Car club could take thousands of cars off London’s roads
Peta Hodge
8th July 2009
A car club scheme launched this week will give Londoners and visitors to the capital the opportunity to hire all-electric and hybrid vehicles by the day, or even by the hour, and has the potential to take 8,000 cars off London’s roads by 2012.
The scheme, which will be jointly run by Westminster City Council and the world's largest car club operator Zipcar, will give drivers access to a Citroen c1 – claimed to be the country's first all-electric car club vehicle.
Residents and visitors to London will also be able to hire one of a fleet of 20 hybrid vehicles, including a plug-in hybrid version of the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight Hybrid.
Anyone wanting to use the car club will have to pay an annual membership fee of £25 which is offset against car hire charges which start from £3.5 an hour or £29 a day. The cost of car hire includes the congestion charge, up to one hour’s free parking and a 60 mile daily driving allowance.
Although the proportion of low carbon vehicles being offered by the car club is small – most of the 100 vehicles it plans to have on the road by September will be conventional petrol cars – it is still a significant improvement on what has been available until now.
According to Westminster City Council and Zipcar, prior to their launch today, only two hybrid vehicles were available through car clubs in the whole of the UK.
The plan is to have 400 vehicles available through the car club by 2012, around 30 per cent of which will be hybrids – although a spokesperson for the council said that this proportion could be increased if there was sufficient demand.
Although the number of low carbon cars is relatively small, the fact the cars available to hire are within easy walking distance of homes, offices and work places in London, should contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions in the capital.
Westminster City Council and Zipcar cite research that shows that each car club vehicle takes 20 privately-owned vehicles off the roads and car club members reduce vehicle miles travelled by up to 40 percent.
Westminster council's cabinet member for city management, Cllr Danny Chalkley, said: "The launch of our car club is a major step towards changing the way motorists travel within our capital and provides an environmentally friendly choice to London's pressured transport system.
"We were one of the first councils in the UK to introduce a range of financial incentives for electric vehicle owners and with this scheme we are once again demonstrating our commitment to the green agenda and recognising the potential of electric vehicles within our car sharing scheme."
The council is involved in a number of schemes to get more low carbon vehicles on the capital’s roads. Last month a consortium it is part of won funding from Technology Strategy Board to trial 60 Smart electric cars for a year.
The main purpose of the trial is to gather data on drivers’ recharging behaviour. The council currently offers 14 on-street charging points and 48 in carparks. It is hoped that the information gathered from the trial will help it improve its recharging infrastructure, better supporting electric car drivers in the future.