Bolloré Bluecar
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The Bolloré Bluecar is a small four-seat, three-door
electric car An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger car, passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric motor, electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a p ...
supplied by
Bolloré Bolloré SE () is a French conglomerate headquartered in Puteaux, on the western outskirts of Paris, France. Founded in 1822, the company has interests in Vivendi, international freight forwarding, oil storage and pipelines in France, solid state ...
, designed by
Pininfarina Pininfarina S.p.A. (; ; short for Pininfarina Società per Azioni) is an Italian automotive design, car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 ...
and manufactured by Cecomp in
Bairo Bairo is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont, about north of Turin. Bairo borders the following municipalities: Castellamonte, Torre Canavese Torre Canavese ( Piedmontese: ''La Tor Bè ...
, Italy, under a joint venture owned by Bolloré and Pininfarina called Véhicule Électriques Pininfarina Bolloré (VEPB). The car has a 30 kWh lithium metal polymer (LMP) battery, coupled to a
supercapacitor alt=Supercapacitor, upright=1.5, Schematic illustration of a supercapacitor upright=1.5, A diagram that shows a hierarchical classification of supercapacitors and capacitors of related types A supercapacitor (SC), also called an ultracapacitor, ...
, that provides an
electric range An electric stove, electric cooker or electric range is a stove with an integrated electrical heating device to cook and bake. Electric stoves became popular as replacements for solid-fuel (wood or coal) stoves which required more labor to oper ...
of in urban use, and a maximum speed of . Originally shown as the Pininfarina B0 concept car in 2008, the production version was launched in 2011 with the first 250 production version Bluecars deployed as part of the
Autolib' Autolib' was an electric car, electric car sharing service which was inaugurated in Paris, France, in December 2011. It closed on 31 July 2018. It was operated by the Bolloré industry and complemented the city's bike sharing system, Velib', wh ...
carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...
program in Paris on December 5, 2011. In October 2012, the Bluecar first became available to retail customers through leasing, and sales began in February 2013 at a price of plus a monthly fee of for the batteries. , a total of 5,689 units had been registered in France, most of which are in service for the Autolib' program. The Bolloré Bluecar was the top selling highway-capable electric car in that country in 2012. In 2014, Bolloré entered into a 70/30 joint venture with
Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...
to manufacture a three-seat version of the Bluecar from the second half of 2015.


History


Bolloré Bluecar concept

The
Bolloré Bolloré SE () is a French conglomerate headquartered in Puteaux, on the western outskirts of Paris, France. Founded in 1822, the company has interests in Vivendi, international freight forwarding, oil storage and pipelines in France, solid state ...
Group, through its subsidiary BatScap, presented the Bluecar EV, a road-ready prototype, at the 2005
Geneva Auto Show The Geneva International Motor Show was an annual auto show held in March in the Swiss city of Geneva. The show was hosted at the Palexpo, a convention centre located next to the Geneva Cointrin International Airport. The Salon was organised b ...
. The company intended to showcase the potential of the company's lithium-ion battery technology. The BlueCar concept car used a 30 kW electric motor powered by a 28 kWh lithium-ion battery pack positioned at the centre of the car under the seats and in front of the rear axle.


Pininfarina B0 concept

The Pininfarina B0 (B Zero) is a
concept A concept is an abstract idea that serves as a foundation for more concrete principles, thoughts, and beliefs. Concepts play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied within such disciplines as linguistics, ...
electric car An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger car, passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric motor, electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a p ...
designed by
Pininfarina Pininfarina S.p.A. (; ; short for Pininfarina Società per Azioni) is an Italian automotive design, car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 ...
in collaboration with
Bolloré Bolloré SE () is a French conglomerate headquartered in Puteaux, on the western outskirts of Paris, France. Founded in 1822, the company has interests in Vivendi, international freight forwarding, oil storage and pipelines in France, solid state ...
, which was introduced at the
2008 Paris Motor Show The 2008 Paris Motor Show took place from 4 October to 19 October 2008, in Paris expo Porte de Versailles. This edition of the Paris Motor Show featured a high number of hybrid and electric vehicles (EVs), that led a blogger with ''The New York T ...
. The car incorporates a lithium metal polymer battery matched up with a
supercapacitor alt=Supercapacitor, upright=1.5, Schematic illustration of a supercapacitor upright=1.5, A diagram that shows a hierarchical classification of supercapacitors and capacitors of related types A supercapacitor (SC), also called an ultracapacitor, ...
developed by Bolloré's subsidiary Batscap in the original 2005 concept Bluecar. The energy storage component not only allows for high
regenerative braking Regenerative braking is an energy recovery mechanism that slows down a moving vehicle or object by converting its kinetic energy or potential energy into a form that can be either used immediately or stored until needed. Typically, regenerativ ...
and acceleration capabilities but also extends the life of the battery. A range of 250 km and a top speed of 130 km/h have been announced for the vehicle, as well as 0–60 km/h acceleration time of 6.3 seconds.


Production version

Following the 2005 version of the Bluecar, the new Bluecar project was developed by the Pininfarina Design department, led by the Flemish designer
Lowie Vermeersch Lowie Vermeersch (born May 9, 1974) is a Flemish designer and Founder & Creative Director of Granstudio in Turin, Italy. He is part of the third generation of a prominent artistic family. Previously, he held the position of design director a ...
, who had previously coordinated other projects such as the Pininfarina Sintesi and the
Ferrari California The Ferrari California (Type F149) is a Grand tourer, grand touring, high performance sports car created by the Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari. It is a two-door 2+2 (car body style), 2+2 Retractable hardtop, hard top convertible. When ori ...
. The car was dedicated to the memory of Andrea Pininfarina, who died two months before its unveiling and who was a firm believer in the project. The main differences between the production Bluecar and the B0 concept car is in the detail design. The production version is launched as a three-door compared to the B0's five-door design. The photovoltaic roof was omitted and the front and rear lights and interior dashboard are simplified. ;Sales A total of 399 Bluecars were registered in France in 2011, 1,543 during 2012. ''See "Ventes de voitures électriques en 2016/2015/2014/2013/2012/2011." A total of 399 Bluecars were registered in 2011, 1,543 in 2012, 658 in 2013, 1,170 in 2014, and 1,166 in 2015, and 451 during the first five months of 2016.'' The Bolloré Bluecar was the top selling highway-capable electric car in the French market in 2012, and represented 27% of electric cars registered in the country during that year. Cumulative sales in France totaled 5,689 units by the end of September 2016, with over 2,000 units deployed in the Autolib' carsharing program.


Specifications

The Bluecar is a three-door
hatchback A hatchback is a car body style, car body configuration with a rear door that swings upward to provide access to the main interior of the car as a cargo area rather than just to a separated trunk. Hatchbacks may feature fold-down second-row sea ...
electric car An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger car, passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric motor, electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a p ...
with four seats. Both the retail and Autolib' versions share the same drivetrain specification. The electric car has a 30 kWh lithium metal polymer battery located under the passenger seats, coupled to a
supercapacitor alt=Supercapacitor, upright=1.5, Schematic illustration of a supercapacitor upright=1.5, A diagram that shows a hierarchical classification of supercapacitors and capacitors of related types A supercapacitor (SC), also called an ultracapacitor, ...
, that provides an
electric range An electric stove, electric cooker or electric range is a stove with an integrated electrical heating device to cook and bake. Electric stoves became popular as replacements for solid-fuel (wood or coal) stoves which required more labor to oper ...
of in the city and on the highway at a maximum power of 50 kW. The maximum speed is and the battery weighs . The batteries are made in Bolloré owned facilities in two locations, one in
Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...
, France and the other in
Montreal, Quebec Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
, Canada. Bolloré is unique in integrating solid-state batteries into production vehicles. The LMP batteries consist of a
laminate Simulated flight (using image stack created by μCT scanning) through the length of a knitting needle that consists of laminated wooden layers: the layers can be differentiated by the change of direction of the wood's vessels Shattered windshi ...
of four ultra-thin materials: (1) metallic
lithium Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...
foil
anode An anode usually is an electrode of a polarized electrical device through which conventional current enters the device. This contrasts with a cathode, which is usually an electrode of the device through which conventional current leaves the devic ...
that acts as both a lithium source and a current collector; (2) solid
polymer A polymer () is a chemical substance, substance or material that consists of very large molecules, or macromolecules, that are constituted by many repeat unit, repeating subunits derived from one or more species of monomers. Due to their br ...
ic
electrolyte An electrolyte is a substance that conducts electricity through the movement of ions, but not through the movement of electrons. This includes most soluble Salt (chemistry), salts, acids, and Base (chemistry), bases, dissolved in a polar solven ...
created by dissolving a
lithium salt Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, ...
in a solvating co-polymer ( polyoxyethylene); (3) cathode composed of
vanadium oxide Vanadium oxide mainly refers to: * Vanadium(II) oxide (vanadium monoxide), VO * Vanadium(III) oxide (vanadium sesquioxide ''or'' trioxide), V2O3 * Vanadium(IV) oxide (vanadium dioxide), VO2 * Vanadium(V) oxide (vanadium pentoxide), V2O5 Various o ...
,
carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...
, and polymer to form a plastic
composite Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic material ...
; and (4)
aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...
foil current collector.


Markets and sales


Car sharing programs

The first Bluecar electric cars were delivered for the
Autolib' Autolib' was an electric car, electric car sharing service which was inaugurated in Paris, France, in December 2011. It closed on 31 July 2018. It was operated by the Bolloré industry and complemented the city's bike sharing system, Velib', wh ...
carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...
program. Bolloré won the contract to deploy these electric cars together with 1,120 stations with parking and
charging station A charging station, also known as a charge point, chargepoint, or electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), is a power supply electrical device, device that supplies electrical power for recharging plug-in electric vehicles (including batter ...
s. A total of 66 Bluecars were deployed for the two-month trial period that began in October 2011, and service began on December 5, 2011, with 250 Bluecars available to the public, and rising to 1,000 cars by early March 2012, and about 2,000 units by September 2013. By early 2013 in France, the Bolloré Group announced plans to launch a similar carsharing service in
Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
, and
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...
, but under a different brand name ( Bluely in Lyon and Bluecub in Bordeaux) with no cost to the cities. Bolloré's proposal is to fund the entire infrastructure, install and provide the vehicles, and cover the costs of maintenance and repairs. After these two schemes are implemented, the company plans to launch similar systems abroad beginning with a city in Asia. The Bluely began service in October 2013 with an initial fleet of 130 vehicles and 51 parking and charging stations. The BlueCub, began operating in January 2014 with an initial fleet of 90 vehicles, 40 parking stations and 180 charging stations. In May 2014 in the US, the Bluecars were showcased to the public in
Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...
for a public car-sharing program called BlueIndy. The carsharing service was opened to the public in September 2015. BlueIndy began with 25 charging stations and 50 all-electric Bluecars around the city at launch. The Bluecars operated by the BlueIndy service were adapted to meet American regulations from the French version. In addition, the models used in the U.S. have air conditioning and more airbags, also size is slightly bigger and have more weight. The U.S. models have a range of about and a top speed of . Over 500 members signed up for annual subscriptions during the first month of operation. By the end of June 2016 there were 230 Bluecars in operation with 74 pick-up/drop off sites, each with five charging stations. The membership totaled 2,100 registered members, and never exceeded 3,000, despite $7 million in subsidies from Indianapolis and from Indianapolis Power & Light. In 2017, Bluecity, BlueLA and BlueSG began operations in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
,
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
and
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
respectively. The service in Los Angeles started as a program targeted at low-income people and achieved relative success in their pilot program. In 2019, BlueLA secured US$3 million to expand their services within the city. In Singapore, under an agreement with Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the
Economic Development Board The Economic Development Board (EDB) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the government of Singapore that plans and executes strategies to sustain Singapore as a leading global hub for business and investment. H ...
, the aim of introducing the electric car program was to reduce the car population and also carbon emissions in the city-state. Within the first 3 weeks of operations, over 3000 members signed up for the BlueSG, with 5000 rentals completed. Autolib', BlueIndy and BlueCity ceased operations in 2018, 2019 and 2020 respectively, citing failure to achieve scalability in the respective cities that they operated in. In February 2021, Goldbell Group, a Singaporean company, announced it had acquired BlueSG from Bolloré and the acquisition was finalised by October of the same year, after being in discussions since June 2020. According to Singapore's
Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) is a Statutory boards of the Singapore Government, statutory board under the Ministry of Finance (Singapore), Ministry of Finance of the Government of Singapore. ACRA is the regulator of bu ...
, BlueSG has been in a deficit since its launch, with the company making a loss of S$9.3 million in 2019. While in July 2021, BlueSG's network of 1,500 charging stations was sold to
TotalEnergies TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and is one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas explorati ...
, which would continue to operate and maintain the charging stations.


Retail version

Leasing to individual and corporate customers began in October 2012 and is limited to the
ÃŽle-de-France The ÃŽle-de-France (; ; ) is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 residents on 1 January 2023. Centered on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the cou ...
area. The Bluecar is available at a rate of () per month, with a minimum contract for 3 months and a maximum of 20 months. The pricing includes insurance, charging in the
Autolib' Autolib' was an electric car, electric car sharing service which was inaugurated in Paris, France, in December 2011. It closed on 31 July 2018. It was operated by the Bolloré industry and complemented the city's bike sharing system, Velib', wh ...
stations and parking. The retail version shares the same design and specification but has several differences with the vehicles deployed for Autolib, particularly its blue exterior color, unlike the Autolib' version's silver unpainted aluminum exterior. In February 2013, Bolloré announced it was discontinuing the leasing program and began retail sales of the Bluecar starting at a price of () before the
value added tax A value-added tax (VAT or goods and services tax (GST), general consumption tax (GCT)) is a consumption tax that is levied on the value added at each stage of a product's production and distribution. VAT is similar to, and is often compared wi ...
and the government bonus, plus a monthly fee of () for the batteries. Bolloré also offers an optional package for the installation of a wall-box home charging station for (, and for an optional monthly fee of (), owners can have access to the
Autolib Autolib' was an electric car, electric car sharing service which was inaugurated in Paris, France, in December 2011. It closed on 31 July 2018. It was operated by the Bolloré industry and complemented the city's bike sharing system, Velib', wh ...
' network of charging stations around Paris.


Atos MyCar

Atos Atos SE is a European multinational information technology (IT) service and consulting company with headquarters in Bezons suburb of Paris, France, and offices worldwide. It specialises in hi-tech transactional services, unified communicat ...
and Bolloré Group launched the MyCar corporate
carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...
pilot program in December 2012. The service is dedicated to Atos employees for their business travel needs at the company's headquarters in Bezons, France. Atos employees can book a car on the Atos intranet, pick it up and drive away. Besides promoting a more sustainable way to travel for business, Atos also expects that the MyCar service will reduce time spent booking travel and taxis, as well as the need for expense claims for business kilometers traveled, taxis and parking. A fleet of ten Atos branded Bolloré Bluecars were initially deployed, and
photovoltaic panel Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...
s covering 60m2 provide a power of 12 kW to charge the vehicles at the Bezons site. In addition, during their trips users can also access the 3,500
Autolib' Autolib' was an electric car, electric car sharing service which was inaugurated in Paris, France, in December 2011. It closed on 31 July 2018. It was operated by the Bolloré industry and complemented the city's bike sharing system, Velib', wh ...
charging stations available in Paris and its surrounding area. The carsharing service is part of Atos "Zero carbon" initiative that aims to reduce by 50% Atos
carbon footprint A carbon footprint (or greenhouse gas footprint) is a calculated value or index that makes it possible to compare the total amount of greenhouse gases that an activity, product, company or country Greenhouse gas emissions, adds to the atmospher ...
by 2015.


Fire incidents

On October 14, 2013, a Bluecar burned down while parked and charging at an
Autolib' Autolib' was an electric car, electric car sharing service which was inaugurated in Paris, France, in December 2011. It closed on 31 July 2018. It was operated by the Bolloré industry and complemented the city's bike sharing system, Velib', wh ...
carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...
kiosk in Paris and the fire then spread to a second Bluecar. A police investigation is looking into the cause of the fire. According to Bolloré, the real-time telemetric monitoring system did not register a thermal runaway problem with the battery of the car where the fire started. The company is attributing the origin of the fire to an external cause, probably vandalism. Bolloré reported that a total of 25 Bluecars in service for Autolib' have burnt during the previous two years, most of them certified as attributed to vandals.


See also

*
Government incentives for plug-in electric vehicles Government incentives for plug-in electric vehicles have been established around the world to support policy-driven adoption of plug-in electric vehicles. These incentives mainly take the form of purchase rebates, tax exemptions and tax credi ...
*
List of production battery electric vehicles Battery electric vehicles are vehicles exclusively using chemical energy stored in rechargeable battery packs, with no secondary source of propulsion (e.g., hydrogen fuel cell, internal combustion engine, etc.). The following list includes mas ...


References


External links

*
Pininfarina Bluecar website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bollore Blue Car Electric city cars Pininfarina Production electric cars