Car retrofitting and decarbonization: collaboration with Phoenix Mobility
ESTACA is now working with Phoenix Mobility, a young company whose mission is to make mobility cleaner and more accessible. Phoenix Mobility is one of the pioneers in France of retrofitting, i.e. converting combustion cars into electric vehicles. Technical projects offered 5th-year students, internships, jobs, conferences bringing together experts in the field, are all included in this cooperation.
The advantages of electric conversion
Retrofitting, or the electric conversion of old combustion vehicles, is a very recent field since its practice has been authorized in France only since April 4 2020.
As Antoine Desferet, Chief Revenue Officer at Phoenix Mobility, explains:
Retrofitting is fully in line with ESTACA’s training program, which aims to train engineers capable of meeting the challenges of sustainable transport. This solution helps to limit the carbon footprint and decarbonize the car, since instead of manufacturing new vehicles, existing chassis are reused and transformed. It is also a real technological challenge for future engineers to redesign vehicles by removing components and integrating new ones. Finally, electrification is a key teaching theme at ESTACA, and is covered in three 5th-year options: Eco-Mobility, Intelligent Connected Transport and New Energies & Environment.
Areas of collaboration
In order to raise students’ awareness of the challenges of this new automotive market, which is starting to interest major manufacturers, and to train future engineers in the new problems posed by retrofitting, various areas of collaboration have been developed between Phoenix Mobility and ESTACA.
Study projects are offered by the company to 5th-year students in the fields of on-board electronics and energy management.
Students are also offered internships and jobs. Thomas Louvel, a recent ESTACA graduate and engineer at Phoenix Mobility, explains his career path from internship to job:
Finally, expert presentations are provided on the theme, and a round table was organized on Thursday, December 3, 2020 with various speakers including Nassim Rizoug, ESTACA’LAB teacher-researcher, Thomas Louvel, ESTACA graduate of 2020 and Wadie Maaninou, CEO of Phoenix Mobility and Louis-Pierre Geffray, ESTACA graduate of 2020 and Roland Schaumann, Co-founder of Ian Motion, another company that offers a second electric life for iconic vehicles.
