In a drive towards offering a non-fossil fuel based car sharing service, France's Bollore Group launched it's subsidiary, BlueSG, in late 2017. In the initial launch 80 electric vehicles (EV) or cars are on offer on a subscription through the BlueSG mobile or desktop app. These EVs can access 32 charging stations situated all over the island currently. Eventually, it is expected that 1,000 electric Bluecars will become available and supported by a charging network of 500 charging stations with a total of 2,000 charging points.
Membership plans are available to anyone above 21 years of age with a valid drivers license. Each Bluecar seats 4 adults comfortably and have a range of about 200 km when fully charged. On a small island like Singapore, 'rage anxiety' should not be a problem since the charging station network is expected to grow steadily. The EVs comes with GPS as a standard and drivers have access to 24x7 assistance.
The service is point to point, which means that the electric cars need not be returned to the starting point. In addition, hirers will not have to bear the costs of maintenance, insurance, parking fees nor fuel of an own vehicle. Initial response has been very good as recently reported. To-date more than 3,300 have signed up for the car sharing service and more than 5,000 rentals have been completed in the first 3 weeks of operation.
As Singapore transitions to a car-lite future with key initiatives to reduce car growth to 0% from 2018 and the extensive rollout of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) rail network, car sharing will be an option to complement public transport. Hopefully, with greater usage and awareness, more drivers will give up their fossil fuel based vehicles and either transition to the purchase of electric vehicles or give EV-based car sharing a try.
Success with this initiative may also lead to the adoption of other forms of electric vehicles - buses, trucks, etc. We can expect air quality to improve, reduced road noise and a better climate with no direct carbon emissions. Now that will be a great outcome!
Image Credit: Photo from BlueSG
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Nice post!
Thank you!
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sorry to break it to you.... if you want
better get a bike and stop over-consuming, sure there will be less noise and no direct carbon emission from cars, but you would still have to produce and distribute electricty which does affect the environment,
we just need trains... busses and trucks are great too, but unless we drive down the need for everything there will always be over consumption, in the past people were few and still they did a great job of sustaining local production, trade brought abundance to some, as did military ventures, unless we think of the human condition there won't be improvement, whichever technology is implemented the driver needs to update his operating system :D
cheers to the #challnge30days and @dragosroua ;)
I owe my blogging beginnings to him and his initiative :)
Thank you for your detailed response.
Bike usage has increased significantly; especially with the introduction of app-based bike sharing services. Not always practical with our warm & rainy weather.
Where it is economically viable to operate the train network, more tracks & stations are being built. There will still be a role for buses & trucks. Best they be electric.
Great job! The rest of the world will have to lead while the United States gets it's act together.
Things will get sorted out after the current administration is replaced.