What if you were paid to drive electric?

Nouvelle-Aquitaine: What if you were paid to drive electrically, thanks to smart charging sockets?

-

• Hotravail is the first company in France to be equipped with V2G electric vehicle charging stations.

• These terminals have the particularity of returning electricity to the network when the car batteries are full.

• Electric vehicles could thus come in part, over the next few years, to meet the challenges of storing electricity.

Get paid to drive electric?

More than one automaker dreams of using this selling point.

And it is already possible, as demonstrated by the company Hotravrail (landscaping), based in Cestas near Bordeaux.

Since 2019, this company has been equipped with V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid) charging stations, bidirectional stations, which not only charge the vehicle, but can return electricity to the network.

Hotravail now has four, three in Cestas, and another at a site in La Teste-de-Buch.

Thanks to a partnership with Dreev, a subsidiary of EDF, Hotravrail is paid up to 20 euros per month and per terminal for this service provided.

"These terminals supply the Enedis network when it needs it"

"It's no more complicated than a traditional terminal," explains Olivier Demont, development manager at Hotravail.

What changes is that these terminals supply the Enedis network when it needs it, and within pre-defined time slots.

We, for example, have a daytime activity from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., so the aim is for our cars to be 100% charged in the morning, when they start to use.

But from 5 p.m., Enedis can come and use the electrical reserves of our cars to supply its network, especially during peaks in consumption.

"

“For us, adds Hotravail CEO Serge Dessay, it is completely transparent, except that not only do we not pay for electricity, but we also earn money.

Even though there are free charging points, especially in some shopping centers, it is estimated that on average, the cost of traditional charging is around 2 euros / 100 km.

EDF wishes to become "the leading recharging operator in Europe"

These stations recharge at a rate of 80 km / hour.

Sufficient for the Homework fleet made up of a fleet of seven electric vehicles, Nissan E-NV 200 utility vehicles, which promise 250 km of autonomy.

“We would like to have more, assures Olivier Demont, but the offer is not bloated either, and there is nothing at the moment regarding flatbed vehicles for example.

"

Unfortunately, not all vehicles on the electric market are equipped with the bidirectional system.

"There are only Nissan cars, and a few other models," explains Rémi Lambert, director of corporate and community sales at EDF Sud-Ouest.

But it will happen, and tomorrow all cars will be.

"EDF strongly hopes so in any case, because it wants to become" the first charging operator in Europe ", according to its South-West director Olivier Roland, and is already positioning itself on V2G terminals with its subsidiary Dreev created in 2019.

"The sum of the cars will become a big storage battery"

“There are currently three types of charging stations, explains Olivier Roland: classic charging stations, intelligent charging stations [V1G] which allow the vehicle to be charged at the right time - when electricity is not expensive or when it is is available - finally, the two-way charging stations [V2G], which have the ability to use the energy of the car to charge a building or return electricity to the grid.

With this type of terminal, cars thus become a brick of the electrical system, and with 15 million electric vehicles envisaged by 2030, the sum of these cars will become a large storage battery, which will be able to restore energy. energy to the grid during peak hours.

"

If the intelligent management of the terminals will prevent all these vehicles from recharging at the same time during the morning and evening rush hours, which could represent a constraint for the network, the V2G will also make it possible to have a small usable surplus in the event of peak consumption.

“It becomes a tool for electrical regulation, the customer becomes an electricity supplier, and may even be remunerated for it,” continues Rémi Lambert.

But there will be plenty of uses: you can also decide to use the electricity from your car to store photovoltaic production in your home, and power such and such use in your home.

"

Explosion of the supply of electric vehicles

Several projects around V2G should materialize soon in the South West.

“We have notably signed a partnership with the Occitanie region for the installation of 100 V2G terminals, which will allow 1 MW of storage, which can be very useful to us at a time of peak consumption” explains Olivier Roland.

The use of electric vehicles should accelerate in France from 2021, especially after the announcement a few days ago by the Minister of Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebarri, to reach 100,000 charging stations in the country by 2021. "This means that in one year, three times more terminals will have to be installed than over the last ten years", calculates Olivier Roland, who adds that there will be "a flowering of electric vehicles with an explosion of the offer from manufacturers in 2021-2022.

"

Sales of electric and hybrid vehicles have risen sharply in recent months, rising more than 200% this summer.

In September, 10% of new vehicles sold in France were electric or plug-in hybrids.

And the third best-selling car in France is now Renault's Zoé.

Automotive

Almost a third of French people plan to buy an electric car

Automotive

Kia wants to become the world market leader for electric cars!

• 20 minutes video

• Aquitaine

• Bordeaux

• Electric car

• EDF

• Society