Race to be European green car capital

The new Source London scheme means city now has 400 charging points – but can it beat Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin?

Millions of electric cars will take to world roads in the next couple of years where will they plug in?

Electric car capital race hots up as London adds charging points

The creation of the first capital-wide charging network is an attempt to quash fears of "range anxiety". The take-up of motorists looking to switch to electric cars has been partly hampered by the fear that batteries will need recharging after around 100 miles of driving.

Said Boris Johnson, London’s mayor: "I want to rapidly accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles and make London the epicentre of electric driving in Europe."

While in Paris…

The Bluecar at the Paris motor show in September. Manufacturer Bollore has won the Autolib contract to station 3.000 of the electric cars across the French capital.

First Parisians were urged to get on their bikes with an innovative self-service cycle scheme. Now residents of the French capital and tourists who embraced the Vélib bicycle hire scheme will soon be able to zip around town in environmentally friendly electric cars for less than the price of the average bottle of vin de table.

The Autolib scheme, due to be introduced next autumn, will see 3,000 bubble-shaped, battery-powered cars stationed at 1,000 self-service hire points across the city and its suburbs.

The mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, has announced that the city authorities have selected a four-seat vehicle produced by the French company Bolloré, run by the charismatic industrialist and businessman Vincent Bolloré.

And in Berlin…

"e-Mobility Berlin": Electric Cars in the Capital

Berlin is filling up with electricity: Daimler and RWE have launched “e-mobility Berlin,” the world’s largest cooperative project for environmentally friendly electric cars.

The project “e-mobility Berlin” started in the German capital. This world's largest field test with electric cars goes a step further: For the first time ever, the combination of vehicle technology and infrastructure will be tested. Daimler is contributing a fleet of over 100 electric cars. In addition to the latest generation of the smart electric drive, electric cars from Mercedes-Benz will also be used. Both vehicles are equipped with the latest lithium-ion battery technology. As a project partner in this pioneering initiative, the power company RWE AG is providing 500 charging points.

While In Amsterdam…

On 11 April, Alderperson Eric Wiebes signed a declaration of intent with the CEO of Car2go Robert Henrich outlining plans to introduce 300 shared electric Smart cars in Amsterdam. The project will help make electric transport a reality for a large number of people in the city within a short space of time.

Car sharing company Car2go will begin rental of the fully electric Smart Fortwo vehicles in Amsterdam this year. People using the cars benefit from a high level of flexibility as the Smarts are not linked to a specific shared parking space. After use, the Smarts can be returned to any parking space in Amsterdam (within the A10 ring road) at any time of the day.

"The project fully complements the City’s efforts to improve air quality in Amsterdam and makes a huge leap towards providing large numbers of people the chance to use shared electric cars. It’s ideal that city travellers will be able to convert to using shared electric cars, as these are exactly the people who travel the highest number of kilometres within the city.”

So which capital is it to be?

Or are there other contenders?

Valere Tjolle
Valere is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite 2011 Special Offers HERE