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TRAVEL NEWS

French bank to fund extra 10,000 electric vehicle chargers

A unit of France's national development bank said on Monday it had teamed up with an operator of electric vehicle rechargers to finance the deployment of nearly 10,000 points at businesses switching their fleets of vehicles.

French bank to fund extra 10,000 electric vehicle chargers
Charging stations for electric cars at the highway service area of Limours-Janvry, south of Paris. Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP

The Banque des Territoires, a subsidiary of France’s Caisse des Depots, said it would create a joint venture with Bump that would receive €100 million in investments to help companies shift to electric vehicles.

Installing charging stations requires a considerable investment for companies considering switching their vehicle fleets to electric.

The joint venture would finance the installation of Bump charging stations at company premises with the firms paying just for their use.

The first beneficiaries of the financing of EV chargers will be DPD logistics firm, as well as supermarket chains U and Monoprix.

Bump also provides companies with access to over 100,000 charging points across France, along with badges for tolls and parking garages.

“This collaboration with the Caisse des Depots represents a significant advance in our mission to assist companies in sustainable transitions of their fleets of professional vehicles,” Bump’s chief executive Francois Oudot said.

Bump aims to become the leader in corporate charging stations, as well as those deployed by retail chains for use by their clients, by installing 25,000 by 2030.

France’s state-owned electricity company EDF announced in February it had teamed up with infrastructure firm Morrison to build nearly 8,000 rapid charging stations in public parking lots between now and 2030.

That would nearly double the estimated 9,500 rapid charging points currently in operation in France.

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LIVING IN FRANCE

Rescheduled emergency sirens to go off in France on May 2nd

People in France on May 2nd will hear the emergency sirens go off in the late-morning.

Rescheduled emergency sirens to go off in France on May 2nd

There is no need to panic if you hear sirens go off sometime between 11:45am to 12:15pm in France on Thursday, May 2nd.

Normally, France tests its ‘population alert and information system’ (système d’alerte et d’information des populations or ‘SAIP’ in French) every first Wednesday of the month to ensure the system functions properly, but this year that date fell on a public holiday (May Day).

As a result, the sirens did not go off on Wednesday, and they were rescheduled for Thursday.

This is not the first time this has happened – the same procedure was used earlier this year when the November bank holiday (Toussaint, or All Saints Day) fell on a Wednesday.

When tested, the sirens go off for one minute and 41 seconds, and there are thousands across the country.

Why does France have these sirens?

The emergency alert system has been in place since the end of World War II. The goal is to make it possible to warn the entire population of an imminent or ongoing threat.  

READ MORE: Explained: France’s emergency sirens and alert protocol

In case of a real emergency – such as the Lubrizol factory fire in September 2019 – the sirens will sound for much longer, in three spells of one-minute 41-seconds, broken by a five-second pause.

If you do hear the longer siren, indicating a genuine emergency, you are expected to be aware of likely dangers that could affect your area and take necessary precautions. 

The sirens are usually not used for police or crime-related alerts – for example they do not sound in case of a shooting or stabbing in an urban area.

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