I'm a regular Autolib user in Paris, and I have to say Autolib is just pure awesome. It's the piece of the puzzle that has been missing in public transport, because sometimes you just need a car. Some examples:
Moving large bulky items
Getting around quickly in the suburbs, out of the city centre
Rerving parking in the city centr a ahead of time
Actually, those are the three main use cases for me. I do everything else with my electric bike or the metro. Still, the service has changed my life - I no longer own a car because of it, and I'm not alone in that. Just yesterday another friend was selling her car on Facebookfor the same reason.
Anyway, I think the Indy city council would do better by stopping worrying about who had the right to do what, and just get behind this thing. It just makes people's lives better.
I live in Paris suburb and Autolib isn't useful for me and the lost of parking space complaint is quite real.
So 'pure awesome' for its customers, probably, annoying for other: that's true also.
Approximate total cost of ownership over 7 years is €25.000 but you only need €19.000 upfront plus another €80 to lease the battery each month. 150KM highway range.
The mayor of Indianapolis implemented this program by fiat, without any legal basis. The city-county council is furious.
There are no special legal carve-outs for the use of city parking spaces or municipal land by the autolib vehicles -- they're parked illegally and they'll start getting towed the minute a new mayor enters office.
As far as I know, it's not even legal to import the electric cars, much less drive them on public roads. They certainly don't meet NHTSA standards.
> As far as I know, it's not even legal to import the electric cars, much less drive them on public roads. They certainly don't meet NHTSA standards.
Why would it not be legal to import electric cars? The cumulatively most sold electric vehicle in the US, the Nissan Leaf, started off manufacturing in Japan only, and the initial batch in the US was all imported. The just launched BWM i3 and i8 are both imported, as well as the VW e-golf and a number of others.
And not be legal to drive? By the end of 2015 we will be at nearly 400k electric vehicles sold in just the US [1]. A faster adoption rate than hybrid vehicles [2].
The appeal of sharing cars is directly proportional to how ugly and soulless the new cars are designed to be. The world has been on that path for a couple of decades now, and it looks like we will hit the sharing economy precisely at the time when most new cars look like such that nobody would ever want to own one.
[+] [-] demallien|10 years ago|reply
Moving large bulky items
Getting around quickly in the suburbs, out of the city centre
Rerving parking in the city centr a ahead of time
Actually, those are the three main use cases for me. I do everything else with my electric bike or the metro. Still, the service has changed my life - I no longer own a car because of it, and I'm not alone in that. Just yesterday another friend was selling her car on Facebookfor the same reason.
Anyway, I think the Indy city council would do better by stopping worrying about who had the right to do what, and just get behind this thing. It just makes people's lives better.
[+] [-] renox|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lumberjack|10 years ago|reply
Approximate total cost of ownership over 7 years is €25.000 but you only need €19.000 upfront plus another €80 to lease the battery each month. 150KM highway range.
[+] [-] roma1n|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hapless|10 years ago|reply
There are no special legal carve-outs for the use of city parking spaces or municipal land by the autolib vehicles -- they're parked illegally and they'll start getting towed the minute a new mayor enters office.
As far as I know, it's not even legal to import the electric cars, much less drive them on public roads. They certainly don't meet NHTSA standards.
[+] [-] mecameron|10 years ago|reply
Why would it not be legal to import electric cars? The cumulatively most sold electric vehicle in the US, the Nissan Leaf, started off manufacturing in Japan only, and the initial batch in the US was all imported. The just launched BWM i3 and i8 are both imported, as well as the VW e-golf and a number of others.
And not be legal to drive? By the end of 2015 we will be at nearly 400k electric vehicles sold in just the US [1]. A faster adoption rate than hybrid vehicles [2].
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicles_in_t...
[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicles_in_t...
[+] [-] QuercusMax|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tobltobs|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akgerber|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] noobermin|10 years ago|reply
https://www.car2go.com/en/columbus/
[+] [-] spacecowboy_lon|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andygates|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yason|10 years ago|reply