London to get green car-sharing after charging station handover
THE FRENCH company taking over London’s network of electric car charging stations will this week start talks to install new chargers and eventually launch a car-sharing scheme similar to Autolib’ in Paris.
IER, a subsidiary of the Bollore conglomerate, will discuss with London’s boroughs its ambitions for electric cars in the city as it prepares to take over the charging network from Source London this summer, an executive told City A.M.
The firm is looking to set up a call centre in London to deal with customers once it runs the network of 1,600 charging points. It aims to increase the total to 6,000.
Vincent Bollore, the group’s chairman, is also set to meet with stakeholders.
“We have great expectations. It’s an important operation for us,” Bollore executive Gilles Alix said. “The first thing is to increase the number of charging points in the 33 boroughs, and to have a very efficient car sharing system [like] we have in Paris by the end of 2015.”
Bollore has run Autolib’ since 2011, and plans to open a similar service in Indianapolis this year.