According to the French Energy department, 7 out of 10 French people commute to work using a car, due to the lack of public transportation on 80% of the territory. As a result, the transportation sector accounts for 30% of the greenhouse gases emitted by France into the atmosphere. On September 17th, French MPs voted in favor of a new transport and mobility bill, with the ambition of deeply reforming modes of transport and offering alternatives to the private car in areas remote from urban centers. Final adoption of the law is expected by the end of the year.
The draft “mobility orientation law” tackles the framework of the transportation system across the country. The legislators’ ambition is to expand the coverage of the public transportation, to update it to match the new uses and new realities of the population and last but not least, to facilitate its transition to a cleaner, greener and more sustainable infrastructure.
The draft law, which contains various measures to open up territories and decarbonize transportation, also involves the development of smart grids.
To increase the integration rate of new mobility solutions, the idea is to update infrastructures to match the new forms of mobility: electric vehicules, carsharing, self-service vehicules… As such, a single transport card granting access to varied modes of transportation available will be put in place as a means to diversify modes of transport and make new mobility solutions more accessible. In addition to making electric mobility more accessible, the plan is that by 2021, a national platform compiling all useful data (availability of self-service vehicules, real-time public transport schedules, etc.) will be rendered accessible to the population.
In order to achieve a successful energy transition in regards to mobility, the bill sets 2050 as a deadline to reach carbon neutrality for all terrestrial means of transportation in accordance with the Paris Agreement. France is the first European country to include this ambition in a law.
The bill projects a fivefold increase by 2022 in the number of available charging stations for electric vehicles, due to the obligation it imposes on real estate operators to pre-install charging stations in the parkings of new or renovated buildings. Along with this policy, the bill plans for the creation of a new subsidy for the acquisition of clean vehicles (hydrogen or electricity powered).
In addition, the law anticipates the massive deployment of EV charging stations, car-sharing EVs, electric bus and car fleets. To facilitate the development of terminals, its Article 23 defines the activity of EV charging operators as a service provision and no longer a mere provision of electricity. It also reduces the connection costs to recharging infrastructure by increasing from 40 to 75% of the amount supported by the DSO.
Similarly, another flagship measure of this law, the implementation of “low emission zones” in cities will promote clean mobility.
This electrification of individual and collective transport will give a new role to the grids that will have to integrate in the coming years millions of charging stations. Smart grids, by enabling a control of the charging load, will be essential to ensuring a lower cost of connections while maintaining the stability of the electrical system.
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