Communauto
Communauto is a Canadian carsharing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, that operates in fourteen Canadian cities and Paris, France. As of March 2018 it had 40,000 users, and a fleet of approximately 2,000 free-floating and station-based vehicles.[1]
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Type | Private |
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Industry | Car rental |
Founded | 1994 |
Headquarters | , |
Area served | Quebec: Montreal, Quebec City, Gatineau, Sherbrooke Ontario: Toronto, Waterloo, Hamilton, London, Guelph, Kingston, Ottawa And: Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax & Paris, France |
Key people | Benoît Robert (Chairman and CEO) |
Services | Car sharing |
Number of employees | Equivalent to 68 full-time |
Website | www.communauto.com |
City coverage and partnerships
Communauto operates as Communauto (VRTUCAR) in seven cities in Ontario – Waterloo, Hamilton, London, Guelph, Kingston, Ottawa and Toronto.[2] It operates as Communauto in four cities in Quebec – Montreal, Quebec City, Gatineau and Sherbrooke, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, and Paris, France.
Communauto's users-per-vehicle ratio can rise in winter to 20 users per vehicle and drops to about 15 users per vehicle in summer.
In Paris, France, the company signed a partnership in May 2017 with the local public-transport operator, RATP Group.[3] As of May 2019, 200 cars are available across 100 sites located in Paris and close suburbs.[4]
History

Communauto was founded in Quebec City in 1994 by Benoît Robert, its current CEO. Cycling advocate and environmentalist Claire Morissette played a major role in its evolution starting in 1995, when Communauto established itself in Montreal as a private company.
Communauto acquired Paris, France-based Mobizen in 2012,[5] merged with Ottawa-based VRTUCAR in 2016,[6] and acquired CarShare Atlantic in 2018. [7]
Communauto's goal is to provide a convenient and economical alternative to owning a car.
Impact
The impact of carsharing in Quebec was evaluated in a study from Communauto and conducted by Tecsult Inc. in 2006.[8]
Cyber Attack
On January 8th, 2021 Communauto notified customers that it has been the victim of a cyber attack.[9] CEO Benoit Robert assured that no potentially sensitive data including account passwords or credit card information were accessed.
References
- "Pogo Carshare joins Communauto Group" (Press release).
- Carcasole, Mark (November 23, 2018). "Toronto's first free-floating car share ready to launch". Global News.
- "Le groupe RATP annonce sa prise de participation dans Communauto Paris". Communauto Paris (in French). 2017-05-16. Retrieved 2022-03-27.
- "Communauto, l'application des véhicules en libre-service ! | RATP". www.ratp.fr. Retrieved 2022-03-27.
- Metro France – "Communauto, l’Autolib’ québécois" (FRENCH) Archived 2008-10-19 at the Wayback Machine
- "Communauto and Vrtucar merge to improve carsharing offer in Eastern Canada Français". 2016-01-11. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
- "Growing Halifax's first carshare business". 2018-12-18. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
- "CO2 emissions reduced by 168 000 tons per year thanks to car-sharing" (Press release). Archived from the original on 22 June 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
- "Communauto has been the victim of a cyber attack". us9.campaign-archive.com.