Electric cars give a boost to cleaning up our air

PARIS is ahead of the game when it comes to electric vehicles but now London is catching up with the unveiling of a £100 million scheme to extend electric car use. This Friday details will be announced of London’s version of AutoLib’, the electric car rental scheme which Paris has had since 2011. From next year, the system will be run here by private operator Bolloré on a paid subscription basis — only the London cars will be a nice bright red. The hope is that this will give London’s green transport the push it needs to get electric vehicles off the ground.

Electric cars are widely recognised as key to lowemission transport and to cutting London’s air pollution, much of which comes from road traffic. Electric vehicles are potentially ideal in a city such as London, though their chief drawback remains range: Nissan’s bestselling Leaf is typical, going around 100 miles on a full charge, though the Autolib’ version goes further. In time, advances in battery life will improve that. In the shorter term, electric cars will become more popular only with a better network of charging points, a problem that Bolloré hopes to address.

For those who use cars occasionally, or cannot afford a car, or for visitors, the Autolib’ model makes sense. Indeed, the Paris system allows for subscription packages ranging from a day to a year. A public electric car scheme could revolutionise car use in London in the way Boris bikes changed bike use: these schemes are complementary to private ownership. Indeed, Parisians are already discussing the possibility of integrating bike and electric car hire with ticketing systems for conventional public transport. Such a system here would amount to a really integrated, flexible public transport system, incorporating individual vehicles as well as communal ones. Paris is now considering a shared scooter scheme: that could be a chic idea to imitate too.