The first e-garage in France

Direction Carquefou, on the edge of Nantes. In front of us stands a very classical sheet metal building. Inside: enough to destabilize fans of large engines. On the ground, no trace of oil, in the air, no smell of gasoline, and in front of us, a selection of unusual models: Renault Zoé, Peugeot iOn, or Citroën C-Zero.

Here, we focus on the hybrid and electric ranges, a sector that suffers from a lack of specialized workshops. To ensure the maintenance of these models, which are more and more numerous on the roads of France, a team of experts in electric mobility launched Revolte in 2020, with a bold promise as a slogan: “electric or hybrid, your car will last 100 years”.

Why is it necessary to create a garage specializing in the maintenance and repair of electric vehicles? To find out, we went to meet Alexis Marcadet, co-founder of Revolte, who states that “Too often, in traditional garages, an entire battery is changed when only one element is faulty.” To illustrate his words, he takes the example of a hybrid SUV that went through the Revolte case a few months ago. “The battery no longer worked, the manufacturer proposed to replace it with a new one for more than 15,000 euros.” After further analysis, the failure was located in the workshop at Revolte “In the end, the repair cost between 3 and 4,000 euros, while avoiding throwing away a battery”.

Creating a space dedicated to electric vehicles means allowing better expertise, and reducing the use of new parts. To source its supplies, Revolte is based on two pillars: reuse and reconditioning. “We work a lot with junkyards” announces the co-founder of the workshop, and as the electrical market is very recent, each usable part must be recovered. As a result, more and more specialized reconditioning companies are appearing, which put valuable elements back into circulation.

This reflex to reuse concerns isolated parts, but also entire vehicles, according to Alexis Marcadet “Today, a slightly outdated electric car, which would have only a hundred kilometers of autonomy left, would be considered defective. Sometimes we need to review our definition of a used vehicle. An electric car with little autonomy, brought back to the market at a low price, would easily find a buyer who wanted to make daily trips electric at low prices.”

Since 2020, the electric car market has exploded. According to ACEA, the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers, 12.1% of new vehicles sold in France in 2022 are electric, against 9.1% in 2021, and 1.9% in 2019. With the development of this market come criticism from some observers. Electric vehicles are often singled out for the environmental impact of recycling their components. Faced with skeptics, Alexis Marcadet plays the optimistic card “A lot of fake news is circulating about battery recycling” he says. “American companies like Redwood Materials announce that they can recycle 95% of the components of a conventional battery.” In short, according to the co-founder of Revolte, this electric future will be responsible, and will know how to recycle its waste!

While the outlook is bright for the industry in general, it is also brilliant for e-garages. With its innovative concept, Revolte attracts customers from all over France, and even from Switzerland and Belgium. The success is such that the Revolte team can no longer provide “We have a lot of vehicles on the waiting list” declares Alexis Marcadet. Lack of space, of course, but also of qualified labour. “It's a new job, different from that of a traditional mechanic. At the moment, there is no training to become an e-mechanic, we also have a role to play at this level.” To meet demand, but also to prepare for their expansion, Revolte is training the e-mechanics of tomorrow. In a new job, there is no typical profile! The team is quite eclectic: curious, self-taught, mechanics in retraining, just out of school, or at the end of their career.

Through a pioneering initiative responding to market demand, Revolte raises several issues raised by the electrification of mobility: Relationship to the personal vehicle, question of reuse, management of new waste and the evolution of the profession of mechanic, which in its traditional form is often presented as a profession on the verge of extinction. Of course, many challenges remain to be met, but one thing is certain, the ongoing revolt!