• The G7 taxi company currently has very few electric vehicles.

  • It asks for the installation of charging stations reserved for professionals.

  • For the moment, only a private station is reserved for them.

With its 9,000 affiliated drivers, G7 is a key player in Parisian taxis.

Its positions are therefore carefully scrutinized by decision-makers.

And this Wednesday, the company sent a fairly clear message at a press conference: to switch tomorrow to 100% electric taxis, the public authorities will have to roll up their sleeves.

Currently, half of the G7 fleet has the “G7 Green” label.

"We are not going to stop there and we are setting a target of 75% of G7 Green vehicles in 2024, and 100% in 2027," said CEO Nicolas Rousselet.

Except that within this label, only 76 vehicles (ie 0.8% of the fleet) are 100% electric.

The overwhelming majority of the "G7 Green" (96%) are today made up of non-rechargeable hybrids (the rest being plug-in hybrids).

However, these vehicles, although they make it possible to partially reduce CO2 emissions, still pollute since they operate mainly with a heat engine.

"A driver will not wait 30 minutes at a terminal"

To convince the drivers - since they are the ones who own their taxis - to turn to electric vehicles, the company has identified two obstacles to overcome. First, that of autonomy. Some manufacturers assure that with the most efficient models - and the most expensive - it is possible to drive more than 500 kilometers without recharging. In reality, "we rarely exceed 300 kilometers in real conditions," says Zineb Essahli, marketing director of G7. However, a taxi travels between “200 and 300 kilometers per day”, recalls Nicolas Rousselet. In other words, impossible to do a full day without having to recharge at one time or another.

And this is where the second problem identified by G7 arises.

"We must install many more charging points dedicated to taxis, next to stations" pleads Nicolas Rousselet.

The CEO continues: “a driver will not wait 30 minutes for a public terminal to become available, or go down to a parking lot to connect.

All of this wastes him time and money.

As long as we do not have dedicated fast charging stations, we will not be able to accelerate the diffusion of electric vehicles ”.

The private sector at the forefront

G7 therefore ensures that it is lobbying local elected officials to obtain such a deployment.

Asked by

20 Minutes

, the Paris town hall had not responded when the article was published.

The city has nevertheless planned to install 433 “Belib” public charging stations by January 2022, as part of a concession granted to Total.

Regarding the terminals dedicated to taxis, it is necessary for the moment to go through the private sector.

Last April, Shell installed a charging station reserved for taxis and VTCs in the heart of Paris.

Located in the underground car park of the Town Hall, it offers four terminals with a power of 50 Kw (allowing rapid charging to 80% in 30 minutes).

A second station of this type should see the light of day at the end of 2021 near Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport.

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