The declare: Photos present electrical vehicles discarded in a rubbish dump after batteries failed
An previous declare a few area filled with deserted electrical vehicles has discovered life but once more on social media.
“This is a garbage dump near Paris, France with hundreds of electrically powered cars,” learn a December 25, 2021, Facebook publish. “They all have the same problem,… the battery storage cells have gone and need to be replaced.”
The publish garnered almost 400 shares in 9 days. Another equivalent model of the publish was shared one other 250 instances in every week.
However, the publish is improper.
While the images do present electrical vehicles in France, they’re not at a rubbish dump, nor have been they positioned on the location resulting from failed batteries. The vehicles have been moved to the lot after a French rideshare service failed, in response to a number of French information studies.
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Slightly completely different variations of the declare have circulated on social media all through the final 12 months and have been debunked by Politifact, Reuters, AFP and Lead Stories. In most of the previous variations, the lot within the images is known as a “boneyard” as a substitute of a “garbage dump.”
USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook customers who shared the declare for remark.
Photo exhibits stored EVs from failed rideshare service, not rubbish dump
The images present electrical vehicles parked on a lot in Romorantin-Lanthenay, France, positioned roughly 125 miles south of Paris.
The vehicles have been initially utilized by a French subscription rideshare service, in response to a French information report. The Bolloré group operated the service till Parisian authorities canceled its contract in 2018 resulting from monetary points, in response to Reuters.
After the contract was canceled, the Bolloré group offered a few of its stock to an organization known as Atis Production, which stored the vehicles on the lot proven within the images, in response to a French information report. The report described the lot as being positioned in an industrial space and made no point out of it being a rubbish dump. The photos present a area filled with vehicles with no further rubbish accumulation.
“None of these cars found itself there because there was a generalized technology problem,” Fabricio Protti, Deputy CEO of Bolloré, told AFP.
Bolloré group did not respond to USA TODAY’s requests for comment. Atis Production could not be reached.
Fact check: Photo shows privately constructed EV charger in Australia, botches math on efficiency
USA TODAY has debunked other inaccurate claims related to electric car battery life.
One previous claim also involved a photo of tightly clustered parked cars said to be an “electrical automobile cemetery in France,” populated by vehicles allegedly discarded after battery failure. In fact, the picture showed Chinese vehicles retired after a rideshare company upgraded to new models.
In another instance, social media users claimed electric cars caused an enormous traffic jam during a California snowstorm after hours of idling drained their batteries. Traffic delays associated with the storm actually occurred when a “mass exodus” of vehicles overwhelmed a freshly reopened highway system.
Our rating: False
Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that photos show electric cars discarded in a garbage dump after batteries failed. The photo shows a lot where cars from a failed rideshare service were stored by a private company.
Our fact-check sources:
- PolitiFact, May 17, 2021, No, electric cars weren’t abandoned because batteries too costly to replace
- Reuters, May 19, 2021, Fact Check-Electric cars taken off French roads due to contract termination, not battery fault
- Reuters, June 21, 2018, Paris ends Autolib electric car sharing contract with Bollore
- USA TODAY, July 14, 2021, Fact check: Viral image of an electric car ‘cemetery’ shows vehicles from a ride-share company in China
- franceinfo, April 5, 2021, What will become of the cumbersome Autolib ‘piled up in the “cemetery” of Romorantin?
- actuParis, Mar. 9, 2021, Three years after the end of Autolib in Paris, a thousand electric cars are waiting for a second life
- BFMBuisness, Aug. 31, 2018, After leaving Paris, the Autolib ‘found in the loir-et-cher
- AFP, May 19, 2021, Electric cars in France were not discarded due to faulty technology
- Lead Stories, May 18, 2021, Fact Check: Electric Cars In Storage Lot Were NOT Abandoned Due To Battery Problems
- Eltis, June 28, 2018, Plug pulled on Paris’ shared electric car service Autolib
- La Nouvelle Republique, July 20, 2018, Autolib ‘at the end of their life fail in Romorantin
- USA TODAY, Jan. 5, Fact check: Traffic jam caused by ‘mass exodus’ after highway reopened, not electric cars
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