Electric cars on Germany's A40

Renault has signed an agreement with several German companies (RWE, FKA and the research institute of the University of Aachen) to include, in its trials before the definitive launch in 2011, electric cars in real road traffic, in this case on the German A40 motorway.

It is an ideal location for tests on environmental impact because it is an area with many traffic jams and a large number of cars generating noise: two of the main advantages of electric mobility, apart from not depending (always directly) on oil, are that its environmental pollution is zero and its noise levels fall considerably.

The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Economy of the North Rhine region with an amount of around 7 million €. Renault will manufacture 40 electric vehicles, namely the electric Renault Kangoo and the Renault Fluence Z.E. , along with 110 cars converted to electric drive that RWE will supply.

The aim is not only the integration of electric mobility into real traffic, but also to observe other devices that could be marketed for these vehicles, such as GPS systems with a route of battery charging stations installed. Let us remember that the range of these vehicles does not reach 200 kilometres, and, considering current consumption figures, this is considerably less than half that of any vehicle today.

Source | Renault