An electric car share called Autolib' has been a hit in Paris, with more than 3,300 of its distinctive silver hatchbacks cruising the streets or recharging at curbside stands. Users can pick up a car at any of nearly 1,000 stands, then drop it off at a stand near their destination, for as little as 20 cents a minute. No surprise, then, that London and other cities outside France have looked at replicating the four-year-old programme.
What may be more surprising is that the first city to take the plunge is Indianapolis.
Its BlueIndy car share, backed by the same French company that runs Autolib', launched on September 2 with an initial fleet of 52 cars that will expand to 500, with 200 recharging stations planned. BlueIndy's general manager, Scott Prince, said demand had "exceeded our expectations", with more than 500 people signing up in the first two weeks. BlueIndy users register on its website, then can opt for a one-time rental costing $8 for the first eight minutes and 40 cents a minute after that, or a weekly, monthly, or annual membership offering per-minute costs as low as 20 cents.
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard has said he's "delighted to welcome BlueIndy as a clean, affordable transit option" for residents and visitors to Indiana's capital, which like many mid-size US cities doesn't have much mass transit. Ballard ponied up $6 million in city funds to top off the $41 million being spent on the programme by Groupe Bollore, the French manufacturer of the four-seat, battery-powered cars, which have a range of 150 miles between recharges.
BlueIndy will be an important test for Groupe Bollore, which hopes to create a worldwide market for the lithium metal polymer batteries that power the cars. Bollore spent more than euro 3 billion ($3.4 billion) to develop the technology, and Chairman and Chief Executive Vincent Bollore has said he is keen to test its performance in Indiana's cold winters and hot summers. "Indiana shouldn't be more complicated than Paris," he told Bloomberg News this year.
Well.
BlueIndy has gotten off to a bumpy start in this city of 850,000, host to America's most famous auto race. Local business owners have groused about recharging stands taking up parking space outside their establishments, while disgruntled taxpayers complain about the expenditure of public funds on a project run by a French company. Some city council members, angry that the mayor didn't seek their approval for the outlay, have even threatened to have BlueIndy cars towed off the streets. Autolib' has drawn little criticism in France.
BlueIndy's Prince predicts that complaints will die down as residents see the benefits of having "silent, zero-exhaust" cars on the streets. Another likely draw, he said, was the convenience and low cost of one-way rentals. Car2Go, a subsidiary of Germany's Daimler AG, offers one-way rentals of two-seater Smart cars in several US cities, including New York, Washington, and Seattle, though its cars aren't electric except in San Diego.
Pre-launch market research suggested that the programme would appeal to college students and "millennial urban workers" living in central Indianapolis, Prince said. The initial recharging stands are clustered in downtown Indianapolis and in a northern neighbourhood near Butler University known for its restaurants and nightlife. A stand is planned at the Indianapolis airport.
BlueIndy needs to attract enough renters to offset its start-up cost of $50 million, which includes contributions from the local electric utility, as well as the city and Bollore. According to US census figures compiled by Governing magazine, vehicle ownership in Indianapolis averages 1.6 per household, close to the US average of 1.8, and there are 8.5 vehicles for every 10 adults in the city.
"It's going to be a huge educational adjustment," Richard Steiner, president of the Hoosier Electric Vehicle Association, told the Indianapolis Business Journal last month. "As Americans, we consider our car an extension of ourselves."
©Bloomberg
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