January 29, 2010 

Peugeot CEO Jean-Marc Gales at his Press conference at the Brussels Motor Show: commenting on the important agreements on electric vehicles and also charting out the future course of the company...

Recently, the Brussels Car Show took centre stage. We had a brief talk with the CEO of Automobiles Peugeot, Jean- Marc Gales, at the occasion of his signing of two letters of intent (LOI’s) agreements with Veolia and Greenwheels, two companies operating in Europe, concerning the purchase of electric vehicles and the development of mobility services.

Mr. Gales also agreed to join the European EVA (Electric Vehicles for Advanced Cities) project, a consortium that currently brings together over 20 European cities, automobile manufacturers and electricity suppliers from many countries, as well as research institutes.

We will tell you more in a special report about these partners and the plans of Peugeot, suffice to say that Peugeot has been historically a traditional electric vehicle player (with the all-electric 106…), and they chose Brussels, headquarters of the main European institutions, as the venue for the signature of these various agreements. It is also worth mentioning that to date, over 2,000 orders have already been taken for the Peugeot i0n, the electric vehicle that will be on sale in October 2010.

Smiling faces after the signing of the letters of intent agreements: from left to right: Mr. Cyrille du Peloux, CEO of VEOLIA Transport, Mr. Gales, CEO of Peugeot and Mr. Gijs Van Lookeren, campaign Manager for Greenwheels.  

Veolia Transport is a French company which is a world leader in passenger transport and mobility services, and for them the collaboration with Peugeot strengthens their ability to produce an innovative, competitive offer for their  great Autolib project.

Greenwheels is an innovative Dutch company specializing in the field of car-sharing. The agreement with Peugeot gives them a guaranteed supply of electric vehicles, including of course the Peugeot i0n. More on this in a special report…

January 29, 2010

We sat the last days behind the wheel of another impressive member of the Audi stable: a dark silver grey Q5, equipped with the very smooth 2.0 TDI engine, with sufficient power (143 HP) to move the Q5 in a spirited manner over wintery roads; the car came with the 6-speed gearbox, and surprised us with an impressive economy. More on this very able car soon…

January 30, 2010

Mr. Ivan Hodac, Secretary General, Automobile Manufacturers' Association – ACEA held a noteworthy exposé about the present status and future prospects of the European car industry on "green" cars...   

At the Brussels Salon, a conference was held on the theme of “Low Emission Cars, turning hype into reality” in the EU. After a welcome and introduction by Thomas Leysen, President, Federation of Enterprises in Belgium – FEB, Mr.  Ivan Hodac, Secretary General, Automobile Manufacturers' Association – ACEA held a noteworthy exposé on the current activities and challenges towards Low Emission Cars. He emphasized that European commercial vehicle production had been hard hit by the crisis, being down 52%over the first three quarters of 2009. The drop in demand for passenger cars was only down 10 % in Europe, due to the government support schemes in place. He also stated that the industry remains robust in the long term. On low emission cars, he pointed out that the internal combustion engine will continue to be primary power train in 2020 timeframe, and deliver important part of overall CO2 reductions.

Colin Hensley, General Manager Corporate Affairs & Planning, External Affairs Division -   Toyota Motor Europe, commented about the hybridisation of the car park, the present status and forecasts of further hybridization and electrification, and the Toyota motor policies in building low-emission cars for the future.

Luc Semeese, Director of Engineering, Volvo Cars Gent - Volvo Car Corporation, talked about the Volvo policy on Flex-fuel cars and depicted also the situation on fostering nation and Europe-wide market penetration of alternative fuel stations, taking the situation and achievements in Sweden as a benchmark .

Mr. Thierry Koskas...

Highlight of the conference was also the exposé of Thierry Koskas, Head of the Electric Vehicle Project – Renault, about Renault’s bold plans on electric vehicles and the necessary framework conditions for the  electrification of the global and European car parks. We will also bring a special report about his presentation, as we will do also for most of the other speakers.

An interesting round table discussion was held at the end of the conference, with from left to right Gunnar Lorenz, Head of Networks Unit, Union of the Electricity Industry (EURELECTRIC), Simon Godwin, Director European Council for Automotive R&D (EUCAR) , the moderator Tim King, Editor of European Voice, Giacomo Mattinò, Deputy Head of Unit - Automotive Industry,  DG-Enterprise & Industry, European Commission,  Franziska Achterberg, EU Transport Policy Campaigner, Greenpeace, and at the far right Urszula Szalkowska, Director Europe & Africa, International Fuel Quality Center.