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27th March 2008

The Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, re-elected on 25th March, plans to invest more funds both in public transport and in a self-service electric and/or hybrid-electric car system called ‘autolib’. Starting with about 2,000 cars and 300 free recharging stations, the system would aim to reduce congestion and urban emissions.

The proposed service, modelled on a car sharing programme in Lyon started up at the beginning of this year, is expected to cost subscribers around €250 per month. The Norwegian electric city car manufacturer is reportedly preparing a bid to supply vehicles for the project, according to the www.wikio.fr website.

The Lyon scheme has a fleet of just 24 vehicles, which are used an average of twice a day, but need to be booked eight days in advance for weekend use, and were fully booked well ahead for the Easter weekend. Paris already has an established subscription bicycle-sharing scheme, reportedly used by about 10% of the French capital’s population.

- The Danish power generator Dong Energy AS is expected to announce a partnership with the Californian start-up Project Better Place to build a Danish network to recharge electric cars, the Wall Street Journal has reported. This would be Project Better Place’s second national scheme planned, the other having been announced recently for Israel, in conjunction with the Israeli government and Renault/Nissan.

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