Europcar is to ramp up its Ubeeqo car-sharing offering in the Ile-de-France region to show drivers the benefits of switching away from car ownership.

Europcar is doubling the number of Ubeeqo vehicles available for Ile-de-France residents

The scheme currently has 320 petrol and hybrid vehicles available for the residents of Paris and the Ile-de-France region and is looking to increase this to 400 vehicles by October 2018 and to 600 in total by the end of the year. The fleet is also expected to include 150 electric vehicles.

The ramp-up comes some four years after Europcar took a majority stake in Ubeeqo in a move to extend its mobility offering – more recently the rental giant has rebranded as Europcar Mobility Group to reflect its transformation into a mobility provider.

Ubeeqo aims to offer city dwellers a self-service vehicle rank within 500 metres of their home and/or workplace, enabling it to encourage the residents of the Ile-de-France region to change their habits and switch to an environmentally-friendly mode of transport. The current fleet is available to hire for durations of between one hour and 30 and offered at two rates – with or without a subscription – from €4 per hour and €29 per day.

Ubeeqo will also launch a communication campaign to promote the service in the autumn as it points out that a large proportion of residents are not yet aware of this service.

Caroline Parot, CEO of Europcar Mobility Group, said: “As a global provider of mobility solutions, our aim is to simplify our customers’ day-to-day journeys, by showing them that there are attractive alternatives to owning a vehicle. Some services offered in urban centres and local authorities – such as renting self-service cars – are still not sufficiently well-known, and it is important to showcase them. Through our awareness campaign we aim to convince users so that these new practices take hold in people’s minds.”