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PSA Peugeot Citroën and General Electric sign a European Cooperation Agreement for the co-development of electromobility solutions; BEVs and PHEVs

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GE-badged Citroën C-Zéro EV and pedestal version of GE WattStation charger. Click to enlarge.

PSA Peugeot Citroën and General Electric last week signed a technology and commercial cooperation agreement to collaborate towards establishing reliable business models for Electrical Mobility (EV), which includes both Fixed Battery Electrical Vehicles (FBEV) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV).

Through this non-exclusive and renewable agreement, GE and PSA Peugeot Citroën seek to develop a new EV mobility offer in Europe that will enable B2B customers to overcome the current EV constraints (mileage, charging time, vehicle size).

Both companies intend to create an EV Customer Experience Center in France that will promote the implementation of projects to demonstrate the economic, commercial and technological challenges at stake.

GE Energy’s Industrial Solutions will supply and deploy the infrastructure products needed to make the projects possible, in particular charging stations and installer network. Moreover, both groups will collaborate towards deploying a joint commercial offer for PSA Peugeot Citroën customers that would include an EV and the relative charging infrastructure.

The agreement would see GE Capital lease EV vehicles across Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. GE Capital is a leading leaser of vehicles, with a customer fleet of approximately 250,000 vehicles in Europe, and 1.6 million globally.

In July 2011, GE Capital announced the first European supply of EV Citroën C-Zero cars to technology giant, 3M. As a sign of its engagement in the EV sector, GE has shown interest in buying from PSA Peugeot Citroën up to 1,000 EVs by the end of 2015 for all of Europe.

PSA Peugeot Citroën has been manufacturing and selling electric vehicles under Peugeot and Citroën brands since 1995, and will launch in 2011 the first diesel-hybrid in the world, the Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4. GE provides commercial car and truck financing and integrated fleet management services for various consumers though its Fleet Services operations, a business within GE Capital. GE Energy’s Industrial Solutions produces the full range of electrical systems and smart grid technology necessary to develop and manage a complete electric vehicle infrastructure.

With its two brands Peugeot and Citroën, the Group sold 3,600,000 vehicles worldwide in 2010, including almost 40% outside Europe. As Europe’s second largest carmaker, it turned over €56.1 billion (US$76.5 billion) in 2010.

Comments

ToppaTom

Something like this could be the path from car ownership being something to satisfy our pride and pride of ownership instincts to just transportation from A to B - at least for many.

One of the irrationalities of individual car ownership is that a large % of cars are parked at any one time – an obvious waste of private wealth.

Busses and rapid transit suffer from high capital cost, empty seats and time between service (wait time at start and transfer).

Would corporate partnerships bring attractive carsharing? Carsharing using smaller cars; that get 40 mpg?

That would be nice, efficient, arguably not “ant like” and not require outlawing individual ownership for those with a zest for driving.

But since we expect pristine cleanliness AND immediate availability, maybe so, maybe no.

HarveyD

How about fully enclosed e-scooters-bikes sharing. They have high comfort level, use less road-street space, have sufficient range and are very energy efficient.

mahonj

Why not ordinary e-scooters bike sharing / rental.
Easier to handle, cheaper, Etc.
On a similar note, a push bike sharing scheme has been a huge success in Dublin.
You can join for e10 / year and bikes are free for the first 20 or 30 minutes.
It is subsidised by the council swapping the scheme for poster sites around the city.
The main advantage is that you don't have to own the bikes and thus they cannot get stolen (from you).

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