Communauto | The shortage of vehicles will last at least a year

The shortage of Communauto vehicles is expected to persist at least until the end of 2023, due to significant delivery delays from automakers. Until then, the car-sharing company hopes to be able to continue its growth, but calls on the City to accelerate the allocation of public parking lots in order to deploy more vehicles in the station for users.

“Even today, to have dedicated parking spaces, you have to make a request to each of the boroughs. And it has to go through two counseling sessions. It’s heavy, it takes six months to have four spaces, whereas we need to add hundreds of places. We have to speed things up,” says Communauto vice-president Marco Viviani in an interview with The Press.

According to him, the City of Montreal has been working “for some time” on the implementation of a more global plan for the development of car sharing. But the results are pending. “It’s something we can’t wait to see. It takes a policy to dictate the rules that we give ourselves to offer citizens this kind of service, which after all makes it possible to reduce the number of cars on the roads and, therefore, congestion, ”illustrates the manager.

In October, the Urban Planning and Mobility Department made public, without fanfare or trumpet, its Action Plan to stimulate car-sharing. It reads that Montreal wishes to “give more space to shared vehicles throughout the territory”, by working with the boroughs to “multiply the reserved parking spaces”. The authorities even want to “encourage” integration “in private residential, commercial and institutional spaces”.

By 2025, Montreal also wants to “change mentalities about car sharing and the need to own a car”.

In the office of Mayor Valérie Plante, we confirm that discussions are underway. “Our administration is aiming for a 50% increase in the car-sharing offer, but we know that the various companies [composent] with car supply challenges. Ultimately, we want all Montrealers to be able to choose carsharing,” says press officer Catherine Cadotte.

Less than expected

This year, Communauto had ordered 800 additional cars for the Montreal region, of which 500 had to go “in station”, to be reserved there in a dedicated parking lot, and 300 in “FLEX” mode, in order to be used spontaneously on the public network.

However, only 600 vehicles were received in the metropolis. “It’s about 200 vehicles that we ordered that we did not receive,” said Mr. Viviani. He says he has started a “reflection” to expand the number of suppliers: so far, only Toyota, Hyundai and Kia provide vehicles, but soon, GM or Nissan could be added. “We must diversify our sources of supply, that’s very clear”, illustrates the vice-president.

The latter, however, has no illusions: the shortage should continue.

Communauto nevertheless plans to continue its strong growth next year, with the addition of 1,200 vehicles in the metropolitan area. “Our hope is really to manage to do it, but again, it will really depend on the world production of the automobile”, continues the vice-president.

Until then, users have not finished having the impression of tearing off the vehicles. In anticipation of the holiday season, the company has just sent a notice to its members. “The earlier you book, the better your chances of having a vehicle for the desired period,” it says.

However, a novelty will apply this year: there will be fees in the event of cancellation or shortening of a reservation in the periods of December 24 and 25 and December 31 and 1^er January. The applicable penalty will then correspond to 50% of the cost of the canceled portion of the reservation. “We introduced this new rule to basically prevent too many reservations from being cancelled. It’s something users have asked for time and time again, so we’re trying it this year. We will see the impact,” says Mr. Viviani.