The UK’s first all-electric car club E-Car has launched in Wolverton, Milton Keynes on a small, five-vehicle scale, as part of an eventual nationwide network planned by the London-based E-Car start-up. The club, targeting local businesses as customers, intends to roll out another two EV sharing schemes in Oxford later this year, and sites in the Hampshire town of Bordon and the London Borough of Harrow are also planned. E-Car is offering the use of a Nissan Leaf or Peugeot iOn for around £5.50 (US$8.77) per hour.
There are three ways for businesses to access an EV through the E-Car scheme:
- Pay as you Go – businesses join the club and add drivers to their account with monthly itemised billing on account holder’s usage hours;
- Business Account – if a company is going to hire a vehicle for a few hours per week, a business account entitles them to a 20% discount and the ability to block book vehicles in advance. Usage can be tracked online and costs are invoiced monthly;
- E-Car hosting – if a hub isn’t available locally, businesses can provide a publicly accessible parking space for a vehicle and E-Car will “take care of the rest.” Businesses can replace or extend their existing fleet with E-Car managing the fleet on their behalf.
“We believe E-Car is being launched at a very exciting time for motorists as many want to experiment with driving an electric car before they make the decision to own one,” said E-Car Chairman Andrew Wordsworth.
The club says its partners including the National Energy Foundation, Sustainable Venture Development Partners, the government-funded Technology Strategy Board, Nissan Motor, the Carplus Trust, Low Carbon Oxford North, Wolverton Future Energy and others.
Milton Keynes was recently reported by Automotiveworld.com to be the town where a consortium would trial a fleet of wirelessly-charged battery-electric buses next year. The engineering consultancy Arup is the project initiator and Mitsui its commercial underwriter. Conductix-Wampfler will supply the wireless recharging system, building on its existing trials in Italy. Other partners include the utility SSE, the bus manufacturer Wrightbus, the EVSE network manager Chargemaster, the bus operator Arriva, the electricity grid manager Western Power Distribution, and Milton Keynes’ municipal council.
