Jérôme Zindy on a tour of France in an intermediate vehicle stops at Millau

Jérôme Zindy était dans les rues de Millau avec le Sorean. Midi libre – Maxime Cohen

Ce lundi, le "vélo-reporter" était à Millau à bord de son Sorean, pour mettre en avant l'usage des véhicules intermédiaires.

It is difficult, when the question of intermediate vehicles is raised, not to think of Millau or the territory of the Grands Causses Regional Natural Park. The institution has in fact made it a specialty and a workhorse, in particular thanks to the In'VD association, which is very dynamic in this area. It is partly for this reason that this Monday, February 5, the Alsatian Jérôme Zindy made a stopover in Millau, on his tour of France aboard the Sorean, a four-wheeled vehicle, with electric assistance, pedals and handlebars. 

A 3,000 km journey without CO2 emissions

This journey, of 3,000km, has several goals: to show that driving over such a long distance is not reserved only for thermal cars, which are still the majority on the roads, to show that other solutions are possible and get people talking about these new means of travel, currently being developed by manufacturers. For his, Jérôme trusted the company QBX, well known in South Aveyron. Hélène and Michel Jacquemin, from In'VD, scour their beast out of the factories of the Aude manufacturer. "The company was notably supported by the Regional natural park, adds Clara Steyer, project manager at the PNR. It received funding to be able to produce more vehicles and ten prototypes will be tested on the territory of the PNR."

The new mobile adventure

L'Ademe encourages the development of intermediate vehicles through its "L'Extrême program challenge. This is "a journey of extreme innovation in cooperation whose objective is to create new business solutions' placement to replace the car in daily travel in peri-urban and rural areas", presents Ademe on its site. In this program, in order to have media support, J&rôme Zindy sets out on the roads of France for this New mobile adventure. À aboard his "bicycle augmentedé", the Sorean, he takes all his filming equipment on board to produce the 20 episodes of this New mobile adventure, é follow on Youtube.

"Treating mobility from multiple angles"

Jérôme Zindy takes advantage of this roaming journey to document it with a series of videos that he will produce as he goes along. "This allows us to process the mobility from several angles, he develops. We will meet entrepreneurs and citizens who could make it a vehicle for all days. In Toulouse, for example, we will meet the Actia company, from the automotive industry sector. This is a sector that can create jobs locally. In addition to being an economic issue, there is an industrial issue." 

The cyclist, a videographer by trade, became interested in the question in 2020. "Before, I was in car rallying , he smiled. In 2020, I became aware of the impact of human activity and I then asked myself the question of doing my job differently. " His first video reports were therefore made on board an electrically assisted boat, powered by a solar panel. Then, in the logical continuation, arrives the Sorean. "An augmented bicycle that allows me to travel at all times of the year", completes the pilot.

A project supported by Ademe

This New mobile adventure, named after this trip, is supported by Ademe (Agency for the Environment and Energy Management, Editor's note) , which helps in the development of these new means of travel. "We are going to produce around twenty videos and the idea is to tell these meetings on video and show all the potential that there is around these vehicles ."

After arriving from Carcassonne through the Montagne Noire, the videographer was heading towards Viala-du-Tarn, Monday afternoon, to meet a tester of the device Vitamins 12, this full-scale experiment launched by In'VD with the aim of convincing new users, still too attached to their thermal vehicle. Next stop Toulouse before heading up the west coast towards Bordeaux.

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