The city of St. Paul has received a $4 million federal grant to partner with HourCar on an electric-fleet expansion of its long-running car-sharing service.

The partnership, which includes Xcel Energy and the city of Minneapolis, could launch expanded car rental in the Twin Cities as early as 2020. Xcel previously contributed $4 million.

The Metropolitan Council’s Transportation Advisory Board approved the request from the partnership for the “EV Community Mobility project” in January.

Launched in 2005 by the Neighborhood Energy Connection, St. Paul-based HourCar became an independent nonprofit organization in 2017. It offers hourly car rental services from 57 locations throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Under the new proposal, a fleet of battery-electric vehicles will serve a 35-square-mile area throughout the Twin Cities. They’ll have access to electric charging stations at “mobility hubs” within that area, which will also be open for public use. The goal is to have enough hubs that almost every resident in that area would live within a five-minute walk of one.

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Paul Schroeder, CEO of HourCar, said in a statement that transitioning to a fleet of electric vehicles reduces carbon emissions and air congestion.

The grant funding comes through the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program, which supports public transportation projects that reduce pollution.

Minneapolis and St. Paul have had both positive and negative experiences with car-sharing services such as HourCar, ZipCar and the short-lived Car2Go.

Car2Go operated in the Twin Cities from 2014 through 2016, but rolled out of town citing a litany of concerns about being forced to pay car rental taxes, bulk parking meter charges and other fees. Car2Go also complained about being forced to service the entire city of St. Paul, even areas where its cars would sit unused for days at a time.