2009/09/25
Frankfurt – the car takes an ecological turn
Share
The car industry announces its desire to get actively involved in sustainable mobility.
Hit of the week
Confirmation of the importance of the ecological car incontestably marked the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Moreover, Germany has led by example, by making major stakes of the ecological transition for industry as proved by the speech of Hans-Peter Keitel, President of the German Federation of Industry (BDI), reports Businesswire : “When it comes to highly innovative and cost-effective solutions for climate protection, German industry is already leading the world. In the global ‘green’ markets, German companies have a disproportionately high share of 16% – and the trend is rising. The BDI supports the target set by the Council of Europe of a 20% reduction in CO2 by 2020 – admittedly starting from a baseline of 1990. The BDI could only accept a raising of this target to 30% if it is not a burden imposed unilaterally on German business: We need to have a level playing field.”
Justifiably, Europe is called upon to play an important role in the democratisation of the electric car. Euractiv considers that the new European Commission can and should work towards the standardisation of the electric car economy. Christian Egenfeldt, European Business Development Director at Better Place, says that it’s crucial to avoid a "Betamax versus VHS" situation, referring to the battle for standardisation in the video industry.
Public policies
If Frankfurt Motor Show is a turning point for the electric car, the Sustainable Mobility Week consecrated the car pool. This event was indeed the occasion for communities to take decisions in terms of sustainable transport.
In order to fight against urban congestion and parking problems, more and more communities have thus decided to integrate car pools into their public transport services. This is the case in the town of Gyf-sur-Yvette, as categorynet reports. The community has decided to entrust its project to Green Cove, which is putting into place a ‘turnkey’ solution that is personalised and perfectly integrated into the community’s website. Besides, Europale- asmedia highlights that various local councils have called upon this service (notably those of l’Ain and Seine-et-Marne) and explains its principle: the user connects to the service, enters departure and arrival addresses, and then chooses a vehicle in the list of available journeys. Green Cove has developed many advanced functions: the cost of the journey, tolls, those people present on the journey, integration of public transport in the search engine, CO2 emissions, text alerts… A real change in behaviour is reported by the English website CityLocal, which also evokes Sustainable Mobility Week : "We're encouraging car pools, to reduce the number of cars on the road and carbon emissions, and improve the standard of living." LiftShare clarifies that in the UK, nearly one in eight people already car share.
Business
Caradisiac spreads the car2go sustainable mobility concept, developed by the Daimler Group almost a year ago and whose results today are revealed to be very positive. 50 Smart Fortwo cdis have been put at the disposal of Group employees all over the town of Ulm. The principle is simple. They can be rented 24/7 by anyone interested. The user has to sign up, and can then, spontaneously or through reservation, obtain a vehicle and keep it for as long as he/she wants.
A car may be available only a few minutes’ walk away. The customer just gets in and starts it up. Once arrived at the destination, he/she just needs to leave the vehicle at a parking place in Ulm. The price is by the minute, at 19 euro cents.
This first car2go pilot project, tested in real conditions, met with real success. Between the 26th March and the 8th July 2009, it recorded 10,000 customers and more than 50,000 locations. This means that over 10% of those inhabitants of the town with a driving licence signed up during the period.
The concept has also found an application in Paris with the Autolib’ project, as Green Autoblog clarifies:"Bertrand Delanoë announced an all-new electric-vehicle public rental service, called Autolib’, inspired by the public bicycle-rental system Vélib' and the German Car2Go system." However, agreements between municipalities need to be improved in order to allow the project to spread out past the town of Paris.
Other events
Enerzine.com reports a very promising initiative. In August, the town of Daejeon in Korea announced that it would soon be able to put into circulation hybrid buses that can recharge themselves while on the road. Called OLEVs (Online Electric Vehicles), these hybrid vehicles can function without needing to be immobilised to be recharged. Equipped with magnetic strips, the buses recharge automatically as they pass certain sections of the road in which charging systems are buried.
The project arrives at a time when the Korean government is increasing its efforts towards a policy "of green growth and of carbon emission reduction." The government intends to spend €62bn between 2009 and 2013 to support and encourage green technologies.
Other initiatives of this type are being developed all over, such as at Seattle whose local council has decided to buy 500 hybrid buses. The fuel consumption of a bus of this kind would be reduced by more than 100 000 litres during its lifecycle, according to Treehugger.
