Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Paris, Car-Sharing and Electric Vehicles

IEA - International Energy Agency : Joy ride: IEA test-drives the Parisian electric car-sharing system (4-Traders, Nov. 20, 2012)

Also discussed here: EV City Casebook (75 page pdf, IEA)

And here: Brief. Joy ride: IEA test-drives the Paris Autollib’ (WorldStreets, Nov. 21, 2012)

autolibAnd here: Autolib

The spectacular success of Paris’ bike sharing program, Velib, has been expanded to include electric car sharing, Autolib, which after one year has reached 42,000 subscribers. No wonder, since one can register and get behind the wheel of an Autolib car in less than 10 minutes with a much lower cost than from a normal car rental or even owning one’s own car. The electric car industry world-wide has accelerated in tandem with the Paris success with growth rates of 20% per year and a forecast of 20 million EVs on the road by 2020. Both trends are very good news for those concerned about health impacts and the large part that vehicle emissions play in affecting urban air pollution. EV sales  

Key Quotes:

 “Paris inaugurated Autolib in December 2011. The programme now offers 1 740 cars at any of 700 charging stations, each with space for at least three vehicles, with plans to expand soon to 3 000 cars and 1 050 stations”

 “Autolib has transformed Paris into the world's biggest experiment for vehicle electrification…It shows other cities how easily electric vehicles can avoid both local pollution and the hassle of parking in a densely populated city, all in the context of a paradigm shift from ownership to 'usership'”

 “In less than a year, more than 42 000 people have signed up for Autolib, whose auto fleet has nearly sextupled in size. Not all of the subscribers are Parisians: about 10 percent of users are tourists”

“Each car runs on a lithium metal polymer battery that weighs 300 kilograms and can power the car for 250 kilometres of city driving and 150 kilometres on highways at up to 130 kilometres per hour. A trip all the way across Paris uses only about 15 percent of the charge, and the 220-volt, 16-ampere batteries needs just 10 hours for full charging on average.. The average Autolib trip lasts 42 minutes, with the longest rentals running about three hours”

 “Anyone with an international driver's license and a photo ID can register online or use a video connection at one of the 60 subscription stations in the city to register and get behind the wheel within six minutes”

“The cumulative national targets for EV and PHEV sales announced by EVI member governments add up to almost six million by 2020, with assumed growth rates of 20 percent per year….this would almost reach six percent of total vehicle sales by 2020, and result in 20 million EVs on the road in that year”
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