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Translogic tackles how Parisians share transportation

Jeff Sabatini — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:11:00 EST

This week, our sister site Translogic heads off to Paris to check out the Vélib' bike-sharing and Autolib' electric-vehicle sharing programs.

Vélib' boasts 20,000 bikes and 1,800 stations throughout the city, where anyone with a credit card can check out a bike on the fly. More exciting is the EV-sharing program, which uses Pininfarina-built Bollore Blue Cars that are available to subscribers for rental at rates ranging between €9 (around $12 USD) and €16 per hour (@ $21). The program was launched in December 2011, with 250 cars and 250 stations, and though it has faced some problems, the number of cars is expected to increase to 3,000 by next year.

Click past the jump to watch the full episode.

Continue reading Translogic tackles how Parisians share transportation

Translogic tackles how Parisians share transportation originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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VIDEO: Zipcar has $1 billion dreams... and 46 members per car?

Sebastian Blanco — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Earnings/Financials

Zipcar's $1 billion ambition - Click above to watch the video after the break

How many cars do you think Zipcar owns around the world? Did you know it was 6,500?
How big could Zipcar one day become? How about a $1 billion company?

These are two of the numbers mentioned in an interview that CEO Scott Griffith gave to Fortune recently. Griffith also said that, today, Zipcar has about 300,000 members, which give us an average of about 46 members per car. To some of us on staff, that seems incredibly high, and to others of us, incredibly low. Either way, in order to reach the $1 billion goal, Zipcar will need to get to the one million member level, Griffith figures.

Before that happens, Griffith needs to convince a lot more organizations to adopt the Zipcar model. We know about how Zipcar can work for individuals - basically, easy car rentals by the hour - but Griffith is more excited about the behind-the-scenes operations. For example, people need to clean and maintain all 6,500 vehicles, right? The back-end work that Zipcar is doing today to make sure there is time in the schedule for all of these cars to be prepped and ready for customers when they want them will help tremendously as the company begins to add more and more electric vehicles to the fleet. Griffith says it is just a step away from scheduling maintenance to finding time to recharge electric cars:

"Our system is going to integrate very well with electric vehicles, and that's one of the things that governments and universities and corporate partners are very interested in. How are they going to schedule all of this and manage the logistics of having electric vehicles.

The next city to get an electric Zipcar, Griffith said, will probably be Washington, D.C. Watch the video after the jump to learn more.

[Source: Fortune via CNNMoney.com]

Continue reading VIDEO: Zipcar has $1 billion dreams... and 46 members per car?

VIDEO: Zipcar has $1 billion dreams... and 46 members per car? originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nissan's plan for electric cars: buy the vehicle, lease the battery

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:02:00 EST

Filed under: Car Buying, Hybrid, Green, Nissan

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Nissan Nuvu concept

Remember when you were a kid and wanted that shiny new radio-controlled car from Toys 'R Us? The fine print at the bottom of the package almost always read, "Batteries Not Included." If Nissan's current plans go forward, that little saying may come back to haunt you when Nissan's electric vehicle goes on sale sometime after 2010.

Carlos Tavares, Nissan Motor Co.'s executive vice president for product planning and design, believes that in the not-so-distant future, we'll all be driving zero-emissions cars powered by electrons. When you make your way into the dealership to sign the paperwork, you'll be presented with two forms; one to purchase the car and one to lease the battery. Before we all get too upset about paying separately for our power packs, remember that filling up with gasoline will be a thing of the past as well -- in this particular vision for the future, at least -- so Tavares assures us that the overall cost to the consumer will actually be lower than it is today.

Another possibility presented by Tavares is car sharing, which is already taking place around the world on a very small scale. Instead of owning your own vehicle, you'd merely have access to one, time-share style, that would allow you entry into a garage full of vehicles from which to choose for your particular day's needs. To which we say, yeah... we'll see.

Gallery: Nissan NUVU concept - Live Shots

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Nissan's plan for electric cars: buy the vehicle, lease the battery originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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