France: how to save 1.25 million tonnes of CO2 per year 

In France, fleet vehicles travel 754 million km per year, which represents consumption of 4.7 billion litres of fuel per year or 12.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. This is the figure in the study Les flottes de véhicules des personnes morales (The vehicle fleets of legal entities) by the French Ministry for Ecological Transition, published in 2019. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of a country like Senegal. In other words, companies have a major lever for climate action through better management of their fleets.

In order to reduce the fuel consumption and emissions of your fleet of vehicles, you need to be able to accurately monitor their use and the petrol or electricity they consume. This is the only way to take corrective action. To do this, the data generated by the sensors fitted to recent cars can be collected by Echoes and fed back into the CarFleet tool, helping fleet managers to keep costs under control.

Up to 25% fuel savings possible

There are many ways to influence consumption:

• Reduce speed. For example, going from 130 to 120km/h on the motorway saves 12.5% in fuel consumption and emissions, according to ADEME (French Agency for Ecological Transition).
• Check that the aerodynamics have not been damaged. Damage to the bodywork or the presence of additional accessories (roof rack, bike carrier, etc.) can increase fuel consumption by up to 10%.
• Check tyre inflation: 0.5 bar less than normal means 2.4% more fuel consumption, according to Le Figaro.
• Ensure that plug-in hybrid cars have their traction battery regularly charged from the mains, otherwise consumption will increase unnecessarily.

Putting all these elements together, the savings in fuel consumption and emissions could be as much as 25%, provided that the vehicles are closely monitored. In practice, a 10% saving would already translate into considerable savings on a national scale: 470 million litres of fuel or 1.25 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. Quite apart from the environmental impact, these 470 million litres also represent a sum of around €700 million lost unnecessarily by French businesses every year. This is crucial information, in a context where the CSRD requires companies to provide extra-financial reporting describing their strategy for reducing CO2 emissions. 

Real-time data to help reduce consumption

Echoes’ Carfleet solution is based on real-time data transmitted natively by vehicles to the manufacturer via an on-board 4/5G chip. This means there’s no need to install a box or carry out any work on the vehicle: transmission can start immediately once the contract has been signed. This data is generated by the many sensors found in recent vehicles, from odometers and flow meters to speedometers and traction battery charge levels.

Consolidated in a dedicated interface, this data can be analysed and exported for further use. This data includes, over a period of time to be defined by the user, and for each connected vehicle :

• Details of journey history, including distance travelled and average speed
• The average and total consumption of each vehicle, in litres of fuel or kWh of electricity, as well as direct CO2 emissions
• Information relating to the condition of the vehicle and its maintenance, in particular tyre pressure alerts or alerts following an accident

Analyse, act and measure with CarFleet

Thanks to this tool, fleet managers will be able to track and monitor their fleet’s consumption on a day-to-day basis, with a historical view enabling them to trace any changes. In practical terms, CarFleet allows you to:

• Measure the fuel consumption and emissions of its fleet, while detecting vehicles and/or drivers with abnormally high figures
• Analyse the behaviour of vehicles affected by excessive fuel consumption, and determine the causes
• Take action on the vehicles concerned or communicate with the offending drivers to get them to reduce their speed
• Monitor the results of the action plan on a daily basis and communicate internally and externally

Tomorrow’s cars will be ever more intelligent and fuel-efficient

In the near future, it will be possible to go even further in optimising company vehicle journeys, thanks to various technological developments in CarFleet on which Echoes is currently investing:

• Analysis of the driver’s behaviour in terms of the intensity of acceleration and braking: to detect abrupt driving that is harmful to the vehicle and its fuel consumption.
• Taking into account the number of passengers using seatbelt sensors. This will enable consumption and emissions to be analysed in the light of how full the vehicle is, and actions to encourage car sharing to be put in place.
• Analysis of journeys using artificial intelligence, and optimisation of journeys in terms of timetables, routes, speed and electrical recharging. 

In the meantime, CarFleet is now offering the possibility of analysing and taking concrete action on vehicle fleets. And with no need to install a box, no commitment and no subscription.