
Paris Is Sharing Electric Cars by the Thousand—Will It Play in Indianapolis? - T-A
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-17/paris-is-sharing-electric-cars-by-the-thousand-will-it-play-in-indianapolis-
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demallien
I'm a regular Autolib user in Paris, and I have to say Autolib is just pure
awesome. It's the piece of the puzzle that has been missing in public
transport, because sometimes you just need a car. Some examples:

Moving large bulky items

Getting around quickly in the suburbs, out of the city centre

Rerving parking in the city centr a ahead of time

Actually, those are the three main use cases for me. I do everything else with
my electric bike or the metro. Still, the service has changed my life - I no
longer own a car because of it, and I'm not alone in that. Just yesterday
another friend was selling her car on Facebookfor the same reason.

Anyway, I think the Indy city council would do better by stopping worrying
about who had the right to do what, and just get behind this thing. It just
makes people's lives better.

~~~
renox
I live in Paris suburb and Autolib isn't useful for me and the lost of parking
space complaint is quite real. So 'pure awesome' for its customers, probably,
annoying for other: that's true also.

~~~
Majestic121
As someone who uses neither Autolib nor regular car, I'm way more annoyed by
the regular cars completely filling the roads everyday (one person by car, 95%
of the time), polluting, making buses late and taking a huge part of the
city/sideways, than by someone using Autolib once in a while.

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lumberjack
This is the car they are using:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollor%C3%A9_Bluecar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollor%C3%A9_Bluecar)

Approximate total cost of ownership over 7 years is €25.000 but you only need
€19.000 upfront plus another €80 to lease the battery each month. 150KM
highway range.

~~~
roma1n
There is an issue with the battery technology though. AFAIK these cars must
stay plugged and draw power when not in use to keep the battery above 70C.

~~~
rihegher
It's an issue only if you don't reach an appropriate usage rate of the car.
Which is a non issue for shared cars in town.

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hapless
The mayor of Indianapolis implemented this program by fiat, without any legal
basis. The city-county council is furious.

There are no special legal carve-outs for the use of city parking spaces or
municipal land by the autolib vehicles -- they're parked illegally and they'll
start getting towed the minute a new mayor enters office.

As far as I know, it's not even legal to import the electric cars, much less
drive them on public roads. They certainly don't meet NHTSA standards.

~~~
mecameron
> As far as I know, it's not even legal to import the electric cars, much less
> drive them on public roads. They certainly don't meet NHTSA standards.

Why would it not be legal to import electric cars? The cumulatively most sold
electric vehicle in the US, the Nissan Leaf, started off manufacturing in
Japan only, and the initial batch in the US was all imported. The just
launched BWM i3 and i8 are both imported, as well as the VW e-golf and a
number of others.

And not be legal to drive? By the end of 2015 we will be at nearly 400k
electric vehicles sold in just the US [1]. A faster adoption rate than hybrid
vehicles [2].

[1] - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-
in_electric_vehicles_in_t...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-
in_electric_vehicles_in_the_United_States)

[2] - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-
in_electric_vehicles_in_t...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-
in_electric_vehicles_in_the_United_States#/media/File:DoE_EV_Everywhere_Blueprint_p5.png)

~~~
jpollock
From a quick google search:

> We are currently making the modifications necessary to meet the Department
> of Transportation (DoT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
> (NHTSA) requirements. Fully compliant Bluecars will be produced in Q4 2014
> and will be brought to Indianapolis for the public opening of the BlueIndy
> service. Among the modifications are additional airbags, braking and bumper
> modifications. A first set of European Bluecars is being brought to
> Indianapolis for demonstration and testing, under a temporary import
> authorization from NHTSA. A first batch of 10 will be used for a public
> demonstration starting on May 19. These temporary import Bluecars will
> subsequently be shipped back to France and replaced by the US model.

[1]:
[http://www.in.gov/oucc/files/44478_OUCC_Testimony_of_Edward_...](http://www.in.gov/oucc/files/44478_OUCC_Testimony_of_Edward_T__Rutter_.pdf)

~~~
mecameron
Thanks. I actually mis-read the parent comment as "it's not even legal to
import electric cars" instead of "it's not even legal to import _the_ electric
cars" referring specifically to the Bollore Bluecars.

Though I don't know much about the local controversy with the blue car launch
in Indy, I highly doubt the relevant federal agencies would allow the
importing and driving of hundreds of vehicles that have not passed through the
relevant steps.

~~~
jpollock
Ah, but they do, as long as it's for "demonstrations, racing, training and
investigations"... :)

[http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/06/17/indy-
councilor...](http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/06/17/indy-councilors-
question-blueindy-safety/28878131/)

~~~
jsprogrammer
10 == 100s?

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akgerber
San Diego has had the electric Car2Go service for several years:
[http://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/04/car2go-san-diego-
upgrade...](http://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/04/car2go-san-diego-upgrades-
fleet-400-new-electric-2014-models-now-service/)

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noobermin
(Rewriting) Another similar company also in the US is car2go.

[https://www.car2go.com/en/columbus/](https://www.car2go.com/en/columbus/)

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spacecowboy_lon
Not sure that the article is right in saying having silent cars is an
advantage - increases risk to pedestrians and cyclists

~~~
andygates
That's FUD without statistics to back it up.

~~~
spacecowboy_lon
In that case why do electric/fuel cell cars/buses have noise makers?

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yason
The appeal of sharing cars is directly proportional to how ugly and soulless
the new cars are designed to be. The world has been on that path for a couple
of decades now, and it looks like we will hit the sharing economy precisely at
the time when most new cars look like such that nobody would ever want to own
one.

