It sits in front of the workshop of the home for young workers in Vitré. For the time being, she is the only one, the only one. This old Peugeot 103 has given up some of its attributes that the teenagers of the 1990s and 2000s loved to change so much to gain speed. Its carburettor and its exhaust have disappeared. Its tank has been preserved, but it has been completely emptied of its mixture, which has become useless. To move forward, this Peugeot 103 now relies solely on its electric motor and a battery, placed on its luggage rack. Completely revamped, it sports a dashing green hue that is already turning heads in the small town of Ille-et-Vilaine. “The first ones we received were in a bad state so we had to dismantle everything, sand everything, repaint. There was a lot of work done, ”says Loïc Desmoulin. Even the color of the paint was debated, to lead to green. Color of hope, they say.
Before tinkering with old cyclos, the coordinator of the mobility service of the association Le Tremplin had already contributed to the purchase of electric bicycles, then mopeds in order to offer a means of transport to the residents of the hostel for young workers. Because the country of Vitré in which the FJT is established cultivates paradoxes. On the one hand, it is one of the French territories where the unemployment rate is the lowest in France: barely 4%. On the other hand, it suffers from its rurality and cannot offer, despite its efforts, decent mobility to all those who are not transported. “We have dozens of young people who want to work, who find contracts but who cannot go to work because they have no mobility solution. We are quickly immobile when we live in the countryside, ”engages Ludivine Gautier, adviser in the association.
Three years ago, Le Tremplin bought several mopeds which it offered for hire for 50 euros per month. Quentin enjoyed it for a few months. From the top of his 25 years, the kid has surveyed the departmental roads of Ille-et-Vilaine on the handlebars of his Peugeot 103 to carry out interim maintenance missions. “I worked staggered hours, it was impossible to go by bus. The 103, it was fun to drive and it didn’t cost me much. Without her, I would not have been able to work”. Quentin has a driver’s license but still cannot afford a car. Seduced by the mob, he ended up buying one.
If Quentin fell in love with the curves of the Peugeot 103, the other young people in the household do not all share the same enthusiasm. Because the problem of the cyclo is that you have to know how to tweak a little from time to time. “We found ourselves with young people who stored cans of mixture in their room. Others who struggled to start them when the carburettor was cold. When you have a mob, you have to tinker a bit”. It was while reading articles on the electrification of two-wheelers that Loïc Desmoulin had the idea of adapting the fleet of two-wheelers to electric. “We recovered old cyclos that no longer worked and brought them back to the workshop. We repair them with the young people. They are learning mechanics, so are we.”
The electrification is then managed by the start-up Revolte, based in Rennes, which takes care of adapting the kit of the French company Noil. For now, only a Peugeot 103 has been transformed. In a few months, there should be around ten of them, made available to young workers. And there, no more need to pedal to start. Just turn the handle. Much more nervous than its thermal counterpart, the electric mob also contributes to the safety of its driver for hill starts, for example. And it’s going pretty well. It is rumored that in Vitré, on the coast, there is a swarm.