EDF and Toyota Announce Large-scale Demonstration of Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles in Strasbourg, France
EDF and Toyota today announced a major step forward in their joint road-trials in France, involving Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles (PHVs) and an innovative charging infrastructure. About one hundred units of a next generation PHV equipped with lithium-ion batteries will be leased to selected companies and partners in the Strasbourg area starting from the end of 2009, for a duration of three years. This project has received financial support via the Research Fund managed by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency ADEME, following a call for projects on low-emitting vehicles.
This programme is part of a global Toyota project that will also be deployed in Japan and the US from the end of 2009. Toyota’s main objective is to investigate further the technology and performance of Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles. EDF’s objective is to evaluate different operational options for the charging infrastructure. The joint goal is to broaden consumers’ understanding and acceptance, in preparation for broad commercialisation in the future.
In the context of the EDF-Toyota partnership, European road trials of Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles started in France in the autumn of 2007 and were expanded to the UK last year.
The vehicles will use an innovative charging system which is able to ensure safe charging, communication between the plug and the vehicle, identification of the vehicle and invoicing of energy. For this demonstration, EDF and its subsidiary Electricité de Strasbourg (ES) will participate in a technical and financial partnership with all stakeholders, which will set up several hundred charging points at users’ homes, at the facilities of partners, in public parking lots and on public roads.
A Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle uses Toyota’s hybrid technology but with the added benefit that its battery can be recharged using a standard electrical plug. Toyota’s PHV is “the best of both worlds”: for short distances, it can be driven as an electric vehicle, resulting in a silent, zero CO2 emissions drive. For longer distances, the PHV works as a conventional hybrid vehicle, providing all the benefits of hybrid technology, including low emissions and fuel consumption, and excellent driving performance. Toyota expects the PHV to bring unsurpassed fuel efficiency and therefore record low emissions – as compared to any other mass-market vehicle on roads today.
Press contacts
Toyota
Etienne Plas
+32 2 745 20 22; +32 479 999 613
etienne.plas@toyota-europe.com
Anne Gaublomme
+32 2 745 20 41; +32 473 633 541
anne.gaublomme@toyota-europe.com
Maria Mack
+32 2 745 20 53; +32 478 904 072
maria.mack@toyota-europe.com
EDF
Jill Coulombez
+33 1 40 42 24 25,
jill.coulombez@edf.fr
The EDF Group, one of the leaders in the energy market in Europe, is an integrated energy company active in all businesses: generation, transmission, distribution, energy supply and trading. The Group is the leading electricity producer in Europe. In France, it has mainly nuclear and hydraulic production facilities where 95% of the electricity output involves no CO2 emissions. EDF’s transport and distribution subsidiaries in France operate 1,274,000 km of low and medium voltage overhead and underground electricity lines and around 100,000 km of high and very high voltage networks. The Group is involved in supplying energy and services to more than 38 million customers around the world, including more than 28 million in France. The Group generated consolidated sales of € 64.3 billion in 2008, of which 47% were in Europe excluding France. EDF is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange and is a member of the CAC 40 index.
Toyota Motor Europe (TME) oversees the wholesale sales and marketing of Toyota and Lexus vehicles, parts and accessories, and Toyota’s European manufacturing and engineering operations. Toyota directly and indirectly employs around 80,000 people in Europe and has invested over €7 billion since 1990. Toyota’s operations in Europe are supported by a network of 31 National Marketing and Sales Companies across 56 countries, a total of around 3,000 sales outlets, and nine manufacturing plants. In 2008, Toyota sold over 1.1 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles in Europe. For more information, visit www.toyota.eu.
Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the world’s leading automakers and together with its subsidiaries produces a full range of models. Global sales of its Toyota and Lexus brands, combined with those of Daihatsu and Hino, totalled 8,972,000 units in 2008. Toyota oversees 75 manufacturing companies in 28 countries and locations, which produce Lexus and Toyota brand vehicles and components. Toyota employs about 320,000 people worldwide, and markets vehicles in more than 170 countries and locations. Since 1997, Toyota has sold more than 1.7 million hybrid vehicles globally, including more than 180,000 in Europe. Toyota has a global target of one million hybrid vehicles per year by the early 2010s.
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