An all-electric car club has been established in the UK, allowing members to hire a Nissan LEAF by the month, by the day… or even by the hour.
Car Clubs are becoming increasingly popular in the UK as they give members all the flexibility of owning a car but with few of the costs: no need to buy or lease a car or insure, repair or maintain it. The club even keeps it clean and topped up with fuel.
Until now, car clubs in the UK have provided conventional petrol or diesel-powered cars. But now the E-Car Club has been born and offers only electric vehicles. As well as Nissan LEAF, members can hire a Renault Kangoo Z.E. van and soon will be able to drive the Renault ZOE, too.
It works very simply. There’s a one-off joining fee of £50 (around €58) after which a Nissan LEAF can be hired for £6.50 an hour or £50.00 a day (around €7.54/€58.00), though regular users can pay a monthly subscription and enjoy discounts on the rental charges.
Once booked, the member simply arrives at where the car is parked, swipes a smart card to gain access, unplugs the car from the charger, taps in a security code and then drives away. Once he or she has finished, they simply return the car to its parking bay and plug it in for the next user. They’ll be charged only for the time used.
The E-Car Club has opened its first site in Milton Keynes, north of London, with a second site due to open shortly in Oxford. Two more sites will open this year, in Harrow in London and in Whitehill, which is to the west of the capital and near the environmentally sensitive South Downs.
E-Car Club founder Andrew Wordsworth firmly believes the electric transport revolution is well underway and that clubs like E-Car can not only reduce emissions but make transport more affordable and convenient for communities across the country.
Nissan’s UK fleet sales director, Barry Beeston, said: “We welcome the launch of E-Car as it makes LEAF accessible to a number of consumers and business users who previously may not have had access to an electric vehicle.”
Visit e-car club website: http://www.e-carclub.org
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