Autolib’: The New Car-Sharing Service In Paris
Autolib’ cars during their charging in Paris/Porte d’Issy and Boulogne-Billancourt’s stations (©R. Vergnani)
On 5 December 2011, the Autolib’ service was officially launched in Paris, after two months of tests throughout the city. Autolib’ is the first public service plan with electric vehicles to be developed in a large European metropolis.
Cars are equipped with polymer lithium batteries, which have an autonomy of 250 km and need 4 hours to be recharged. The system is spread not only in the 20 arrondissements of the French capital, but also in 46 other Municipalities located close to Paris.
The BlueCar models are produced by Bolloré Group in collaboration with the Italian designer Pininfarina and are built up in the Italian plant located in Bairo Canavese (Turin). The current number of 250 available cars is expected to grow up to 3000 vehicles by the end of 2012.
The new service is conceived as complementary to Vélib’, the self-service bike rental launched in 2007. The intention was to “invent a new mobility concept in the urban environment”, Mayor Bertrand Delanoë said. According to INRIX (http://www.inrix.com/pressrelease.asp?ID=106), the leading provider of traffic information, the French capital, is the most congested city on the European continent. The Municipality of Paris has therefore decided to get involved in the construction of a set of various and effective solutions for a new and sustainable urban mobility.
Critics from the French green party Europe Ecologie – Les Verts, focus on the enormous cost of the operation (25 millions of euro is the total amount spent only by the municipality of Paris) and on the fact that the initiative is based on a wrong assumption: increasing the cars instead than trying to boost citizens to take public transports.
After a month, Autolib’ has reached more than 7500 total subscribers. As SWOMM we wish success to the Ville Lumière for this and all the other initiatives which could help to build a more sustainable urban transport.
Link: www.autolib.eu
Related articles
- Paris to Launch Electric Car Share Program (the2012scenario.com)
- Paris to launch electric car sharing program (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Share a car in Paris (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Autolib’ initiative starts in the city of love (travelnews.britishairways.com)
- Paris to launch electric car share program (news.smh.com.au)
