Authorized since 2020, the adaptation of cars, trucks or two-wheeled vehicles to switch to electricity or biogas without having to buy a new vehicle remains confidential: three government decrees published on Tuesday should, however, facilitate the sale of these kits that allow you to drive with fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
What is modernization?
The retrofit allows you to modify the engine of a thermal vehicle, transforming it into a battery electric vehicle, a hydrogen vehicle or a plug-in hybrid vehicle, using a compatible engine kit. The market is just beginning: this year only between 1,000 and 2,000 vehicles have been modernized, including two-wheeled ones, according to the association of actors in the electrical modernization industry (AIRe).
What is your potential?
But the goal is to modernize nearly 74,000 passenger cars and two-wheeled vehicles by 2028, with an ambition of 120,000 units for utility vehicles, including more than 2,000 heavy vehicles. Without replacing the sale of electric vehicles, “it can be very useful for some,” the Ministry of Energy Transition emphasizes to AFP. “For transporters, there is a real economic logic, given the price of trucks, and for someone, like a craftsman who travels between 50 and 100 kilometers passing through a Low Emission Zone (LEZ), it fits well,” we added.
Can we modernize all vehicles?
The market started with old cars, Renault R5, 4L or Citroën 2CV. Today these are common models such as the Iveco Crossway bus, the Renault Trafic utility vehicle, the Peugeot 103 moped and soon the Clio and Twingo. A dozen alternative engine kits have been approved. According to the ministry, thirty more will follow. From Tuesday it is possible to modernize special vehicles: cranes, motorhomes, vehicles accessible to people in wheelchairs, mobile cranes, etc.
It is safe?
A new vehicle is approved with certain characteristics, including weight. In the case of an electric conversion, the motor is certainly smaller and lighter but the batteries much heavier. For this reason it is necessary to approve the modernization kits. The tests verify the conformity of the conversion, handling, suspension and braking. However, since Tuesday these tests have been simplified.
Do we necessarily go electric?
No, it is allowed to equip your van or car with a CNG or LPG gas kit, a hybrid, a plug-in hybrid or a thermal hydrogen retrofit. Since Tuesday, these operations have been facilitated because the company carrying out the conversion is exempt from requesting technical advice from the manufacturer for vehicles over five years old. “This expands the spectrum of authorized transformations, opening it to technologies that are sometimes not yet mature, such as the hydrogen kit, which is still in the prototype phase,” estimates Xavier Senecal, head of vocational training at the reference secondary school. in the profession. . , the Garac in Argenteuil, near Paris.
“Nowadays, people think twice before changing cars, they lose a little and keep their thermal vehicle for longer. Modernization allows a temporary solution,” he says.
Where to modernize your car?
Modernization is mainly offered by small specialized companies, some of them relatively confidential. They are rare for gas conversion. About twenty AIRe members who joined the Mobilians automobile professionals union in the spring. More and more players are appearing but without yet covering the entire territory.
Is modernization profitable?
Modernization is among “the three most important actions that households can take to accelerate their energy transitions,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) underlines on Tuesday in its annual report, which also cites the purchase of an electric vehicle or of a heat pump. . The total cost of ownership, adding purchase and use, is “two or three times cheaper” than new electricity, a Grenoble modernization company claims on its site.
Source: BFM TV
