By Anders Lorenzen

The Norwegian-Danish professional cycling team, Uno-X Mobility, is for the second year, competing in the world’s most prestigious cycling race, Tour de France (TDF). They are not only looking at making headlines via results (winning races) but also via sustainability.

The highly ambitious team has announced that as its starting riders line up, they will be equipped with all-electric vehicles (EVs) for its service teams and sports directors, who guide the riders through the stages. The gruelling 21-stage race starts in Venice (Italy) on Saturday (29th of June).

In doing so, the Scandinavian team, founded in 2016 and turned professional as recently as 2020, writes history. No other team in the TDF has ever completed the stage race using EVs only for its team cars.

The two EVs Uno-X Mobility will use during the TDF will transport the team’s sports directors. They are loaded with spare equipment, food, drink, and other supplies for the riders. Anders Eia Linnestad, Head of Administration and Operations Uno-X Mobility Cycling, explains that the goal is to show that it is fully possible to complete the race with electric cars, and thus contribute to increasing their use in the years to come.

He further added “Uno-X Mobility’s mission is to develop and promote solutions for sustainable mobility. Our cycling team is a symbol of the transition we have begun to become a forward-looking mobility player, and our use of electric cars during the Tour de France is a good example of how we can contribute to small but positive changes.”

Sustainable mobility

Uno-X is owned by the Norwegian conglomerate Reitan Retail. They are rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuel-driven to electric mobility by making significant investments in fast-charging EV technology deployed at its forecourts, for both passenger and heavy-duty vehicles. In Norway, there’s a huge demand for EV charging infrastructure, and Norway is the leading country in Europe for EV uptake. Denmark is in the top five.

TDF organisers have long talked about taking sustainability steps, but not much has happened in line with what the science demands. Uno-X admits that they as a team have much more to do and these are small steps, but they are however doing much more than any of the other competing teams. Out of the fleet of over 200 cars at this year`s TDF, only three are electric, two are the Norwegian team’s EVs and the other is the race director`s, none of the other teams will feature EVs.

There is of course a logistical challenge as the three-week stage race is a very demanding (and expensive) operation for a cycling team, and many will probably think that charging logistics must be an additional burden. However, Uno-X Mobility has made adequate plans. They also highlight that the network of charging stations in France has been significantly expanded in recent years. And the organisers have made sure there are fast charging facilities in the start cities every day. 

Eia Linnestad explains many were sceptical about the Uno-X idea. They had to work with the TDF organisers and Škoda, as suppliers of the vehicles, the majority of which are plug-in hybrids, as well as being one of the main sponsors. But they were won over. Martine Behrens, director of Škoda in Norway explained: “We are very proud to be able to present the electric cars used as part of the race during the Tour de France. This is a major milestone to demonstrate that the future is electric, especially in markets that have not progressed as far in this development as we have in Norway.”

Eia Linnestad underlines “Two electric cars among a range of other fossil-fuelled vehicles is still just a small step on the way towards a greener race, but it is a step in the right direction”. He pointed out another sustainability action by the Scandinavian team, that the solar panels for the team bus will reduce the use of diesel generators during the TDF to a minimum.

Sustainability advocates, including Uno-X, hope that their focus on sustainability will encourage others to contribute in the same way and scale up ambitions in future Tour de France editions.