Autolib electric car-sharing coming to Paris next year

First came self-service bicycles, and now Paris is launching a green scheme to provide electric cars that drivers can pick up and drop off anywhere in the city. The mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, announced 13 October that from the end of next year, 4,000 electric cars will be placed around Paris and its outskirts for drivers in the scheme to help themselves for short journeys. It is the first electric car project of its kind in a capital city.

"This could revolutionise transport," Delanoë told French radio. He has doubled the projected cars from 2,000 to 4,000 and expanded the target area beyond Paris's ring road. In less than a year, Paris's army of cheap, on-street hire-bicycles called Vélib' has transformed transport habits and bike awareness. The fleet of carbon-neutral hire-cars called Autolib is the mayor's next phase in green transport. Paris city hall said 700 Autolib pick-up points would be set up across the Paris area, 200 of which will be underground. A driver could pick up a car, for example, in the east of the city and drop it off in the west after a short journey.