Toyota, French energy provider EDF, and the City of Strasbourg have launched a plug-in hybrid test program in Strasbourg that will see around 100 plug-in hybrids using dedicated charging infrastructure in the French city.
The plug-in hybrid test project has received support via the Research Fund managed by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency ADEME.
This project is part of a global Toyota project involving 600 Prius Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles that will also be deployed in Japan, the US, Canada and Australia. Toyota’s main objective is to further investigate the technology and performance of PHVs. In the context of the EDF-Toyota partnership, European road trials of Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles started in France in the autumn of 2007 and were expanded to the UK in 2008.
For this demonstration, EDF, with the operational support of its subsidiary Electricité de Strasbourg (ES), will ensure, within the context of a technical and financial partnership with all stakeholders, the set-up of more than 150 charging points at users’ homes, at the private parking of partner companies, in public parking lots and on public roads. Some vehicles use an innovative charging system developed by EDF, able to control the communication between the plug and the vehicle, while ensuring safe charging. The objective is to facilitate the identification of the vehicle and invoicing of the consumed energy. In addition, German energy provider EnBW (Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, EDF Group), will extend the program to Baden-Württemberg, Germany, by demonstrating ten PHVs and their dedicated charging infrastructure.
As partner of the demonstration project, the City and the Urban Community of Strasbourg will lease five PHVs. They have ensured the set-up of public charging points and charging points along public roads and provide a subsidy to the local car sharing company to lease three PHVs. The remaining vehicles will be leased to various public institutions and private companies.
For ADEME, this project is part of its “research demonstrators” program, whose purpose is to test future technologies allowing the reduction of greenhouse gases. The automotive industry faces major challenges, requiring alternatives to conventional internal combustion engines. This program is one of eleven projects selected in a call for interest in the Demonstrators Fund on low-emission vehicles launched by ADEME in 2008. This experiment in real-world conditions is essential to validate not only the feasibility of the involved technologies but also their adoption by daily users, and to prepare tomorrow’s world.
