Three major French groups have joined forces to create a European “low-carbon” energy supply network for the transport of goods on motorways.
Engie, an industrial energy group whose main shareholder is the French State, Ceva, a logistics company headquartered in Marseilles and Sanef, a motorway concession company, three French companies, have just founded the joint venture ECTN Alliance (European Clean Transport Network Alliance). Joining forces in their respective fields, it will create a network of terminals dedicated to heavy goods vehicles and open to all shippers and carriers to supply them with fuel of any kind, biogas, hydrogen or electricity. Installed along European motorways, this network will integrate a specific IT solution to allow transport companies to have a common agenda for optimal planning of routes and charging times.
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A first Lille/Avignon axis
Starting this year, an experiment will be carried out between Lille and Avignon to demonstrate its feasibility before rolling it out across the entire continent. It should start in the second half of the year and last two years with a fleet of 20 tractors which will transport as many trailers every day between the two cities via five test terminals already existing on the Ceva sites, local carriers will carry out the pre- and post-routing to and from these sites. The objective of this experiment is to provide a first database to better understand the use of these trucks over long distances.
