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  • Rotterdam
  • Stockholm
  • La Rochelle
  • Erlangen
  • Lombardia
  • Stavanger
  • CITELEC

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    ELCIDIS: La Rochelle

    La Rochelle, a city of 135 000 inhabitants on the French Atlantic coast, was one of the first European cities with a traffic policy aimed at reducing environmental pollution. As a part of this policy the municipality has been promoting the use of electric cars, bicycles and public transport. At this moment, there are 235 electric vehicles on the road, which makes La Rochelle the leading city for electric vehicles within the European Union.

    In the narrow streets of the historic city centre of La Rochelle, distribution activities cause environmental as well as congestion problems. To decrease the problems with goods deliveries, the city has introduced access restrictions for entering the old city.Trucks are only allowed to enter the city centre before 11 a.m. and they may not exceed a total weight of 7.5 tons.

    The successful deployment of electric vehicles has led to a plan for introducing an electric vehicle based logistic system for goods deliveries in the city.The concept is to develop an urban distribution centre from which electric vehicles will deliver parcels and packages to shops and businesses in La Rochelle. The same vehicles will also collect packages and take them to the distribution centre for deliveries outside La Rochelle.

    The use of a central distribution centre will lead to a more efficient organisation of goods deliveries and to a reduction in vehicle kilometres covered by trucks and vans in the city centre.The electric urban distribution vehicles will have longer access to the city centre, which is an important incentive for shops and businesses to join the service.

    In the context of ELCIDIS, La Rochelle will introduce 6 small electric vans and 3 scooters for parcel, package and express deliveries in the city centre. Small electric vans and scooters are best suited for driving in the narrow streets of the historical city and are very energyefficient.To prevent congestion, special parking places for loading and unloading the distribution vehicles will be built.The logistics centre from which the vehicles operate will be established at the edge of the city centre. If the delivery service using electric vehicles in the city centre is a success, the urban distribution service's area of operation will be expanded into other areas of La Rochelle.
     
     

    Co-ordinator for the La Rochelle project:

    Anne Chané
    DGST-GEU
    Communauté d'Agglomération de La Rochelle
    6 Rue Saint-Michel, 
    BP 1287
    17086 La Rochelle Cedex 02
    France
    Phone: + 33 5 46 515019 
    Fax:+ 33 5 46 51 5062
    e-mail: vec-elec@cda-larochelle.org