E-Car Club, the first entirely electric pay-per-use car club, has launched in East London ahead of a nationwide rollout.

Social landlord Poplar HARC, which owns and manages around 9,000 homes in Poplar, Tower Hamlets, has partnered with E-Car Club to give residents and Poplar HARC employees access to the Renault Zoe and Fluence.

Air pollution levels in London are a serious problem, with levels of NO2 on some of the capital’s busiest roads, including the A13, which runs through Poplar, currently more than triple legal limits.

Each E-Car will achieve a 50-75kg reduction in nitrous oxide emissions per year and a 1-2kg reduction in particulate matter emitted in urban areas, helping to improve air quality and reduce health impacts.

The Government wants to make the UK ‘the electric car capital of Europe’ and the Committee on Climate Change has stated that the car club business model could be instrumental in challenging preconceptions and driving the wider adoption of EVs.

Transport Minister Baroness Kramer, who opened the event, said: “E-Car Club is a scheme that kills three birds with one stone - congestion, cost and carbon.”

Ben Fletcher, electric vehicle product manager at Renault UK, said: “Programmes like E-Car Club are essential because they actually get people behind the wheel. Once you’ve driven an electric vehicle, very few people want to go back because it’s so responsive, quiet, relaxing and very well suited to city driving.”

The London launch builds on the success of two pilot projects: a community-led project in Milton Keynes which launched in October 2012 and a partnership with Luton Borough Council earlier this year.

E-Car Club will be opening similar schemes in Oxford, University of Hertfordshire and Maylands Business Park in the coming months and plans to roll these out across the country.

Christopher Morris, co-founder of E-Car Club, said: “The E-Car mission is a simple, if ambitious, one.

"We want to improve mobility on a local level whilst simultaneously reducing both the cost and environmental impact of each journey taken.

“We expect this to be the first of many such schemes and look forward to launching hubs across London and the South East in 2014.”

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