To continue the theme of car sharing from my previous article, Paris has recently launched the Autolib car share programme and hopes to expand the fleet to 3,000  vehicles by the end of this year. The cars are 100% electric with a range of 160 miles and have apparently been designed by Pininfarina. They still look like a dogs dinner to me but thats not the point. On top of the scheme just started in San Diego, Brussels also has its own scheme called Zen Car. 

The difference here is that Autolib is a public private partnership. The private part being funded by French super tycoon entrepreneur man Vincent Bollore, who according to EuroNews has invested €1 billion!  

Update: Have had some very interesting comments on this article and my previous article on car sharing more generally on Linkedin industry groups. Most have agreed that car sharing could be a big deal in the future, however its implementation so far has been not been good. With regard to Autolib Paris some have suggested that political connections could have had more to do with the scheme than the merit of the car. Certainly the range is quite impressive however the Pininfarina design looks like it was done by an intern not one of the Ferrari designers and the Renault Twizzy, would have been a much better match. What do you think?