Electric boat with used Renault Zoe battery packs launches in Paris

An all-electric boat equipped with “second-life” Renault Zoe battery packs has launched as part of Seine Alliance’s fleet operating in Paris.

Renault has access to a lot of used Zoe battery packs because it sold many electric cars under a program where they would still own the battery packs and rent them to Zoe owners.

Now the automaker has found an interesting use for those used Zoe battery packs.

They have partnered with Seine Alliance, a boat operator on the Seine in Paris, to retrofit a boat with used Zoe battery packs:

The Black Swan is equipped with two wholly independent, autonomous, 100% electric propulsion lines. This redundancy means worry-free sailing. Lithium-ion batteries taken from Renault electric vehicles once they have reached the end of their ‘first car life’ are being reconditioned and repurposed. They are then installed beneath the boat’s side bench seats in four battery stainless-steel housings that have been specially designed to ensure safe, water-tight operating conditions. Thus, the energy and raw materials required to produce new batteries has been avoided.

They unveiled the Black Swan in Paris last week:

They say that the goal of the vehicle is “to demonstrate the effectiveness of a model based on the principle of the circular economy, in order to reproduce it and create synergies between the various mobility players.”

The Black Swan is capable of cruising for two hours, and it has a charging time of just two to three hours.

Gilles Normand, senior vice president of electric vehicles at Groupe Renault, commented on the vehicle:

We are proud of having contributed to the Black Swan project alongside Seine Alliance and Green-Vision. Once again, this approach has shown that, used in a second life as energy storage units, the batteries from our electric vehicles represent an essential lever for the acceleration of the energy transition.

The electric boat is going into service next quarter after it obtains government certification and the company aims to electrify its entire fleet by 2024.

It’s actually not the first time that we have seen electric boats powered by electric car battery packs.

Last year, we saw a new electric boat powered by BMW i3 battery packs.

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