“Paris is the kind of city that interests us”. At PSA, we want to catch the ball launched by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. This one plans to prematurely terminate the Autolib contract with Bolloré to turn to more flexible car-sharing solutions without stations . This Monday, it will bring together stakeholders in the sector to talk about it.
“Free-floating can be viable in Paris, where there is a high density of potential customers. We are in contact with the Town Hall. We could start quickly, “says Brigitte Courtehoux, director of new mobilities of the automaker, a partner of the Bolloré group since 2015.
PSA already operates this type of car-sharing service with 600 electric Citroen in Madrid and another 150 in Lisbon. “In Spain, we had surpassed 100,000 subscribers in three months. After a year and a half of service, we have more than 180,000, “she says.
According to the size of the capital, it would be necessary to put more than 1,000 cars in self-service – so that each customer can have a vehicle available a few hundred meters from its position. PSA rather considers an intramural perimeter, but does not seem fixed on the question.
Extensible perimeter
“Free-floating is a flexible system. Since there are no stations, the perimeter is easily expandable depending on demand. Even if, at the end of the end, you have to be profitable, “explains Brigitte Courtehoux. To operate this device, it is necessary to finance the cars, the insurances, the parking, and to recruit mobile agents to recharge the batteries, to clean the vehicles, even to repair them.
In the Iberian Peninsula, the public authorities do not subsidize the service of PSA and its local partners. The group does not ask any public subsidy to go to Paris. His only request is for parking. “This is an important point. Guests must be able to park easily to avoid disappointment. In Madrid and Lisbon, parking is free for electric vehicles, “says the engineer, who is however ready to pay an annual fee for its potential fleet, as is done in other European cities.
On Parisian asphalt, PSA could be faced with fairly wide competition. Renault, which will participate in the meeting on Monday, has launched with a similar offer to that of PSA in Madrid, and the German BMW and Daimler are clearly the most advanced car-sharing manufacturers ( an area in which they have decided to merge their activities ). At BMW, we also discuss free-floating with all major European cities, including Paris.
In the context of a functional free-floating system, the car utilization rate is between 15 and 20%.