Autolib'

The Autolib' system was a follow-up to Paris's successful Vélib' bike sharing system, which began operations in 2007. The system's electric cars were supplied by the Bolloré industrial group, as the result of a collaboration with the Italian automotive firm Pininfarina. There were also plans to integrate payment for the bicycle and car hire services with the ticketing systems for traditional modes of public transport. In May 2012, Vincent Bolloré, the head of the Bolloré group, stated that he expected Autolib' to become profitable by 2018, but the service ended on 31 July 2018 and was replaced on 2 December 2018 by a municipal service to manage the 1000 electrical charging stations in Paris and the City of Paris concluded agreements with several carsharing societies: three freefloating operators and four additional ones participating to the new service Mobilib'.

Construction of the Autolib' stations began in mid-2011, and 66 of the Bolloré Bluecars were deployed for a two-month preliminary trial period between October and December 2011. The system entered service on 5 December 2011, with an initial fleet of 250 Bluecars and 250 Autolib' rental stations serving the city of Paris and 18 surrounding communities (96 in 2016), grouped into the syndicate of associated collectivities "Autolib' Métropole".

At its inception, car availability was a problematic issue, as more Parisians than expected subscribed to the service. Moreover, by early January 2012, up to 40 of the 250 cars in the initial fleet had been temporarily withdrawn from service to repair vandalism or malfunctions.

By July 2012, 650 parking and charging stations had been deployed around Paris and the 46 communes participating in the service, and by February 2013 there were 4,000 charging points. The program's user base grew from 6,000 subscribers at the end of December 2011 to 27,000 in July 2012, and reached 37,000 by early October 2012, of which 13,000 had an annual subscription.

During 2012, sales of electric cars in France were led by the Bolloré Bluecar deployed for Autolib', with 1,543 units registered, representing 28% of total all-electric cars registered in the country that year. Over 2,000 Bolloré Bluecars had been registered for Autolib' by September 2013. By late September 2012, Autolib's fleet reached the milestone of 500,000 rentals since its launch, and its vehicles had been driven a cumulative total of 15,000,000 km (9,300,000 mi) by February 2013. By mid-October 2013, the service had provided over 3 million rentals, with an average of 10,000 rentals per day. By July 2014, Autolib' had 2,500 operational vehicles and over 150,000 subscribers, and its cars had covered a cumulative mileage of over 30,000,000 km (19,000,000 mi) since the service's introduction. In July 2018 the service ceased to operate. Some cars that were part of the fleet are parked in Loir-et-Cher, near Romorantin.

Name lawsuit

In December 2009, the car-rental company Europcar brought the City of Paris to court, arguing that the Autolib' name was a plagiarism and unfair competition by the city. Europcar is the trademark owner of the rental car subscription service "Autoliberté", which has been in operation since 2001. The case was dismissed in March 2011 by the High Court of Paris, and Europcar decided to appeal. On 30 June 2012, the Paris Court of Appeal set aside the judgment of the High Court, and ruled that within a month Autolib' had to change its name because it breached trademark laws. The ruling implied that the name had to be changed on all 1,800 Autolib' cars, docking stations and subscriber cards, and also required that all of the business's advertising to be rewritten.

After the ruling, the City of Paris and Europcar began negotiating an agreement to solve the brand name conflict. In November 2012, an agreement was reached to keep the Autolib' brand name. Europcar agreed to waive the enforcement of the court decision on the condition that the City of Paris would be the owner of the Autolib' brand, and in exchange for free advertising for Europcar's Autoliberté service. The agreement was signed for three years.

Fire incidents

On 14 October 2013, a Bluecar was destroyed by fire while charging at an Autolib' kiosk in Paris; the fire then spread to a second Bluecar. A police investigation was subsequently conducted to ascertain the cause of the fire. According to Bolloré, the real-time telemetric monitoring system did not register a thermal runaway problem with the car's battery when the fire started. The company attributed the origin of the fire to an external cause, probably vandalism. Bolloré reported that a total of 25 Autolib' Bluecars have burnt out since its inception, with most of the incidents certified as attributed to vandals.

Operation

The Autolib' Bluecar was available to anyone aged 18 or older with a valid French driving license, or a valid foreign license plus the international driving license, who took out a paid subscription. Users could choose between 2 rental packages, with 30-minute fees varying from €6 to €9 depending on the rental plan. An available car could be collected for use from any rental station and returned to any other rental station. Each car had on-board GPS capabilities and could be tracked by the system's operations center.

In addition to the subscription fees, Autolib' charged a variable rate for each half an hour of use, but billing for each rental was calculated on a pro rata basis, which took into account the actual duration of use rounded up to the nearest minute (except for the first 20 minutes, for which there is a minimum charge). The table below summarizes the subscription types that were available, the subscription fees and the corresponding 30-minute rates:

Other services

Private EV charging service

In addition to charging its own vehicles, the Autolib' service offered charging services for private owners of electric cars and motorcycles. Customers had to sign up for the "recharge" fee option. The subscription cost for cars and motorcycles was €15 per year only the first year. Recharge customers had designated parking spaces at Autolib' stations, marked with a blue square. Each hour cost €1 for cars and motorcycles. Use of the charging infrastructure for private cars was limited to two times per day per subscriber.

In early 2014, Renault offered free Autolib' charging subscriptions to owners of Renault EVs. Autolib' charging stations were compatible with the following plug-in electric vehicles: BMW i3, Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Opel Ampera, Renault Fluence Z.E., Renault Kangoo Z.E., Renault Twizy, Renault Zoe, Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid and all Smart ED, Peugeot iOn and Citroen C-Zero manufactured before May 2013.