After our post on France and its electric vehicle, EV research, we found another story on how EV could populate the city of lights and other major cities.
Where? Paris, has had a very popular citywide bike-sharing plan launched a year ago. The success took the city by surprise and this time, the mayor wants an EVs as the next phase.
The gist, imagine picking up a car on the Champs Elisee, wind your way up to Montmartre, drop it off there. Have a coffee at one of the cafes overlooking the local painters then pick up another EV, wind your way down to the Latin Quarter and drop it off there to listen to some jazz? Well, how about only paying for the minutes using the EV? The plan is brilliant but it is attracting some alarm.
Paris, as many cities worldwide, is trying to rid itself of cars and have its users jump on its well designed public transportation. But the plan is also seen by some as a way to introduce cars on its narrow street and increase congestion. In one sense, it would make people take their cars home to the main trains and subway lines, then once in the city, they would just hop on a rented EV to get to and fro.
It will be interesting to see the logistic of it all. In many ways, France and its heavily subsidized system could pave the way for the rest of the world to adopt a similar system. It will be interesting to see how they go about it. And the funny thing is famed Boris Vian, musician and writer amongst many other things had already thought of a similar system in 50s.