[sustran] [World Streets] Common sense on "next generation" carsharing - Paris, London ...

[ericbritton]

[http://www.climatechangecorp.com/content.asp?contentid=6026]
[The following piece of this date graciously shared with us by the
author and the Climate Change Group ]Could London follow Paris with
electric car sharing?]18 Mar 2009 | Author: Toby Procter | - Boris
Johnson's electric cars will not be as green as those powered by the
French, so why not just hop on a bus instead?Aiming to make London the
‘electric capital of Europe’, London Mayor Boris Johnson told the
London assembly on 25 February that a working group was considering a
plan along the lines of the Autolib’ electric car rental scheme planned
for Paris for 2010, and wanted to greatly expand support for charging
points around London.Johnson hoped for a "sizeable chunk" of the £250m
government funding for electric vehicle initiatives, and added that he
wanted to see at least half the 8,000-vehicle fleet owned by the
Greater London Authority replaced by electric vehicles as soon as
possible, while warning that considerable sums were necessary in order
to invest in a technology that is "almost there ... but not quite".Last
October, the Paris authorities announced plans for an ‘Autolib’
electric car-sharing scheme to do on four wheels what the successful
Vélib bicycle sharing scheme has done on two. Paris proposes 2,000 EVs
to be available from 200 city centre underground car parks and 500
parking bays, and another 2,000 in the city’s suburbs. These vehicles
could be booked online, picked up in one bay and left in another at the
journey’s end.Electric cars still have teething problems. Problem one
is that these cars - some are not technically cars, but ‘quadricycles’
such as the REVA and Aixam Mega – are produced in small numbers and
cost more than comparable ordinary cars, despite offering limited
range, utility and space.Problem two is the infrastructure EVs need,
given their batteries’ present shortcomings. Most EVs’ batteries need
recharging for 7-8 hours after around 100 miles. The 40 Elektrobay
street-side recharging units already in place in London cost around
£7,500 per unit installed - multiply that by 700 units as with the
Paris scheme - and it adds up to a huge sum of cash.Then there’s the
cost of telematics and accounting systems and associated hardware to
charge users for the ‘juice’ and the rentals. Elektromotive, the UK
firm which has supplied London’s recharging points to date, recently
signed an agreement with the Renault-Nissan Alliance, which hopes for
global EV market leadership from the launch of its first electric cars
in 2012, but solutions to large-scale recharging/parking infrastructure
issues remain unproven.London is likely to start, as have some other
local authorities, by buying more electric vehicles for the GLA fleet,
whose journeys start and end at depots where off-road recharging units
can more easily be installed.To date, car sharing clubs have remained
small-scale, though in London, the City Car Club saw membership rise
109% last year, and rival Whizzgo’s rose 42%. One such company might
take on the management of an EV sharing scheme. But it would provide
electric car access only to the few, so might not deserve big
subsidies.The question of whether electric cars in London are the
greenest option should also be asked. France relies on nuclear energy
for around 80% of its electricity and therefore has a much lower carbon
electricity supply than the Brits.And according to estimates cited by
the French EV maker Aixam, on average people only need cars in London
for 4-mile journeys. Might they be better off taking a bus? Improving
bus services might cut urban CO2 emissions more efficiently than a
token fleet of electric cars available only to the few.However London
decides to pump-prime electric transport, the Mayor should reflect on
the fact that some of the latest small diesel cars from European
manufacturers emit CO2 emissions below 100gm/km, well below the 2012
limit proposed by the EU, and scarcely more than the average 87g/km
calculated for electric cars by the UK's King Review of Low Carbon
Cars, factoring in the UK’s renewables-poor generation mix.

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Posted By ericbritton to World Streets at 3/19/2009 02:09:00 AM
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