Paris Considers Electric Car Rentals

A year ago Paris’s mayor, Bertrand Delanoë began a successful citywide bike sharing program named Velib’. Anyone in the French city could rent a bike from one of 5,000 different locations, ride to their destination, and drop it off. Convenient, cheap, and the Parisians loved it. Now the Mayor is offering a new idea, same concept but with fully electric cars.

The idea, named Autolib’, is to start off with 2,000 electric cars in Paris. When a Parisian needs a car they can rent one from 700 planned lots, both above and bellow ground, and pay only for the time spent behind the wheel. The lots are planned to allow 24 hr access to the cars with no advanced booking needed. There is also talk of another 2,000 cars in the suburbs of Paris.

With gas prices rising and city parking being somewhat impossible, many drivers are delighted by the idea. Only 43 percent of Paris households have vehicles and 95 per cent of them are parked at any moment. The idea behind AutoLib’ is to help lure people away from the feeling that they need to buy a car by offering them a cheap and eco-friendly alternative.