EDF agrees to electric car plug-in deals

By John Reed in London
Published: October 10 2008 02:07

EDF on Thursday announced separate agreements with Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroën to develop recharging infrastructure for plug-in hybrid and electric cars in France.
The news coincided with a pledge by French president Nicolas Sarkozy to mobilise €400m ($546m) of public money over four years for research and development of low-emission vehicles.

The French energy group is already working with Toyota on plug-in cars in France and the UK.
Renault said its agreement with the utility company would cover recharging points for electric cars, and exchange stations that would allow motorists to swap depleted batteries for recharged ones.
These would be in place by the time Renault begins mass-marketing electric cars in 2011.
Peugeot said its agreement with EDF covered “the definition of business models” for plug-in cars and new technologies, including protocols to allow them to communicate with the network when recharging.
Carmakers are solidifying their ties with utility companies, which will need to supply recharging points and bill drivers for the power if plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles are to become commercially viable.
RWE and Daimler last month launched a pilot to set up 500 recharging points in Berlin for a test fleet of more than 100 Mercedes-Benz and Smart electric cars.
EDF and Toyota began working together on electric vehicles and infrastructure last year in France, and last month began testing the Japanese carmaker’s plug-in hybrid car in the utility’s company car fleet in the UK.
In Israel and Denmark, Renault is working with Project Better Place, a start-up US infrastructure company building recharging points and battery swap stations.
Nissan, its Japanese alliance partner, which will also launch electric cars in 2011, has formed partnerships on infrastructure for the cars with local authorities in the US state of Tennessee and the Kanagawa prefecture in Japan.
Automakers developing plug-in hybrid or electric cars are seeking government incentives for them as early models are expected to have small production runs and be expensive.
Mr Sarkozy yesterday said his government would continue to offer a €5,000 tax bonus for ultra-low emission cars until 2012, the last year of his term in office.
He also said that he wanted changes to European Union state aid rules to support carmakers’ investments in low-emission vehicles.
Carmakers this week asked the EU for €40bn in low interest loans for the new technology similar to a $25bn package recently approved in the US.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008