The city’s new electric car-sharing program will encourage competition among car-sharing companies rather than a monopoly as many had feared.
A bylaw, to be voted on at city council next week, will permit many companies to use a vast electric charging network to be rolled out this spring.
There are only two companies providing one-way car-sharing services in the city: Car2Go and Communauto. The services allow users to take a car from its designated parking spot and leave it in another spot, without having to return it. Only Communauto’s fleet has a significant number of electric and hybrid cars. Car2Go relies principally on gas-powered Smart cars.
Both companies rely on the boroughs to give them universal access permits — stickers mounted on cars— that allow them to be parked in spaces reserved for residents. Only some of the 19 boroughs have such arrangements with car-sharing companies.
Last year, the city issued an international call for interested parties to submit proposals as to how they would deploy an electric car-sharing fleet that would cover the whole city.
On Wednesday, the city announced it would adopt a model for car-sharing that is “unique to Montreal.”
The city will pay to deploy a network of 1,000 charging stations within five years that will be accessible to all car-sharing companies and anyone who possesses an electric vehicle.
The city intends for 100 per cent of all one-way car-sharing fleets to be fully electric by 2020.
Critics had feared the city would adopt a model similar to that in Paris, where one company has a monopoly on car-sharing. That company, Bolloré, has expressed an interest in establishing in Montreal. Under the terms of the program, it could start its own network, but it would have to be one of several players. The city has said that three other companies: BYD (Build Your Dreams), Mitsubishi and ZipCar, have also expressed interest in establishing in Montreal.
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