Test of Autolib in Paris: and I've adopted it!

I've been testing Autolib for one week now, and it's a great way of transportation in Paris, something in between taking a cab or the traditional public transportation (Metro, Bus,...).

The principle is pretty simple, it's a fleet of a 1000+ electric car (3000 by end of 2012) that can be rented from several hundreds of dedicated stations (1200 by end of 2012) in Paris ans its suburbs. Once you register and get your electronic badge, the rental can be done very easilly.

Registration process: it can be done in one of the dedicated stations for memberships. You have in each one of these stations a steward who will help you step by step. The hole process takes 10 minutes and you need to have with you an ID, your driving license and a credit card. You can see the membership's stations by following the link: http://www.autolib.eu/stations-map/

Rent a car: you can check out on the map available cars in the stations near you, whether from your computer or by downloading the Autolib application on your smartphone. You can than go straight to the station to take a car or book a car by calling Autolib assistance on 0800942000 (normal local call). They will book you a car in the station you want for 30 minutes. You can also book a place in the station near the place you're going and you'll have up to 90 minutes to park it there. You can find all the details of how to take a car on the website http://www.autolib.eu

Here's the test drive feedback:

Onboard equipments: you have a touch screen which includes a GPS, a Radio, and the Assistance information.
It's very practical because you can see on the map all the nearby stations and if there are available places. Nevertheless, the GPS sometimes indicates weird tracks, wereas it avoids almost always the Periférique and sometimes the system reboots or jams.
There's an assistance call button below the screen and it's very practical too. You can call them for any problem or to book a place in a station. I tried several time in week days and week ends, and they are pretty available even at 2am.

Driving sensations:
The bluecar has an automatic gearbox, with only Neutral, Drive and Rear options. As it is an electric car, there is no engine noise, but just a sort of light wistle of the traction system. For people that are not used to drive automatic gearboxes, they should be careful in the beginning, and always remember that we use only the right leg to drive.
The acceleration is slow in the beginning, which is good in order to easilly park/unpark the car. Once you go over 10km/h, the acceleration is good and you arrive pretty quickly to 50km/h. On highway, I could reach 110 km/h maximum although I thought thatthe car would go to 130 km/h.
The car is light and pretty high, which gives a sensation of instability when turning in medium/high speed, which reminds you that it's a city car. Braking power was satisfactory when I did an emergency stop.

Car Autonomy: the theoteric autonomy is 200km but in reality it's probably less. I took a car at 21h00 and went to Charles de Gaulle Airport (42km), stayed there 3 hours (-6%), and came back to Paris (42km). So in total I spent 60% of the battery for 85km and 3 hours of parking. The outside temperature was -2°c.
So it's more than enough for Paris and it's region.

State of the cars: although the cars are still very new with many having less than 100 kms on the counter, they are often dirty from outside, reducing even the side visibility. Fortunatly, cars were acceptably clean from inside, similar to normal rental cars. I think that Autolib should find a way to clean the cars more often.

Price:
1 to 7 days membership: 1st 30 min=7 EUR 2nd 30 min=6 EUR, 3rd 30min=8 EUR (Minimum rental time= 20 minutes)
Yearly membership: 1st 30 min=5 EUR 2nd 30 min=4 EUR, 3rd 30min=6 EUR

For a 30 minutes ride, it will cost 5 EUR in Autolib, 1.7 EUR by public transport, and more than 35 EUR by taxi.

In conclusion: I find the Autolib system very interesting, much more convenient than public transportation (especially at night) and much cheaper than taxis. Often using Autolib to go out at night will cost you even less than taking your own car as you don't have to pay the parking and the gazoline.
After having tested it with a weekly membership, I will definitly take the year membership which will make the usage very affordable and very convenient to me. I hope that they will keep up with the good service and that they will clean the cars more often.