy garbage trucks that wake up the neighbourhood at 5 a.m...

[Bde2200]

There are two factors to keep in mind here. One is the very high taxes on gasoline in Europe, which distorts the comparative price between gasoline and electricity. The second is the good fortune and foresight of the French to aggressively build nuclear power plants. Their electricity is cheaper and less polluting. Without those factors, the economics are likely to be much different in the US.

[Kit P.]

“In France, which relies on nuclear and hydroelectric power for most of its electricity generation, electric cars would help achieve a drastic cut in greenhouse-gas emissions.”

France also does not have much oil either. I would expect the EU to require a LCA per ISO 14000 to claim ghg reductions. This should provide lots of good data about EVs in the US.

[Stephen Boulet]

@Bde2200
One other factor to keep in mind is that the price paid in the US for gasoline is not the fair market price either.

I know that we (Americans) give oil companies tax breaks to develop oil fields that would otherwise go undeveloped due to financial risk. Are there other subsidies? Has anyone estimated what the "fair market price" of a gallon of gas would be?

Stephen

[Matti Kinnunen]

@Stephen.

You need to count at least 50% of the defense budget as oil subsidy. And the cost of the war in Iraq. Some calculation I saw indicated that these subsidies are most than $50 a barrel...

[Bde2200]

Stephen, Matti, the price for oil is set by world supply and demand. It makes no difference what subsidies, if any, are paid. The price of gasoline is a direct result of the price of oil, plus taxes. Taxes on gasoline in the US are much higher than on other commodities, and in Europe, the taxes are higher still. The part about 50% of the defense budget is merely a political assertion disguised as an accounting adjustment. You maybe right about the politics, but it is meaningless to pretend that the price of oil is other than what the market sets.

[Nick]

The market price is the market price, but there are other costs, which can reasonably considered an implicit subsidy.

For just one example, rail in the US pays property taxes, but highways don't. Federal gas taxes in the US go just for highway maintenance: when was the last time you saw a tax that was earmarked to go back to the industry, rather than paying for the general overhead of having government?

There are many other gasoline subsidies, like local government paying for road maintenance with property tax or other general revenues, and zoning which requires free parking.

If we wouldn't be in the Middle East if not for oil, then our military costs are a real cost of using oil, and should be included. That's just good accounting and economics.