Rural communities adopting shared e-mobility

An increasing number of rural areas are starting to address mobility, particularly using EV car share like Mobilize Share in Europe.

Among those tackling the issue are Luitré-Dompierre, a village in Brittany, France, and home to 1900 people, which has developed a service hub offering a car share service through Mobilize Share with two Renault Zoe EVs available.

Mayor Michel Balluais was convinced of the need to facilitate access to transport, so took action in consultation with his constituents to ensure they could all take advantage of a range of transport options.

“We wanted to provide people with solutions to make it easier for them to get around day-to-day or for more occasional needs by making environmentally friendly transport available,” he says.

“We are on the V9 bike route that runs from the Mont Saint Michel to Chateaubriand, in the heart of a region that attracts many tourists. We are just 10km from Fougères and 45 minutes from Rennes.”

The mayor and his team chose to roll out the solution in three stages, first by designing the infrastructure, then equipping it and finally promoting the service.

The hub was designed and installed in an area alongside a thoroughfare on the village outskirts, where appropriate signage was also erected. It boasts a number of services, including a car wash, a caravan park, a car-pooling meeting point, a fleet of electric bikes and a car sharing service with the two Renault Zoe, complete with a charging station.

The project was supported by the European Commission as part of the Leader initiative developed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) that aims to support rural communities in meeting their local development objectives.

In scarcely populated areas people tend to rely heavily on their cars, so the introduction of this service can help certain families who only own one car but sometimes needs to travel to two different places at the same time.

Ultimately, it will encourage some people to seriously consider whether or not two vehicles are really necessary when it is just as easy to book a shared vehicle when they need via an app.

The new service will also introduce people to the benefits of EV driving.

Users pick the cars up and drop them off after use at the charging station installed by the council in the village. 

The vehicles can be booked for a number of hours or for the day, and the local authority underwrites the cost of charging and maintaining the vehicles, while providing the service for about five euros per hour of 25 euros for 24 hours.