Indy starts BlueIndy, all-electric 'car share' program
A French company will put 500 of its newly developed electric cars on the streets of Indianapolis during the next 18 months, in the largest U.S. test of plug-in car-sharing.
The public got its first glimpse of the small hatchbacks, which seat four people but have little room for luggage, at the opening of a demonstration site for the cars Monday at Washington and Meridian streets.
The initial reaction from some of those there: surprise that a novel car-sharing program would come to a city not known for transportation innovation.
"I think it's really neat. Usually we don't get things like that," said Brandie King, 35, a financial analyst who works Downtown and said she might be tempted to keep her Honda CR-V garaged and try out a new electric.
"I think it's terrific for Indianapolis to be on the cutting edge of something so green," said Glen Kwok, executive director of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, who happened on the event during lunchtime.
The car-sharing program, called BlueIndy, will be a $35 million gamble by Bollore Group to persuade Americans to make the leap to car-sharing, and specifically plug-ins.
Its plan is to open 200 sites around the city where a fleet of 500 identical cars can be picked up, dropped off and charged up. Drivers can pay for daily use only or sign up for member ships that let them use the cars at a discounted rate when they need.
The ride-sharing will start in December, when an initial 25 charging/pickup sites will open with 50 cars. The remaining 175 Marion County sites should be open by the end of 2015, said Dimitri Hochard, a senior Bollore electrical engineer.
The city and Indianapolis Power & Light Co. will partner in the venture. The city will give the company access to metered and unmetered street spaces to park its cars, and IPL will install and hook up 1,000 charging stations.
"We all dream about a city where you have less noise and less pollution," company Chairman and CEO Vincent Bollore told a crowd of more than 200 people at the dedication. "It's very funny — no noise and no emission," he said, pointing to the cars parked in five dedicated parking spots along the first block of East Washington.
Publicly traded Bollore, one of the world's 500 largest companies, developed the two-door cars. It began its car-sharing experiment in Paris in 2011 and has built it into a 900-station network that is "not yet profitable, but it is doing good. The vehicles are being used all the time," Hochard said. Bollore has added car-sharing systems in two other French cities.
Bollore picked Indianapolis as its first U.S. car-sharing site because of Mayor Greg Ballard's well-publicized initiative to switch the city's vehicle fleet to electric and gas-electric hybrid models. It helped that there's not a train or subway system to compete with, Hochard said.
Hochard said he wasn't sure if Bollore will try to negotiate to build stations in Carmel, Greenwood, Fishers or other suburban areas.
Younger drivers are the company's targeted market, which explains why four of the 25 charging/pickup sites selected so far are on college campuses. Other initial sites are Broad Ripple, Fountain Square, the Fashion Mall, Glendale Town Center, Indianapolis International Airport and Irvington.
Bollore also aims to make money by opening charging stations to electric car users to recharge their private cars for a fee.
The cost to IPL to install the 1,000 charge stations, which are about 4 feet high and hold a cord to plug into a car, could run up to $16 million. The utility hopes to recoup the installation costs through profit-sharing with Bollore. IPL will receive the first $4 million in profits from the program and a lesser share of profits over time, said Marc Lotter, a city spokesman.
He said the car-sharing venture is another amenity to attract people to Indy.
Brian Wynne, president of Electric Drive Transportation Association, which is having its annual convention in Indianapolis this week, said he thinks drivers in Indianapolis and other cities will embrace the idea of paying for cars by the minute if they're convenient to use.
"It opens up a transportation option for the next generation of drivers," Wynne said. "And it fits into the whole concept of convenience ... and the trend to share resources."
BlueIndy will hire "ambassadors" to show off the cars, offer test-drives and explain ride-sharing at the Downtown site from now until December. The demos will be open daily, including weekends, said Steve Commiskey, one of the ambassadors.
In Paris, the costs are a $13 monthly membership, plus $5 for the first 20 minutes of use and 25 cents a minute after that. Up to four people can split the charge.
Call Star reporter Jeff Swiatek at (317) 444-6483. Follow him on Twitter: @JeffSwiatek.
How BlueIndy works
• Drivers must enroll in BlueIndy online or at a BlueIndy kiosk by talking to a BlueIndy adviser via computer, then scanning their driver's license and swiping a credit card.
• Drivers sign up for one-time use or monthly memberships, which will cost about $13 a month.
• Drivers can reserve a car at the station they want using a smartphone. To unlock a car, you swipe a BlueIndy access card across a car's windshield. The key is inside.
• A GPS navigation system in the car lets drivers find locations of other charging stations and reserve a charger at the station where the car will be dropped off.
• Drivers end their rentals by connecting the car to a charger.