Wednesday 12 February 2014

Wasn't borne yesterday

You can now plug in your electric car in town, and charge up its batteries for nowt!

Look at it! Covered in smeary fingerprints already!

 You can read more about the installation here.

Something forceful and masculine about these things....

There is a new word in the French language - badger, to badge, describing the action of waving an object, such as a name badge, across a reader, to let you do something, such as to allow you to enter a room if you have the required level of security. Here you badge your SIEIL membership card over the little fan-shaped doodad at the top and the borne releases the socket so you can plug in.

Thus rendering those smelly polluting objects behind it redundant!

Now all we need is some users.

Note 1: if you have an electric cyclomoteur, don't plug it in here, it will probably blow up. Likewise your cordless drill.
Note 2: The borne was actually installed on Monday, not yesterday, which was Tuesday...

6 comments:

Colin and Elizabeth said...

The $64,000 question is how many electric cars are there in the 50Km radius? OR is it a case of "Build it and they will come" (Sorry film buffs)OR has the mairie got one?

Well IF I ever buy one I now know where I can get it charged, but it would be useless as it would take half the charge to get there and half to get back....

Tim What about Electrifying one of your "CV's? PROBLEM it would then be tooooo fast for the body... Well just an idea!

Tim said...

There are electric conversions to the 2CV, Colin...
it is simple and only a little more expensive than a new engine...
and it is a consideration...
believe me!!

But they are not toooooooo fast, as you put....
you didn't allow for the weight of the batteries.

However, they do have a danger side...
you will kill more pedestrians than you would save by not burning fossil fuel...
you can't hear the damn things...
I was nearly flattened by one at the Austrian World Meeting of 2CVs!!
Couldn't hear it coming at all...
it needed a couple of playing cards and a clothes peg...
mounted so that the cards made a noise as the wheels went round...
or a front-mounted loudspeaker...
connected to a speed interactive loop of...
the sound of a real 2CV engine!!
The one that nearly hit us was put together by some Japanese students at Essex University...
but there are a load more on the road...
and the original electric version [built in 1963]...
was created by one of Citroen's engineers and still exists...
it apparently runs well and is CT'd...
I've a recent article on it...
his 83 year old wife was recently done for doing a silly speed on one of the motorways in their Citroen SM...
"...because I could!" was what she told the gendarmes!

Colin and Elizabeth said...

Thanks Tim. Don't think I will convert the France 3. I like it just as it is...

Jean said...

I was nearly run over by an old lady on a mobility scooter recently.
I was inside Tesco!
She threw it into reverse without looking behind her but luckily something alerted me before she hit my leg and I shouted at her.
(Can't remember what.)
Then she gave me one of those "who do you think you are, shouting at an old person?" looks and without any apology at all, drove off to terrorise someone in the next aisle.
I always give them a wide berth now.

Tim said...

I don't think mobility scooters will be able to use the borne, so no room for hell's grannies. People are parking ordinary cars there already. P.

Jean said...

I'm guessing that ordinary cars might as well park there as there might not be much call for the real purpose of the space.