Gefco says it is in the final phase of a project to install 290 EV charging stations on compounds across Europe.
Manufactured by e-Totem, the facilities will help carmakers and dealers charge vehicles before delivery to end-customers.
Installed in phases, 145 new charging stations will be operational by the end of 2021 on 23 GEFCO compounds in eight European countries: Belgium (Ghislenghien), Czech Republic (Kolin) France (Blyes, Le Havre, Hordain, Marckolsheim, Marly-la-Ville, Mulhouse, Nantueuil, Poissy, Rennes, Sochaux and Valenton), Italy (Livorno and Parma), Portugal (Setubal) and Slovakia (Trnava), Spain (Ciempozuelos and Tarragone) and the UK (Sandtoft and Sheerness).
“The transition to greener fuel requires major investments in new infrastructure,” said Gefco director of Industrial Car Flows, Albert Bouchoucha.
“These new EV charging stations will provide a boost to EV manufacturers and dealerships and we’re delighted to be helping our customers adapt to demand, true to our ‘Partners, unlimited’ culture.”
Mobilising a team of 40 GEFCO employees, the EUR7m (US$7.9m) project was launched in 2020 in response to growth in the EV market after the introduction of global incentives to accelerate the transition to zero-emission technologies.
Gefco notes this has created a new challenge: to enable supply-chain providers such as itself to top up batteries of new EVs at their compounds upon request, before delivery to dealerships and end-customers.
To meet the challenge, Gefco teamed up with e-Totem to design and produce two types of charging stations, DC50kW superchargers and AC22kW accelerated chargers. These have touch-screen, multilingual controls and are connected to a central management system by 3G/4G with Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) for live supervision.
With the technology, Gefco teams can set the level of charge to within 1%, track it with smartphones, ensuring battery levels never fall to zero and invoice the exact cost of the energy used to charge the vehicles.
The logistics operator maintains the features offer a “significant improvement” on traditional charging stations, which can neither predefine a level of charge nor stop charging automatically, meaning they always continue until full charge.
“We’re delighted to have worked with Gefco on this project, bringing customised, 100% French-designed and manufactured electric vehicle charging stations to sites across Europe,” added e-Totem CEO, Hervé Sonneville.
“Since the first days of our company in 2012, we’ve continually innovated and adapted our solutions to our customers’ needs.”