The French energy group and power distributor EDF made announcements during the Paris motor show confirming its ambitions in the EVSE market. EDF, reported the Journal de l’Automobile, announced the signing of new partnership agreements, the launch of a new community platform and the establishment of an EV leasing programme.
EDF’s Sodretel e-mobility subsidiary has signed a deal with Schneider Electric (which latter has just been named as Ford of Europe’s preferred charging point supplier) whereby Sodretel and Schneider are to jointly offer big retailers EV charging point services and finance, and hardware, respectively.
EDF’s E Lease subsidiary is to offer EVs on leases ranging from one to 23 months, starting with a small fleet of Peugeot iOn vehicles that will be offered to businesses and municipal operators. The offer is likely to be expanded with other brands such as Renault’s new Zoe and Nissan’s Leaf, and leases may be combined with charging point provision. Rental tariffs have yet to be confirmed. E Lease is 70% owned by EDF, with minority shareholders being the leasing companies Arval, LeasePlan, Overlease, ALD Automotive and Dexia.
Another entity, Mopeasy, has also partnered with Sodretel, in this case to advance a community EVSE IT platform called Plug & Move, aiming to offer the services required to establish electric car-sharing facilities within municipalities or companies. Mopeasy has already supplied such services for EV sharing schemes in the towns of Neuilly-sur-Seine and Chelles.
The Plug & Move arrangement involving Sodretel also involves EDF, Europcar, Navteq, Schneider Electric and Axa Assistance, and is intended to allow any publicly available charging points to be located by EV users online and via a smartphone app. The same system will allow charging point owners to bill users, and offer discounts to their own customers. Users will be able to control how much power they draw, and pay for it electronically. The cost of a 3kWh charge is reckoned to range between €0.60 and €2 per hour (US$0.77-2.57), while a 22kWh charge costs from €6 to €10/hour.
There are reportedly plans to roll out the Plug & Move platform to other countries beyond France from next year.
