Just walk up, unlock and unplug the car and drive away. When you're finished with it, drop it off at a charging point, lock it up and walk away. All for €5.50 per month.

Car sharing schemes where users have an access card and a PIN to start the engine aren’t new – but I hadn’t seen one in action until recently.

To add a bit of extra interest, this was an electric car scheme – all the cars were Peugeot 106s or Citroen Saxos that had been converted to electric power for urban use.

For around a fiver per month, users in this city get unlimited access to 50 electric cars, which are parked in 7 allocated parking locations (with charging points) around the city. If you’re starting to get interested, then sorry – this isn’t the UK I’m talking about.

The location of this scheme is La Rochelle, in France. The scheme seems to be called Liselec and users get 24/7 free access to any of the cars via an access card (for unlocking) and a PIN code (to start the motor). The subscription is €5.50 per month and there don’t seem to be any strings attached. It sounds like a neat idea for city dwellers who don’t leave the city that often – why own a car (and have to find parking for it) when you can use someone else’s, with guaranteed parking?

Would you be interested in such a scheme in the UK – do you know of any similar schemes already running?