Movin’On summit in Montreal driving for a mobile world
Electric planes, trucks and automobiles among long list of featured technology
From promises of electric 50-passenger planes that will shuttle clients within the decade to garbage trucks with electric-assist motors and ideas on how best to transport people around the world’s ever-growing cities, this week’s Movin’On World Summit on Sustainable Mobility running in Griffintown spans the gamut from high-flying dreams to more downto-earth solutions.
Sponsored by the Michelin tire and travel guide company and now in its second year on the banks of the Lachine Canal, the conference features presenters from 40 cities worldwide and is expecting more than 4,000 participants to share ideas, network and hobnob. This year’s event is sold out.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante opened the conference before 1,300 people Wednesday, stressing the government’s role to provide mobility solutions for a better quality of life and an improved economy. “I can’t build more roads, but I can offer more alternatives,” she said, citing her administration’s purchase of 300 city buses, her push for a new metro line and a promise to create more bike lanes and pedestrian-friendly thoroughfares.
Contrary to 10 years ago, mobility has become a topic of interest among the general public and big government, offering hope for the future, Plante said.
Bertrand Piccard, the first man to complete a round-the-world solar-powered flight, cautioned that convincing the general populace to adopt carbon-reducing greener methods, such as public transit, will only come if providers make it better than the alternative.
“You need to give it a certain form of profitability or power” in the form of saved time and less aggravation in commuting. “There has to be something in it for them.”
Piccard, the head of the International Committee of Clean Technologies, pledged that electricpowered, short-haul passenger flights would be widely available in a little more than eight years.
Government regulations combined with corporate responsibility can help to promote green mobility and lead to cost savings in terms of fewer people hospitalized for pollution-related diseases and car accidents, said Michelin CEO Jean-Dominique Senard.
Some of the innovations on display Wednesday:
NEW QUEBEC ELECTRIC BUS
Complete with smoke screen and circus performers, the Lion Electric Co., based in St-Jérôme, unveiled its latest electric bus offering, the eLionM, a smaller version of their previously launched full-sized all-electric school buses, designed for school shuttles and adapted-transit needs. It has a range of up to 240 kilometres and a price tag starting at $265,000, which the company said puts it in the same range as standard diesel buses. The company already has 200 of its C-series school buses on the road in Canada and the United States, retailing for $300,000 (as compared with $110,000 for a standard bus), but says it can make up the price differential through maintenance and gas savings in about five years. The company was set to sell five of the first electric school buses to be used in New York state this month.
A MORE EFFICIENT GARBAGE TRUCK
Most garbage trucks spend twothirds of their lives immobile, as garbage is dumped in the back. Effenco, located in Montreal’s SudOuest borough, has developed an electric system being adopted in North America and in France that allows the motor to shut off when not in motion, and powers the compacting and bin-lifting mechanisms of the truck, saving 30 per cent on fuel costs. “You save money when you cut the motor 600 times a day for 40 seconds at a time,” Colin Ryan of Effenco noted. The system costs $35,000, half of which is covered by a Quebec grant, and can pay for itself in three years for a truck in heavy use. A garbage truck costs about $300,000. The system can also be used in cement trucks and tractors.
VINTAGE BIKES MADE NEW
Rebicycle in the Mile-End takes old steel frames and adds modern components to build custommade bikes for $800. Started by Ben Adler four years ago, the firm has racked up $300,000 on sales of more than 500 bikes, mostly through word of mouth. Customers come for a one-hour private session to discuss exactly what they want (how many gears, what kind of handlebars and seat, what kind of look) and get a custom bike that would normally cost at least $2,000, built from a steel frame that would normally be discarded. Adler’s customers are often young professionals with a sense of style and a love of bikes, he said. The company is looking to branch out to Toronto and Vancouver and possibly New York and Austin, Texas.
AN F-150 WITH AN ELECTRIC MOTOR
Montreal firm Ecotuned was on hand with its version of a retrofitted F-150, Canda’s most popularselling pickup. The retrofit costs $40,000 and is designed for heavyuse trucks in municipal fleets that see 300,000 kilometres of use in three to four years. Rather than buy another engine (or sell the truck for a pittance), Ecotuned will install a new electric motor with a range of 150 kilometres that can last up to one million kilometres, extending the life of the truck for several years. The company said the retrofit can pay for itself in three years.