Throughout the summer, Ritchot will be collecting and compiling resident feedback for the carshare program they plan to jumpstart this fall.

On June 10 and 12, Ritchot staffers Ryan Faucher and Uriel Jelin held special feedback nights, inviting residents to come, chat, and offer ideas on what a good carsharing program would look like.

As well, in an effort to encourage carpooling, Faucher and Jelin want to know how best to enable that kind of initiative, too.

Last year, the RM put out a survey which garnered several hundred responses.

“Over 100 people were interested in carsharing or carpooling,” Faucher says. “So this is basically building off of that feedback. You said you were interested. Now what would you like to see?”

Over the past 18 months, Ritchot has been working on building their EV inventory for the program. Already, two EV pickup trucks have been acquired and soon 23 chargers will be added to the municipality’s infrastructure.

In the coming months, Faucher anticipates picking up two or three more EV vehicles.

“We have the trucks, but we found that they’re a little large for most people,” Faucher says. “There’s more interest in a smaller vehicle, car or van, so we’re looking at different options there.”

At present, the trucks are equipped with special software and hardware to make them carshare ready. This will allow users to lock and unlock the vehicle through an app on their phone. A key will be located within the vehicle which can be enabled through the carshare app as well. It’s a similar system, Faucher says, to how the Winnipeg carshare program operates.

To date, most of the cost of the vehicles, chargers, and computerized add-ons have been paid for through federal government grants designated specifically for rural community transportation initiatives.

“They’re trying to find ways to help rural communities have options,” Faucher says. “They are trying to show people, especially in rural environments, that an electric vehicle can be feasible.”

Over the past year, the RM admin staff have been test-driving the carshare vehicles in order to work out the kinks before they open it up to the public.

“Because of this, we learned there is a need for an RFID card in the vehicle so that, if you go somewhere and you get out of the vehicle and take the card with you, if for some reason your phone doesn’t connect in that area, you can still get in and out.”

Once the program is in full gear, Faucher anticipates that some of the vehicles will be available for use 24/7, 365 days of the year.

There are a number of groups he can already imagine making good use of the carshare program. Some will be the organizations that rely on volunteers to drive seniors to appointments and shopping.

“A lot of times they may find that they have the volunteers, but the cost of using private vehicles is getting expensive.”

Students commuting to university or college would also benefit from the program.

“If you’ve got five people that are all driving to St. Boniface every day, for example, insuring their vehicles and putting gas in and paying for parking, replace those five vehicles with one and the amount of money those five people now keep in their pockets is, on average, $1,000 per month.”

Further to that, he adds, those savings are then spent within the community, creating an economic benefit for everyone.

For every carshare vehicle made available to the public, Faucher says 11 privately owned vehicles are taken off the road.

And since the RMs vehicles are electric, residents will financially benefit further.

“As far as fuel goes, because they charge off the grid and the rates Manitobans pay is quite low, it’s almost a ten-to-one savings of gas to electricity.”

As for insurance on the shared vehicles, Faucher says rental fees will cover that cost. And for many users, their personal credit card offers coverage on the cost of a deductible on a rental car when an accident occurs.

For those residents who aren’t yet sold on the idea of an EV vehicle, Faucher says the best way to become convinced is to try one for yourself. This then becomes another good reason for a municipal carshare program. People can test drive indefinitely.

Faucher’s not too worried, though. Even before the EV program in the RM has begun, the existing chargers are getting plenty of use. In one month alone, the IDC charger was used 89 times by 28 different drivers.