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Renault to Supply Natural Gas Trucks for Rail Merchandise Delivery Test in Paris

2 November 2007

At the end of 2007, Monoprix and Fret SNCF will run a joint experiment for the delivery of merchandise by rail to Parisian shops which are part of the Monoprix group. The products will be leaving warehouses located in the suburbs with the last kilometers covered by a fleet of 20 trucks fuelled by natural gas.

Renault Trucks and its partner PVI will provide most of the vehicles to the logistics operators working for Monoprix: 4 Midlum NGVs (GVW 16T) and 10 Premium Distribution NGVs (GVW 28T) for Bourgey Montreuil-Geodis; and 4 other Premium Distribution NGVs for GT location.

These vehicles will be outfitted for controlled-temperature transport and fitted with a lift gate. They will have automatic Allison gearboxes with continuous drive power take off to run the refrigeration units. This system, coupled the NGV engine, will contribute to delivering very low noise levels. The gas tanks will be specially fitted in the wheelbase so as to facilitate bodying work.

The project run by Monoprix will supply 60 shops in inner Paris and should represent 210,000 pallets—about 120,000 tonnes of merchandise. The rail/NGV vehicle combination will reduce CO₂ emissions by 280 tonnes and nitrogen oxide emissions (NO_x) by 19 tonnes per year. The Monoprix NGV fleets will be the first private French NGV distribution fleet.

The Renault Trucks range of NGV vehicles is part of a range of alternatives to diesel developed with PVI which also includes electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, including a range of hybrid technology vehicles presaged by the urban vehicle concept truck Hybrys presented at the Amsterdam show. (Earlier post.)

The Renault Hybrys is a 6x2 vehicle with a DXi7, 235 kW (320 hp) diesel engine that develops 1,200 Nm of torque; an Optidriver Plus robotized gearbox; and an electric MDS (Motor Drive System) motor. The batteries are recharged primarily during slow-down phases and braking, or optionally by grid-charging.

November 2, 2007 in Natural Gas, Rail | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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