For driving schools, electric is automatic

No real teaching without exemplarity. Specialist in driving training, the French Driving School (ECF) has decided to green its fleet to limit its environmental footprint while its instructors are already teaching the basics of eco-driving to their students. By 2026, the network will have switched its entire fleet to electric. Today, the 200 companies in the ECF network are at the head of 1,800 cars, 400 motorcycles and 600 trucks. More than 120 of their private vehicles now run on electric power.

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Their exclusive service provider, Renault, has been associated with the electrification process, which will be carried out in stages. First step: all vehicles delivered in 2022 will run on gasoline. “Renault shares with ECF this concern to reduce our emissions of fine particles, explains Bruno Garancher, President of ECF. The manufacturer’s teams have therefore agreed to switch the entire fleet to gasoline vehicles. »

The second stage will take place between 2022 and 2026 with the objective of running exclusively on electric power at its end. Throughout the national territory, ECF cars travel an average of 25 kilometers per hour. With this use, the autonomy of the batteries is sufficient to meet the needs of a day of lessons.

Downtown activities

The decision was made regardless of the economic cost of electricity. With a price higher than a thermal model, the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership, “total cost of acquisition”) of zero-emission models could have been balanced by savings on energy. “The fuel item represents 7 to 10% of a driving school’s income statement, observes Bruno Garancher. With a drop in diesel from 2 to 1.75 euros, the gain on the price of the driving lesson remains limited to 90 cents or 1 euro. The transition from thermal to electric is not decisive in terms of cost of use. »

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On the other hand, in addition to its desire to preserve the environment by electrifying its fleet, ECF also wants to continue to operate in low emission zones (ZFE). “Instructors will have to drive Crit’Air 0, 1 or 2 vehicles to maintain their activities in the city center”, says Bruno Garancher. The electric vehicle is also justified for this reason.

Automatic transmission

In its forward march towards electricity, ECF is restrained by the European legal framework. At least three months after passing their license on a vehicle equipped with an automatic transmission, the student must follow a new seven-hour training course on a manual transmission to broaden their field of action to all passenger vehicles. This additional learning is not sanctioned by a specific examination.

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