Sacre bleu! Paris launches electric scooter hire in campaign to drive cars out

Paris has introduced a scheme involving electric scooters for those who don’t want to pedal.  The initiative by Anne Hidalgo, the mayor, aims to leave cars with only a “residual place” within the city.

The first batch of 70 scooters was made available to Parisians for a four-month trial before the programme is rolled out next year.

Organisers, City Scoot, will bring the scheme to London if it proves successful.

Paris already has electric cars available for hire for an annual fee of €120 and a further cost of €5.50 per 30 minutes. Now City Scoot is planning to place 1,000 scooters on the city streets within a year. The scheme is a private one, but it has the council’s backing.

Paris launched the precurser of the Boris bike eight years ago.

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