Amsterdam,
16
December
2021
|
07:30
Europe/Amsterdam

Fastned and Banque des Territoires partner for the roll-out of fast charging stations on French motorways

Summary
  • Fastned and Banque des Territoires announce a bilateral partnership agreement to support Fastned’s ambitions of rolling-out a large network of fast charging stations along French motorways. 
  • The partnership will mobilise a hybrid financing instrument for up to 49% of Fastned’s investment, with a maximum of 50 million euro. 
  • The stations contribute to the goal set by Barbara Pompili, the French Minister of Ecological Transition, to deploy fast charging stations on all French private motorways by the end of 2022.

Fastned, the European fast charging company, and Banque des Territoires, the territorial investment division of the French public institution Caisse des Dépôts, announce a partnership to support the construction of fast charging stations along French motorways. Under the terms of the partnership, Banques des Territoires will finance up to 49% of the investment in Fastned stations built along private motorways, with a maximum of 50 million euro. 

Through this partnership, Fastned will pursue its primary mission of developing recharging infrastructures to accelerate the transition to electric mobility and give more freedom to electric vehicle drivers. These investments will also contribute to the French government objective to equip all 360 private motorway service areas with charging infrastructure by the end of 2022. Fastned is participating in competitive tenders that have been opened on around one-third of these service areas. Currently around 1% of the vehicles on the road in France are fully electric. This share is expected to increase to more than 10% by 2030, which will significantly drive growth in charging demand and station revenues. 

Under the partnership, Banque des Territoires will provide Fastned with a hybrid financing instrument which includes a repayment schedule and a remuneration that evolves in line with the development of the BEV market and the cash flow generation of Fastned’s stations. 

The first nine stations that are planned to be financed by this partnership result from the tender awarded to Fastned by the French motorway and toll group APRR/AREA (Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône). Four of these stations have been operational since the end of November 2021. All of the stations that will be financed under the partnership will be located along key arteries of the French motorway system and will provide EV drivers with charging capacity for years to come.

Electric vehicle drivers can find the first four Fastned fast charging stations financed under this partnership at the following service areas: Gevrey-Chambertin Ouest (A31, Dijon), Écot (A36, Montbéliard), Pont Chêne d'Argent (A39, Dole) and Pont Val de Saône (A39, Dole). Five other stations will be opened in the coming weeks at Jonchets Les Récompenses (A5), Jonchets La Grande Paroisse (A5), d’Archère Ouest (A6), Dracé (A6) and Saint Ambreuil (A6). Each station starts with at least 4 charging positions, delivering up to 300kW per charge point, and will be expanded to up to 12 charging positions as demand increases. 

 “I’m very happy with our partnership with Banque des Territoires. It confirms the increasing confidence by investors to fund the roll-out of fast charging infrastructure and their ability to propose suitable financing solutions to our business. This partnership will support us in our mission to give freedom to electric drivers, thereby accelerating the transition to sustainable mobility.”
Victor van Dijk, CFO Fastned
“Banque des Territoires is fully mobilized to foster the energy transition.  We have a strong focus on financing low-carbon mobility, in particular through deployment of charging stations to meet the needs of EV drivers under different use cases, which is one of the strategic objectives of our Climate Plan. The financial instruments we have built fit well with the risk profile of the transaction and we are able to share the risks with operators such as Fastned in these new and growing markets.” 
Pierre Aubouin, Director of the Mobility and Infrastructure Team at Banque des Territoires
“This is our first commitment to finance a charging station project on the French motorways, and we are pleased to accompany Fastned, a young but experienced European pioneer, on their first projects in France.  We hope this is the first of many projects that the partnership will enable, and that this financing arrangement will pave the way for a broader mobilisation of other developers that we, the Banque des Territoires, are inclined to support to accelerate the development of French charging station networks,” continued Pierre Aubouin.

The pictures below show an image of a Fastned fast charging station in France and the location map of Fastned stations in France. 

Boilerplate

About Fastned

Fastned has been developing fast charging infrastructure for electric vehicles across Europe since 2012. Fastned’s mission is to accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility by giving freedom to electric drivers. Based in Amsterdam, the company has built [181] fast charging stations in the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France and Switzerland. The company specialises in developing and operating fast charging infrastructure where drivers can charge their electric vehicle with up to 300 km of range in 15 minutes before continuing their journey. Fastned is listed on Euronext Amsterdam (ticker AMS: FAST).

 

About Banque des Territoires

Set up in 2018, Banque des Territoires is one of Caisse des Dépôts' five areas of expertise. It brings together within a single structure all of the in-house expertise for local areas. As a one-stop shop for customers, it provides bespoke solutions in terms of consulting and financing through loans and investment to meet the needs of local authorities, social housing bodies, local public undertakings and the legal professions. It has been set up to serve the interests of all local areas alike, from rural municipalities to large cities, with the ambition of combating social inequality and territorial divisions. Banque des Territoires is also rolled out across Caisse des Dépôts' 16 regional managements and 36 territorial offices so as to resonate more meaningfully with our customers, in their neighbourhoods. www.banquedesterritoires.fr