Electric car scheme launched in Paris

Not content with running the world’s largest bicycle sharing scheme of its kind in the world, Paris has begun trials of an ambitious electric car club.

The Autolib trial comprises a fleet of 66 Bolloré-built Bluecar four-seater electric vehicles spread across the city at 33 depots from which they can be collected, parked and charged. The scheme is set to expand later this year to over 500 depots across the city of Paris.

The cars are capable of covering up to 150 miles on a full charge.

How does Autolib work?

Car club schemes such as Autolib are an ideal application for electric cars. Users avoid the high purchase price of an electric car, but still benefit from its low running costs and environmental advantages.

Users buy an annual membership for the equivalent of £10 per month and then a rental charge of around £8 per hour. Casual can join the scheme for 24 hours at a cost of £8 and then pay the same rental fee as regular users.

A help function built into each car allows Autolib users to speak directly to a help centre.

Will the idea come to London?

Velib is by no means the world’s first mass cycle hire scheme, but with over 20,000 bicycles and docking stations roughly every 300 metres throughout the city centre, Vélib is not only Europe’s largest and best-known pay-as-you-go cycling system, but the inspiration for London’s own Boris Bikes.

Paris is leading the world in exciting green initiatives, and where they go we appear to follow. With our own London mayor with a mass bicycle hire scheme under his belt, how long before we see an electric car scheme here, too?

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “Electric cars are a neat, if expensive, way to reduce noise and pollution in cities. A more cost-effective and environmentally-sensitive alternative to Autolib for London might be a range of electric Boris Bikes.”