The Communauto car-sharing service in Montreal is expanding, adding more than 1,100 cars to its fleet and making some of them available neighbourhoods well outside the downtown core, including Lachine, Rivière-des-Prairies and Bois-Franc.
About 900 of those new vehicles will be available through Communauto’s fixed station model, which requires users to return the vehicle to the same location where they picked it up. About 200 cars will be included in the Flex model. Those cars can be dropped off anywhere within the Communauto’s city territory.
During a news conference on Monday in Lachine, which was attended by Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, borough mayor Maja Vodanovic and other municipal officials, the company announced a plan to roll out fixed stations to other areas such as Dorval, Cartierville and Montréal-Nord.
Last year, the service added 900 vehicles to its fleet. This year’s additions bring the company’s Montreal total to about 4,800.
“You see the growth. The Montreal car-sharing market is far from being saturated,” said Benoît Robert, the president and founder of Communauto.
“I’m looking forward to the day we talk about 10,000 or even 20,000 cars.”
The company also said it plans to beef up its “station zone” service. This service is like a middle ground between Flex and fixed stations, allowing users to pick up and drop off vehicles within a zone small enough to cross on foot. Communauto says 500 vehicles will be set aside for station zones spread across 10 Montreal boroughs.
About 85 of the new vehicles will be electric and 70 will be minivans, and Communauto said about 400 of the cars in its current fleet will be replaced with newer ones.
Vodanovic, the mayor of Lachine, said Monday’s announcement represents another significant improvement in terms of transit options for people in her borough. She pointed to the reserved bus lane on Provost Street, the 496 bus line that connects the borough to downtown and the availability of Bixi stations as examples.