Lappeenranta awarded for electric vehicle sharing service

The Experimental Finland project, a key project of the Prime Minister’s Office, has awarded the commendation Experiment of the Month to the City of Lappeenranta, said an official press release.

Lappeenranta has started to experiment with hiring shared electric cars for the city’s own use during office hours, in addition to which the service provider offers the cars to city residents for hire on evenings and weekends.

The experiment is intended to enhance the efficiency of the city’s use of cars during office hours while at the same time lowering the threshold for using electric cars.

Lappeenranta has acquired a total of four electric cars that city residents can hire outside office hours. The cars were taken into use only in mid-May, so statistics on rental volumes are still pending. The experiment, however, has attracted much media attention, and many city residents have already asked Lappeenranta for more detailed information on the activity. It is hoped that the operational model will spread to other localities as well.

The Experiment of the Month recognition was now awarded for the first time. From now on, this commendation will be awarded every month to a particularly deserving experiment. “The recognition makes it possible to highlight the broad spectrum of experiments and their lessons. Granting a commendation is one way to help spread good practices throughout Finland,” says Virve Hokkanen, Project Manager of Experimental Finland at the Prime Minister’s Office.