BMHAVOCATS

Electromobility for EuropeOvercoming Technical, Economical and Legal

Challenges-

JANSON BAUGNIET Brussels, January 16th 2012

-Round Table Discussion: Overview of European

Member States Policy-

FRANCE

Anouk Darcet-FelgenPartnerBMH AVOCATS                                                      Paris  e-mail: adarcet@bmhavocats.com

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The road to electromobility: Law of 30th December 1996

* Article 24 of the Law “about air and rational use of energy”:

French central and local Administrations and State-owned companies managing a fleet of 20 vehicles and more, shall, at the time of its renewal, acquire or use at least 20 % of vehicles (except for heavy vehicles) using electricity, natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas.

Tax incentives: among other, accelerated depreciation over 12 months for the newly acquired vehicles using electricity, for the adaptation systems and charging equipment

Call for initiatives in condominiums: the installation of an electricity distribution network in private parking

facilities can be put on the agenda of co-owners’ assembly (implementation requires majority vote)

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National Plan for the Development of electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles• October 1st 2009: French Government announces 14 concrete steps,

among which:

“Calls for projects”: - public demonstrator fund of 70-million € to support charging installations projects- call for projects on “mobility” worth 25 million €

Creation of a production chain for batteries: Renault creates a battery factory in Flins (40 kilometers from Paris),

investment of the French public strategic investment fund (“Fonds stratégique d’investissement”, FSI) of 125 million € plus public loan of 70 million €

Objective of 100,000 electric fleet vehicles by 2015, a group of 16 of France’s biggest companies and associations of regional and local public authorities intend to buy

50,000 electric vehicles until 2015, subject to economical and technical requirements

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Premium of 5,000 € (CO² emission < 50g/km) confirmed until 2012

Developing charging equipment at home and at work: installation of electric outlets devoted to the recharging of electric vehicles in new constructions and office premises

Condominiums: creation of a “right to plug-in” for lessees and of new rules to ease the submission of estimates for charging installations to the flat owners’ assembly

Standardization process at a European level towards the creation of a common electrical outlet

Support to city councils to deploy public charging infrastructure: application of the principle of the “free choice of electricity supplier” within the framework of the public service of electricity distribution

Creation of a subsidiary of ERDF (French public national network operator) devoted to assist local authorities and participate in public tenders

Ensure that electricity used by electric vehicles is produced as much as possible from non fossil energy sources

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Forecasts of the French Environment Ministry

* 2015: - 900,000 electronic outlets devoted to the recharging of electric

vehicles in homes or at workplaces- 60,000 normal charging installations on public roads and in

public car parks- 15,000 fast charging installations on public roads and in public

car parks

* 2025:- 9,000,000 electronic outlets devoted to the recharging of

electric vehicles in homes or at workplaces- 750,000 normal charging installations on public roads and in

public car parks- 150,000 fast charging installations on public roads and in

public car parks

* Costs: max. 4.7 billion € for charging infrastructure by 2020, approx. 145 million € to upgrade the power grid until 2015

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“Call for interest” (“appel à manifestation d’intérêt”): charging infrastructures• Part of the investment program “vehicle of the future”, worth 1

billion €• Launched on April 27th 2011• Application deadline: December 16th 2013• Managed by the State Agency for Environment and Energy

Management (ADEME)• Aims at supporting financially the deployment of charging

infrastructure on public roads by granting subsidies to the municipalities

• 3 kVA-charging infrastructure privileged• A pricing mechanism minimizing the environmental impact and

favoring charging stations providing 3 kVA will be appreciated

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Law of July 12th 2010 (“Grenelle II Law”)

* Article 57 provides for changes in several French Laws:

Municipalities or public inter-municipality cooperation establishments can construct and maintain charging infrastructures or set up a service including the construction, the maintainance and the operation of charging infrastructures “operation“ can comprise the purchase of the electricity necessary to fuel charging installations

The public distribution network organizing authority and the operator of the public distribution network shall deliver an

opinion about the project of charging infrastructures

The construction, configuration, location of charging infrastructure shall be included as a parameter in the „urban mobility plan” (“plan de déplacement urbain”) (to be established in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants)

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Example of a car-sharing activity of electric vehicles: Autolib’- car-sharing service of electric vehicles and charging stations

launched in Paris and the Paris suburbs on December 5th 2011- 250 electric vehicles and rental stations, approx. 1,400 charging

stations (objective by June 2012: 1,740 electric vehicles, 1,100 rental stations and 5,000 charging stations; by end 2013: 3,000 electric vehicles, number of rental and charging stations unchanged)

- Rental fee (source: http://www.autolib.eu/nos-tarifs/):

(1) La facturation des locations et des recharges est calculée prorata temporis sur la base de la durée de location ou consommation réelle arrondie à la minute supérieure sauf pour les 20 premières qui sont indivisibles (facturation minimale).

(2) Les 20 premières minutes de la première demi-heure sont indivisibles (facturation minimale).

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Focus 1: charging infrastructure in private housing • Grenelle 2 Law (article 57):

Every newly built residential complex (= at least two residential units) with securized parking spaces or an individual parking garage must be equipped with cables, cable ducts and safety equipment needed to install charging electrical outlets for electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid vehicles compulsory as long as the request for building permit is submitted

after January 1st 2012

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Modification of co-ownership rules in condominiums:

the co-owners’ assembly shall put the topic of works to allow the recharging of

electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid vehicles on its agenda

the decision to install or modify common electrical installations to allow the

recharging of electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles shall be a majority vote of all co-owners

the owner or the building management of a residential complex with secured or

individual parking spaces cannot object to a request of a lessee regarding the installation of charging infrastructure without “a serious and legitimate

reason“ (for example pre-existence of such installations, decision by the owner of the

condominium unit to install such infrastructure within a

“reasonable” timescale)

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the conditions to the installation, operation and maintenance of charging infrastructure shall be covered by an agreement between the owner or the building management and the provider

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• Decree of July 25th 2011:

condominiums for which a request for building permit was submitted after January 1st 2012:

cable ducts and conduits must be installed to connect a low-voltage board to at least 10 % of the parking spaces, with a minimum of 1 parking space

all or some of the parking spaces shall be designed so as to allow subsequently the construction of charging points with a device to capture individual consumption

a ministerial order shall define the characteristics of the “normal charging outlet” to be installed

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lessee’s “right to charging”: prior to the works purporting to the installation of a charging infrastructure and a device to measure its individual consumption, the lessee shall inform the owner per registered letter and address a detailed description of works. In co-owned buildings, the involved co-owner shall notify the building management to put this topic on the agenda of the next co-owners’ assembly

if the owner or the co-owners’ syndicate opposes the works, they shall petition the local Court within 6 months

following the receipt of the lessee’s information letter

if the owner or the co-owners’ syndicate decides to perform the works but exceed the 6-month timeframe following

receipt of the lessee’s request, the latter can perform them

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Focus 2: charging infrastructure in office buildings• “Grenelle 2“ Law of July 12th 2010:

employers can take over the charging costs of their employees’ electric vehicles and authorize recharging in office premises

already built office buildings used mainly as workplace and with parking lots for employees’ cars must be equipped with charging infrastructure before January 1st 2015

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• Decree of July 25th 2011:

for newly built office buildings (i.e. those whose request for building permit was sub-mitted after January 1st 2012) the owner shall electrify the car park and all or some of the spaces must be designed to allow the construction of charging stations on a mini- mum of 10 % of all spaces with a device measuring the individual consumption of electricity

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for “existing buildings” (i.e. those for which a re-quest for building permit was submitted before Ja-nuary 1st 2012), the owner shall install a low-volta-ge circuit to connect a low-voltage board to char-

ging stations, this circuit shall cover at least 10 % of the parking spaces in urban areas with more than 50,000 inhabitants, 5 % in other cases, provided that:

the car park comprises more than 20 spaces in an urban area of more than 50,000 inhabitants, or, in other cases, more than 40 spaces, and

the building and car park is owned and occupied by one and the same person

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Focus 3: charging stations on public domain- Article 57 of the “Grenelle 2” Law has created the basis of a

“public service” for the installation of charging infrastructure on the French territory: municipalities or public inter-municipality cooperation establishments can spur the installation of these infrastructure, for example through PPPs or amendments to existing public service delegation contracts (esp. for car park operators)

Example of Autolib’: public service delegation contract signed with Bolloré

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- An “authorization to occupy the public domain” shall be obtained from the competent local authority.

- The (private or public) operator of the charging stations is in charge of the supply of electricity and shall conclude a supply agreement with the electricity supplier of its choice

- “Green Paper on recharging infrastructure accessible to the public for carbon-free vehicles” (Member of the Senate Louis Nègre, April 26th 2011) recommends that recharging electric vehicles on public domain be part of a global service agreement to be concluded with the consumer electricity tariff is not identifiable in the contract price and can be adjusted

This recommendation was followed by Autolib’ and seems to reflect future common practice

Counterexample: the charging stations operated by the Paris municipality on public roads are free of any cost for the consumer

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Focus 4: recharging price

- Economic study by Corporate Value Association (CVA) (in “Green Paper on recharging infrastructure accessible to the public for carbon-free vehicles”) : should the costs of public/private recharging infrastructure be borne solely by the consumer and based on a fleet of 3,300 electric vehicles in a city with 500,000 inhabitants, the price for a 25 kWh-recharge would be between 13 € for a 3 kVa-charging station and 36 € for a fast-charging station (43 kVa). The cost of electricity for such recharge would be approx. 2 €

under this assumption, infrastructure costs would negatively impact on the competitiveness of electric vehicles

this should be taken into consideration by local authorities to determine the number of charging stations to be constructed

the deployment of “secondary” shared charging stations in on-street parking, at places of employment, hotels, shopping centers, restaurants, etc. seems economically more efficient and would trigger market growth

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- Example of Autolib’: all stations can be used for recharging private electric vehicles other than Autolib’s, subject to subscription to

the recharging service (180 € per year)

Recharging prices (source: http://www.autolib.eu/nos-tarifs/):

(1) La facturation des locations et des recharges est calculée prorata temporis sur la base de la durée de location ou consommation réelle arrondie à la minute supérieure sauf pour les 20 premières qui sont indivisibles (facturation minimale).

(2) Les 20 premières minutes de la première demi-heure sont indivisibles (facturation minimale).

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Remaining legal issues

- Specific parking rate for users of shared electric vehicles? A preferential rate might conflict with the non-discrimination principle between users of a public service

- Uncertainty regarding the price for the electricity from charging infrastructure: “instant” tariff or specific tariff to dissuade from recharging at peak times of electricity consumption or to promote mobility services such as car-sharing of electric vehicles?

- High cost of charging infrastructure and the will to deploy massively charging infrastructure in the domestic sphere, public spaces and office buildings will require new business and legal models to overcome the inevitable end of public subsidies and achieve a mature market

- Need to design a legal framework to favor the supply of electricity from renewable sources in charging infrastructure

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We thank you for your attention.

Anouk Darcet-Felgen

BMH AVOCATS                                                               

29 rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré

75008 Paris 

tel : (33) (0) 1 42 66 63 19 

fax : (33) (0) 1 42 66 64 81

e-mail : adarcet@bmhavocats.com 

website : http://www.bmhavocats.com