Paris could become the first major city in the world to embark on a full-scale public electric car-sharing program since Amsterdam abandoned its Witkar project in the 1980s. Mayor Bertrand Delanoe's Autolib' program could launch as soon as September of next year, bringing 3,000 plug-in cars to 1,000 locations in metropolitan and suburban Paris. Renting a car would cost about $6 per half hour, on top of an $18 per month membership fee.

Four parties are currently bidding for rights to administer the program, which will be a public-private partnership. One likely candidate to supply vehicles for the project is the French automaker Renault, whose first plug-ins, the Fluence Z.E. and Kangoo Express Z.E. models, are planned to enter production next year.

Paris is hoping that Autolib' will be less anarchic than the bicycle-sharing program it implemented in 2007. Since its launch three years ago, 19,600 of the 20,000 original bikes that were made available have either been vandalized or stolen.

If Autolib' proves successful, it would likely go a long way towards convincing other cities to pursue their own green car-sharing programs. Private car loan companies have been on the rise worldwide in recent years, with membership in the various North American programs projected to hit 4.4 million people by 2016.

Reprinted with permission from PluginCars