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DOSSIER - Electric car sharing: a work of conviction
Shared vehicles: fewer costs and less CO2
As we know, the cheapest vehicle is the one you don't have, or more. Reducing the size of the fleet by sharing it therefore automatically leads to lower costs. To go further, we can also take the opportunity to convert the fleet to electrons, which will make it possible to simultaneously reduce costs and reduce CO2 emissions.
According to its defenders, the interests of carsharing are numerous. It may be a lie, but sharing vehicles leads above all to a decrease in their number. And this mechanically generates economic gains of the same order, by eliminating the costs associated with the acquisition, maintenance and management of the eliminated vehicles.
To get the most out of sharing, the manager must first of all carry out an inventory of his fleet in terms of its use, with the aim of identifying “shared” vehicles, i.e. those that drive infrequently. For example, vehicles that travel 5,000 to 10,000 km per year can be removed from a conventional fleet. Further, we can count electrifiable vehicles, i.e. machines that drive less than 200 km per day. By adding everything together, we have in our hands a report that references “car-sharing” and “electrifiable” vehicles.
Fewer vehicles
“We estimate that a vehicle costs us 6,000 euros on average per year. And we note that the costs of a user of Citiz carsharing vehicles are about four times lower: in fact, we no longer pay insurance, we are billed per use and we notice that a Citiz user thinks twice — he checks if he really needs one — before borrowing a car”, explains, for the city of Grenoble, Gilles Namur, assistant to public spaces and nature in the city, to biodiversity, freshness and mobility.
The fleet of the city of Grenoble has thus increased from 562 vehicles in 2023, to 520 in 2024, using the specialized service provider Citiz, whose fleet includes around 200 vehicles offered for carsharing in the city.
Within the Essonne department, Sandrine Lauraire, head of the departmental vehicle management service, is in charge of 661 vehicles, 197 of which are carsharing.
Intensive use
With carsharing in place for several years, this manager has not noticed a decrease in the size of the fleet. “We have remained at a constant fleet, but we have gone from using our cars from 60 to 75%”, points out Sandrine Lauraire, also stressing that carsharing also saves the department five vehicles per year. Another way to save money.
“When developing carsharing, you should also take advantage of it to electrify your fleet,” advises Daniel Vassallucci, director of the telematics company and software publisher of fleet management Optimum Automotive. “This is what we advocate and that is what 90 to 95% of our customers who develop pool carsharing do.”
This approach remains of course more difficult for fully shared fleets that require thermal cars to make long trips, but we can bet that the new electric models will eventually allow these trips.
Sharing and electrifying
Linking carsharing and electrification can also generate substantial savings in fuel prices. “We have conducted studies on these various points, says Daniel Vassallucci. If the electrification of its shared fleet is carried out intelligently, the manager should expect significant savings. By comparing electric TCO and thermal TCO, we have shown that electric vehicles avoid the penalties associated with CO2 emissions, are free of ex-TVs and, above all, generate a gain of the order of 60 to 70% in fuel costs.”
“Of course, to do this, you should not recharge on the highway and give priority to recharging at the workplace and/or at home, with the reimbursement of electricity bills to employees”, details Daniel Vassallucci. Not to mention that an electric vehicle does not emit CO2, whether shared or not.
More sharing, fewer vehicles
According to Ademe and its “2022 national carsharing survey: impact on French people's mobility practices”, “registering for a carsharing service causes the ownership and use of personal cars to decrease: a carsharing vehicle thus replaces five to eight personal cars, eliminates between 10,000 and 19,000 km with these personal cars per year, and frees up 0.9 to three on-street parking spaces.”
The study also highlights that “car-sharers are mainly users of alternative modes to private cars and prefer collective or active travel (walking, cycling).” They belong “to largely non-motorized households since only 26.2% of them own a personal car, compared to 81.3% at the national level. And 69.5% of them have experienced demotorization in their household, a consequence of the use of car sharing for 40% of car-sharers.”
#gestion_de_flotte, #démo, #IA, #mobilité, #économie
