2011 2011 12 paris october 2013 2013 10 lyon january 2014 2014 01 bordeaux headquarters paris france area served paris bordeaux and lyon services carsharing parent bollor website autolib.eu autolibmetropole.fr autolib is an electric car sharing service which was inaugurated in paris france in december 2011 . it is operated by the bollor industrial group and complements the city s bike sharing scheme velib which was set up in 2007 . the autolib scheme maintains a fleet of all electric bollor bluecars for public use on a paid subscription basis employing a citywide network of parking and charging stations . 1 2 as of 3 july 2016 update 3 980 bluecars have been registered for the service and the scheme has more than 126 900 registered subscribers ; 3 4 autolib furthermore offers 1 084 electric car stations in paris agglomeration with 5 935 charging points . 5 6 since beginning operations in paris autolib has expanded its business to the cities of lyon and bordeaux . 7 8 bollor has also signed deals to begin operating offshoots of autolib in london and indianapolis in 2015 . 4 9 10 contents 1 history 1.1 name lawsuit 1.2 fire incidents 2 autolib beyond paris 3 operation 4 other services 4.1 private ev charging service 4.2 bluecar leasing and sales program 4.3 corporate carsharing 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit the autolib system is a follow up to paris successful velib bike sharing scheme which began operations in 2007 . the system s electric cars are supplied by the bollor industrial group as the result of a collaboration with the italian automotive firm pininfarina . 11 there are also plans to integrate payment for the bicycle and car hire schemes with the ticketing systems for traditional modes of public transport . 12 in may 2012 vincent bollor the head of the bollor group stated that he expected autolib to become profitable by 2018 . 13 bollor bluecars recharging at an autolib service kiosk on rue du quatre septembre paris in june 2012 . construction of the autolib stations began in mid 2011 and 66 of the scheme s bollor bluecars were deployed for a two month preliminary trial period between october and december 2011 . 1 14 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 m tropole . 15 at the scheme s 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 . 16 17 by july 2012 650 parking and charging stations had been deployed around paris and the 46 communes participating in the scheme 18 and by february 2013 there were 4 000 charging points . 5 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 . 18 19 20 an autolib rental station in 2013 . during 2012 sales of electric cars in france were led by the bollor bluecar deployed for autolib with 1 543 units registered representing 28 % of total all electric cars registered in the country that year . 21 over 2 000 bollor bluecars had been registered for autolib by september 2013 . 3 22 by late september 2012 autolib s fleet reached the milestone of 500 000 rentals since its launch 18 23 and the scheme s vehicles had been driven a cumulative total of 15 000 000 km 9 300 000 mi by february 2013 . 5 by mid october 2013 the service had provided over 3 million rentals with an average of 10 000 rentals per day . 3 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 scheme s introduction . 4 name lawsuit edit 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 autolibert which has been in operation since 2001 . 24 the case was dismissed in march 2011 by the high court of paris and europcar decided to appeal . 25 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 scheme s advertising to be rewritten . 26 after the ruling the city of paris and europcar began negotiating an agreement to solve the brand name conflict . 27 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 autolibert service . the agreement was signed for three years . 28 29 fire incidents edit 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 . 30 a police investigation was subsequently conducted to ascertain the cause of the fire . according to bollor the real time telemetric monitoring system did not register a thermal runaway problem with the car s battery when the fire started . the company is attributing the origin of the fire to an external cause probably vandalism . bollor reported that a total of 25 autolib bluecars have burnt out since the scheme s inception with most of the incidents certified as attributed to vandals . 31 32 autolib beyond paris edit in early 2013 the bollor group announced plans to launch a similar car sharing service in lyon and bordeaux but under a different brand name and with no cost to the cities . bollor s proposal was to fund the entire infrastructure install and provide the vehicles and cover the costs of maintenance and repairs . bollor furthermore expressed interest in launching a car sharing service in asia . 7 in october 2013 proposals were advanced for scootlib an electric scooter sharing scheme intended to complement velib and autolib . 33 bollor s lyon scheme dubbed bluely entered service in october 2013 with an initial fleet of 130 vehicles and 51 parking and charging stations . 34 its bordeaux service bluecub began operating in january 2014 with an initial fleet of 90 vehicles 40 parking stations and 180 charging stations . 8 in june 2013 autolib formed an agreement with the american city of indianapolis indiana to develop an electric car sharing service there ; 9 the scheme named blueindy opened to the public in september 2015 . 35 a similar scheme based in london was announced in 2014 and will be inaugurated in march 2015 utilising london s existing network of electric car charging points . 4 the london scheme is intended to encompass 3 000 electric cars by 2018 . 4 operation edit an autolib kiosk on boulevard diderot . the autolib bluecar is available to anyone aged 18 or older with a valid french driving license or a valid foreign license plus the international driving license who takes out a paid subscription . users can choose between 2 rental packages with 30 minute fees varying from 6 to 9 depending on the rental plan . an available car can be collected for use from any rental station and returned to any other rental station . each car has on board gps capabilities and can be tracked by the system s operations center . 22 in addition to the subscription fees autolib charges a variable rate for each half an hour of use but billing for each rental is calculated on a pro rata basis which takes 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 . 36 the table below summarizes the subscription types available the subscription fees and the corresponding 30 minute rates autolib service fees and use rates 36 plan membership subscription fees car reservation rates per each 30 min interval maximum rates in case of accident first accident second accident third accident max 1 year 1 year 120 per year 10 per month 0 6 200 475 750 ready to go 1 year 0 per year 0 per month 1 9 200 475 750 other services edit a privately owned bmw i3 charging at an autolib station in paris . a bluecar used by the atos mycar corporate carsharing service in bezons france in 2012 . private ev charging service edit in addition to charging its own vehicles the autolib scheme offers charging services for private owners of electric cars and motorcycles . 37 customers have to sign up for the recharge fee option . the subscription cost for cars and motorcycles is 15 per year only the first year . recharge customers have designated parking spaces at autolib stations marked with a blue square . each hour costs 1 for cars and motorcycles . use of the charging infrastructure for private cars is limited to two times per day per subscriber . 38 in early 2014 renault offered free autolib charging subscriptions to owners of renault evs . 39 autolib charging stations are 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 . 40 bluecar leasing and sales program edit bollor began leasing the bluecar to individual and corporate customers in october 2012 at a price of 500 us 648 per month . the pricing includes insurance parking and charging at autolib stations . according to bollor each existing station already provides one recharging space for private electric cars outside the autolib system . the bluecar retail version has a blue exterior color unlike the autolib version s silver unpainted aluminum exterior . 18 41 in february 2013 boller announced the start of retail sales of the bluecar and for an optional monthly fee of 15 owners can have access to the autolib network of charging stations around paris . 42 corporate carsharing edit atos and the bollor group launched the mycar corporate car sharing pilot program in december 2012 . the service is dedicated to atos employees for their business travel needs at the company s headquarters in the french town of bezons . a fleet of ten atos branded bollor bluecars were initially deployed . in addition to charging vehicles at the solar powered bezons site mycar users can also access the autolib network of charging stations in paris and its surrounding area . 43 44 in january 2013 a similar leasing deal was reached with cr dit agricole the largest retail banking group in france . five bluecars were leased for 20 months for business travel use by the bank s employees . 45 see also edit car2go an international car sharing scheme which also offers electric car rentals communauto a montreal based electric and hybrid vehicle car sharing