Electrify Paris

Improvement of Paris electric vehicles policy

The aim of the project is to improve Paris electric vehicles policy by suggesting improvements. Indeed the use of electric cars in Paris is low compared to some other cities in the world, whereas the city suffers from important pollution problems and that electric cars could be a good way to resolve them. The work is split in 3 parts, the description of the French and Parisian context, the study of 3 case studies in the world where electric cars are widely used to inspire policies improvements, and recommendations to improve current policies in Paris.

Presentation of case studies

These 3 case studies have in common a huge use of electric vehicles. They can enable us to find ideas about useful tools to convince people to invest in and use electric cars in Paris.

San Francisco (USA)

San Francisco has one of the highest concentrations of electric vehicles in the world. Thus the city offers one of the most electric vehicle-friendly environment for drivers. Firstly, since 2009 San Francisco has installed around 400 charges points making the city one of the most efficient in terms of charging power and the number is expected to rise in the coming years.

San Francisco is also a leading city in the installation of charging utilities in car parkings. In March 2017, the city announced a plan that will require all new buildings to have electric vehicle stations installed. Buildings within the city must be 100% electric vehicle ready and all parking structures must accommodate electric vehicles with at least 10% of the space.

The Netherlands

The context of The Netherlands is comparable to the Ile-de-France context as it’s a small area with a huge population density.

By the end of 2016 The Netherlands had 26 000 public charging points, it’s similar to the number of charging points in France whereas the number of inhabitants is 4 times smaller, it has kept pace with the increasing number of EVs (electric vehicles) every year. A network of publicly accessible private fast charging points (50 kWh) has also been set up between the major cities on the main road (EV owners can find all pieces of information about publicly and semi-publicly available charging points on a national website). In major cities like Amsterdam, EV owners have also access to free parking reserved for their EVs, as well as free charging in public parking places.

Financial incentives are similar to the Parisian ones, with subsidies for the installation of private charging points or the purchase of an electric car. In addition, the EVs are exempted from registration taxes on cars and from ownership tax for BEVs (Battery electric vehicles).

Oslo (Norway)

Oslo is recognized as the capital of electric vehicles. The market concentration of plug-in cars is 21.5 per 1000 people which is more than ten times the market share in the U.S for example. In March 2016, there were around 2000 charging points in Oslo (20 times more than in Paris). All the pieces of information about charging stations are available on a central database to offer the knowledge of location and availability of chargers.

Lots of taxes are exempted completely or in part for electric vehicles owners : abolition of the tax on electric cars purchase, exemption of road tolls… and the Norwegian government takes over installations costs of private stations. There also exist reductions for municipal parkings. Finally electric cars can use the bus lanes and benefit from a free access to ferries.