the last life of the “Bluecub”, almost five years after the end of the car-sharing service

It doesn’t run the streets, but rarely goes unnoticed, this Bluecub, a local variation of the Bluecar. False appearance of a cart without a license, aluminum livery, and not always very young, like the perky model by Jean-Yves Deveaux. “When it was rented, they were so mistreated… But to redo the bodywork would be to take away part of its history,” says this 56-year-old from Bordeaux, in front of a charging station, Place de la Victoire.

A “story”, even a not so distant epic, that of car sharing introduced in Bordeaux, then Arcachon, in the wake of the famous Autolib in Paris. The Bolloré group service, which had claimed up to 5,500 subscribers and 80,000 annual rentals, lowered the curtain at the start of the September 2020 school year.

To the notorious absence of profitability, weighed down by the cessation of the Parisian service which formed the main contingent of Bluecar, were added the restrictions linked to the health crisis. A fatal blow, barely six years after the notable launch, Allées de Tourny, on January 9, 2014, of the fleet of electric city cars. Under the eyes of Breton industrialist Vincent Bolloré, who needs no introduction, Mayor Alain Juppé and Vincent Feltesse, president of the Bordeaux Urban Community (Cub), formerly Bordeaux Métropole, took a ride behind the wheel , to Place de la Bourse.

Former subscriber

The affair did not cost the communities a penny: by injecting 20 million euros into the creation of the car-sharing service, Bolloré intended to make Bordeaux a standard-bearing city for its LMP (lithium-metal-polymer) batteries. . The start was “promising”, it was said at the time, and Jean-Yves Deveaux was one of these new converts. “The price was good [99 euros à l’année et de 5,5 à 7 euros la demi-heure]. there was a station down from my house, rue Bouquière. I was really annoyed by the discontinuation of the service…”

In 2020, the 147 Gironde vehicles (including Arcachon) were taken over by Autopuzz, the Breton subsidiary of a group of automobile dealerships specializing in spare parts. It is up to it to carry out the general overhaul before putting non-defective models back on the market.

Linked by contract to Bolloré, the company still maintains it in its garage in Bordeaux, near the submarine base, where Jean-Yves Deveaux sought to buy some last year. Alas, “there were no more on sale”. Beneficiary of a disability pension after several heart attacks, this former nurse has made his calculations: between the conversion bonus linked to the trade-in of his old Espace V6 and the ecological bonus, the acquisition of a first generation Bluecub will give him would have been worth paying “one euro, plus the registration document”.

For “300 euros”

“When, in September, a friend offered me his, I didn’t even hesitate for a second, we did the paperwork straight away. », continues Jean-Yves Deveaux. 2013 vintage, 80,000 kilometers on the clock, 200 kilometers of autonomy, deal concluded for “300 euros”. At the wheel of his Bluecub, he makes deliveries to make ends meet. That is “500 to 600 kilometers” monthly for “100 euros of charging” at 38 cents per kilowatt/hour. The cost does not seem so far from the urban consumption of a gasoline vehicle, but its owner assures him, “it is much cheaper”: “a tax horse and no fuel wasted in traffic jams. »

Jean-Yves Deveaux suspects that he will not leave for ten years with his Bluecar and will not invest heavily, he agrees, in the event of a problem. The reliability of the car remains questionable, read the internet forums. “It also depends on how we maintain it,” puts its Bordeaux owner into perspective. He simply needed an adapter, at a low price, to connect to the charging stations which no longer have a type 1 connector. And his Bluecar may be scratched on both sides, Jean-Yves Deveaux enjoys: “It slips everywhere, it parks everywhere.” Better still, as a not-quite-repentant car driver, he praises the details, from the honest equipment to the Pininfarina signature affixed to the rear window: “A craftsman made fun of me. He thought I stuck him. But no, it was Pininfarina who designed the Bluecar.”

Without forgetting, a little trick, a second horn, for pedestrians or cyclists, which reproduces the…. cricket song. “People are surprised, they wonder where it comes from and eventually understand. There is never any aggression in return. »

A capital sympathy which is also measured between owners of Bluecub, obviously a rare species, not to say in danger of extinction: “A driver stops one on the side of the Victor-Hugo course. I spoke to him once. With other drivers, it’s like bikers: a quick flash of the headlights, and a wave of hello. There is phenomenal courtesy. »