Paris to buy 4000 electric cars for public rental

Interesting little post in Autoblog Green:

Paris is a city with its fair share of traffic problems. It's also the largest city where a public bicycle rental service is being used, very successfully (Ve'lib) and we already knew about the city's plans to install a similar service featuring electric cars. An EV rental plan even helped the Mayor win re-election, and more information about this plan has now been unveiled. First of all, the fleet is going to be exclusively electric, with 4,000 units. That's a very large order for a single model of a vehicle - but which model has not yet been announced. The system, called Auto'lib, which means "Auto à libre disposition" (Help-yourself car) will not only be installed in the city itself, but it will cover the suburbs (banlieue), expanding the range that the bike rental service operates in.

The scheduled roll-out date is late 2009 and to handle the 4,000 EVs the system will have 700 stations (with 200 of them underground) and a powerful computer system coordinating the rentals. Prices aren't yet known (rumors hint at about €250 per month, including full insurance), but it seems likely that Parisians will be able to enjoy the service with their regular "Navigo" mass transit cards.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/06/20/paris-mayor-announces-more-details-about-ev-public-rental-servic/

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Pretty cool. This level of purchasing will only hasten the development of electric cars.

This is of course very cool.


I had to laugh though. At myself.

When I was in Paris, someone "helped themself" to a bicycle I had rented. The sad thing is how they did it. I'd gotten about 10 blocks away from where we had left our bikes, when I realized "hey, wait a second, I locked my bike to a 4ft high post", lol. Yep, it was gone. Fortunately there was only one thief, so my gf's bike was still there. Unfortunately that meant a taxi ride home and a 5 mile bike ride with two adults to take the one bike back the next day, plus about 100.00 even with the insurance.

in my experience, and now the first major city to implement the long overdue concept of electric car rentals. The enlightenment continues, at least in one place. I lived between Montmartre and the 15th (my gf's place and my hotel) for a couple of years and I so wish I had stayed when I had the chance. :cry: :cry: :cry:

system. They haven't taken the leap yet towards a public rental fleet but they're trying, as I'm sure many other progressive communities are.

it is ridiculous. In large part thanks to our oil president.

I remember a trip I took to Paris and all the "little" cars that small enough to park on the sidewalk. I thought how innovative a single seater with room for a briefcase - cool. Now these newer and forward looking decisions. We need to follow the example they are showing us, not listening to Bush and his oil buddies, he'll just steer us to pay for for oil and more and more.

Keep an eye on this and you'll soon discover that these are plug in electrics that are equipped with vehicle to grid (V2G) technology. They will tie the cars to the grid while parked and use them as a reserve for meeting "regulation power" requirements for the operation of the Metro. The Metro saves a bundle because much of the cost of the reserve power is covered by the rental of the vehicles.

...because it makes so much sense.

surrender monkeys. They need more UAVs!!!1!!!