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PSA and Renault are scrambling to offer car-sharing cars to Autolib, the Bolloré group's self-service electric car service, which was discontinued prematurely because of its deficit.
The city of Paris announced in midday a joint press conference, Wednesday, between Mayor Anne Hidalgo and Deputy Director General of Renault, Thierry Bolloré, dedicated to "the emergence of new electric vehicle services for Parisians, Ile-de-France residents and visitors".
In the wake of this invitation, PSA published Tuesday its own communiqué to announce the finalization of the launch of a car sharing service for the mobility of Parisians, under its brand "Free2move" which now has more than 65,000 vehicles – including scooters and bicycles – in a dozen countries. "We are providing Parisians our know-how in urban mobility through our offer of electric car sharing, quality and perennial," said Brigitte Courtehoux, Director of Mobility Services and connectivity of PSA, quoted in the release. "This is possible thanks to the good collaboration we have established with the City of Paris."
>> To read also: And if Bolloré sold me one of his Autolib 'reformed?
The Syndicat Autolib 'Vélib' Métropole (SAVM), which brings together a hundred or so municipalities, voted on 21 June to terminate the contract with the Bolloré group initially planned until 2023. The elected representatives refused to pay the 233 million euros claimed by the Breton manufacturer to absorb the service deficit, which Bolloré estimates the losses to 293 million euros by 2023. The service launched in 2011 with the now famous small gray electric cars will cease definitively on 31 July. A source close to the file said that cars would gradually disappear from the streets of Paris in August.
To replace the Autolib contract, the Paris City Council decided to turn to offers in "free floating" – without Dedicated space to pick up or bring back a car – fully supported by several private actors. Renault already offers self-service vehicles in France, "Renault Mobility", and operates 500 Zoe electric "free floating" in Madrid. PSA, also present in Madrid with a similar offer, intends to deploy a fleet of 500 electric vehicles in Ile-de-France in the fourth quarter of 2018. It should include Citroën C-Zero and Peugeot iOn generation, the new power supply of the manufacturer is not expected before 2019 and especially 2020.
The town hall plus 20,000 cars in Paris
Les Echos reported Tuesday that new operators of the service could pay an annual fee between 300 euros and 500 euros per vehicle. According to the newspaper, the resolution proposed Monday to the Paris Council provided a contribution of 500 euros. Deliberation Tuesday, it could be reduced to 300 euros. The economic daily adds that the goal of the city of Paris is to eventually have a fleet of more than 20,000 vehicles. On the basis of the amounts mentioned for the license to park cars on the public space, such a volume would represent between six and ten million euros per year of costs for operators and revenue for Ile-de-France
In addition to PSA and Renault, other candidates would be in the ranks, including Ada, the Rousselet Group's rental subsidiary, which also owns the G7, Ubeequo (Europcar) or Zipcar (Avis) taxis. It will also remain to be determined when the new vehicles will be able to charge the 6,200 charging stations deployed in Ile-de-France for Autolib. The material part will be taken over by the local authorities on July 31st but the software part will have to be reprogrammed so that the terminals can be accessible to the new operators.
While all the electric vehicles – from the mini Renault Twizy to the giant Tesla S – can now recharge on Autolib outlets with a specific subscription, it may take months before the network becomes operational for the new services.
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