Autolib Electric Car Hire in Paris

Not long after the French capital launched Vélib, its self-service bicycle scheme, the city has introduced the first electric car sharing programme in the world – Autolib. Officials say they hope to have about 3,000 of the Bluecars being used around Paris by next summer and 5,000 by 2013, which will reduce air and noise pollution as well as discourage people from owning their own personal vehicles.

A crowd gathered around several little four-seater Bluecars on the Avenue Trudaine, a family-friendly area of the 9th French administrative discrict, on Sunday. This was the launch of a two-month trial for the Autolib scheme involving 100 users. If successful, they hope to launch the system to the public by early December.

The Bluecar has a maximum speed of 130km/h and can travel up to 250km with just one charge. Users will be able to subscribe to the service for €144 a year, €15 a week or €10 a day. An extra €5 fee will be charged for every 30 minutes of travel. The operational centre will remain staffed 24 hours a day to ensure that all the vehicles are monitored and tracked. Some 1,200 multilingual ambassador workers have been hired to answer calls from customers via video screens at parking stations and inside the vehicles.

The profits will go into the Bolloré Group, which is the family-owned firm behind the programme. Autolib has gotten €35 million in funding from the City of Paris, which has built rental stations, while €50,000 has been contributed to every station from suburban authorities. Total, the scheme has cost €250 million – €100 million of which was invested by Bolloré Group.

Vincent Bolloré, the chief of Bolloré Group and a billionaire entrepreneur, also hopes that the Autolib programme will promote his battery business. He says the Lithium Metal Polymer batteries used in the Bluecars can hold five times more energy than other batteries on the market. He told reporters last week that the project is a long-term investment for his group, which also sells buses with the same battery technology to other French cities and those in Réunion island, which is a French territory. According to their estimates, the scheme will be profitable in the 7th year, with industrial groups like theirs accustomed to investments turning a profit from the 6th or 7th year anyway, he noted.

National Assembly of France member Annick Lepetit, representing Paris, has declared Bluecars the future of urban motoring. She says private vehicles are expensive, and people use them less and less in cities. They are moving into another culture – car sharing. This is the same principle as Vélib, she added, with customers using a car and leaving it when they’re done.