Electric self service cars in Paris

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Well, Paris has finally chosen the provider for the upcoming "Autolib" service that is due to begin in September 2011.

The Bolloré industrial group will be providing 3000 electric cars (1000 to be delivered by the September start up date), similar but not identical to the photo of the prototype here.

Paris isn't alone in the project like for the beginning of Vélib' -- 37 cities in the suburbs are associated to the project, which is going to cost a bundle, even if Bolloré is footing most of the bill.

There are supposed to be 1000 Autolib' stations in the Paris metropolitan area, and each station costs 50,000 euros to install. The initial investment will be around 200 million euros. Operating charges are expected to be about 80 million euros a year with revenue of about 95 million a year.

58% of Parisians do not own a car (I am one of them), so there is pretty high interest in the scheme in Paris intra muros. To not lose money, the system will need 220,000 subscribers for 3000 vehicles. That's about 75 subscribers per vehicle when all currently existing auto-sharing systems have about 10 subscribers for one vehicle.

One of the main innovations of Autolib' is that like Vélib', you can pick up a car at any station and leave it at any other station rather than having to return it to your starting point.

The monthly subscription will be 12€ a month, and the first half hour of car use will cost 5€, with an escalating scale like Vélib'.

Will it work? Apparently, about 100 congested cities in the world already have their eyes on Paris.

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Paris Autolib electric car hire scheme accelerates
By Helen Massy-Beresford

(Reuters) - Parisians who flocked to use the popular Velib bike hire scheme will also be able to zip down the Champs-Elysees in environmentally friendly electric cars when a self-service car hire scheme gets underway next autumn. French conglomerate Bollore, whose interests range from media to logistics, led by charismatic industrialist and businessman Vincent Bollore, has won a contract to provide its small four-seater electric cars for the scheme.

The bubble-shaped Bluecars, designed by Italian partner Pininfarina, are powered by lithium polymer metal batteries produced by Bollore, and have a range of 250 km (155 miles) in the city between charges, which will take about four hours.

As governments seek cleaner air for cities and carmakers battle to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of their fleets, electric vehicles are taking on a more important role.

Major carmakers like Renault, Nissan, PSA Peugeot Citroen and General Motors are introducing electric models.

The Velib self-service bike hire scheme was launched in 2007 and quickly grew, despite problems including theft and vandalism, to become a fixture of Parisian streets, with many commuters choosing one of the heavy grey bikes over a bus or metro ride.

The name Velib combines French for bike -- "velo" -- with "liberte" -- freedom.

Paris' socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoe, who pushed for the introduction of Velib, has now turned his attention to cars.

Autolib will see 3,000 electric vehicles take to the streets, with drivers able to pick up a car from one of the 1,000 stations in Paris and its suburbs.

Autolib drivers, who will need a driving license, and will have to subscribe to the scheme, will be able to reserve a car in advance or take their chances at one of the stations spread throughout the city and the Ile-de-France region.

An annual subscription costs 12 euros ($15.87) per month, while using the car costs 5 euros for the first half hour, four euros for the next and six for the following half-hours, to encourage short journeys.

Fifty-eight percent of Parisians do not have a car, said Paris city hall, which awarded the contract.

A study by Paris urban consultancy APUR showed a car spends on average 95 percent of its time parked and that 16 percent of Parisians use their car less than once a month, the city hall added.

[bixaorellana]

Shouldn't that be -- electric car hire scheme surges -- ?

It should reduce the kinds of parking problems most cities have. I suspect that as their cars age and die, many people might opt not to replace them, using this plan instead.

[fumobici]

Having a viable car sharing system in place for urban areas is simple common sense. Everyone owning their own car in a high density place with reasonable public transport options is insane. I hear good things about this private enterprise:

www.zipcar.com/is-it/

although it doesn't have a ZEV fleet like those cool Pinanfarina electrics. It does have BMW minis, Mazda Miatas and utility vehicles like pick-up trucks though for the times you need to haul stuff around.

[Deleted]

There's been a car sharing deal throughout France (only big cities of course) for years: Caisse Commune.

But the joining fee seemed too high to me, and there just weren't enough places, even though there are 52 stations in Paris and 130 cars. And even though it is only 5€ an hour (or 2.50€ in the middle of the night), you have to pay 0.50€ a kilometer.... Oh, no system is ever perfect.

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In Lille, I came across one of the offices for the local car sharing system.