Description
Communauto is a Canadian car-sharing company from Quebec with around 7,000 cars in about 15 Canadian cities and in Paris, rented by the hour or the day with fuel and maintenance included.
Benoît Robert founded it in Quebec City in 1994 and still runs it. The environmentalist and cycling advocate Claire Morissette helped bring it to Montreal in 1995. Members choose between round-trip cars, picked up and returned at a fixed station, and FLEX cars, which can be left anywhere in the service area; FLEX is offered mainly in Montreal, Quebec City and Longueuil. The Montreal fleet alone has 4,400 cars, and Communauto says it runs the largest network of shared electric cars in Canada.
Several plans exist, from a free plan to monthly or annual memberships with lower hourly rates. In 2025 a FLEX car in Montreal cost 41 cents a minute or CA$13.50 an hour, and the Open Plus plan offered round-trip cars from CA$6.85 an hour, taxes extra. Plans with a monthly fee require a 12-month commitment, and annual fees are not refunded. According to a survey by the company, 82% of its users’ households do not own a car.
Strengths
- Prices include fuel and maintenance, and there is a plan with no membership fee for occasional users.
- Round-trip cars at stations and FLEX cars left anywhere in the zone cover both planned and spur-of-the-moment trips.
- It has a large fleet of shared electric cars, the biggest in Canada by its own account.
Weaknesses
- Monthly-fee plans require a 12-month commitment, and annual fees are not refunded.
- FLEX cars that can be left anywhere are available only in a few cities, mainly Montreal and Quebec City.
- Communauto has changed its prices often, sometimes several times in a year, as its president acknowledges.
Who it is for
City dwellers in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and Nova Scotia who get around mostly on foot, by bike or by transit and need a car now and then.
Sources
- Communauto: Montreal rates, 2025 expansion in Montreal and Longueuil, message from the president (checked November 2026)
- Wikipedia: Communauto