Bluecity readies car-share launch for London

Underpinned by France’s Bolloré group, the Bluecity scheme will use its own four-seat electric city cars. These have a 150-mile range and feature a telematic system with nav displays showing the location of charging points.

Bolloré already runs a similar system in Paris, with 3600 cars on the road. These are typically used 14 times a day, for journeys averaging 30-40 minutes – and the company estimates that since its launch in 2011, it has led to 31,000 fewer conventional cars being brought into Paris.

Customers using the cars in London will pay £5 per half hour, making it comparable in price to travelling by tube.

Bolloré owns Bluepoint London, which took over the Source London EV charging network just over a year ago. At that time, it says, there were 835 charging points – only about 500 of which were actually working.

By 2018, as the Bluecity scheme gets into full swing, it intends to have 6000 chargers in operation with no more than a few dozen out of action at any one time.

These will be sited throughout the Greater London area. The cars will be able to travel outside the city centre, though users won’t be allowed beyond the M25.

In future, the company wants to roll out similar schemes in other UK cities, with Manchester likely to be its next target.