car2Go

car2go
Public (subsidiary)
Industry Car rental
Founded 2008 (2008)
Headquarters Stuttgart, Germany
Number of locations
30
Services Carsharing
Parent Daimler AG
Website www.car2go.com

car2go is a subsidiary of Daimler AG providing carsharing services in European and North American cities. The company offers exclusively Smart Fortwo vehicles and features one-way point-to-point rentals. Users are charged by the minute, with hourly and daily rates available.[1] The service forgoes the typical centralized rental office, and cars are user-accessed wherever parked via a downloadable smartphone app. As of May 2015, car2go is the largest carsharing company in the world with over 1,000,000 members.[2]

History

Daimler introduced the service in Ulm, Germany, in October 2008,[3] where it was developed by one of its internal business innovation units and was first tested exclusively by Daimler employees.[4]

As of March 2015, car2go operates over 13,000 vehicles, which serve eight countries and 29 cities worldwide with over 1,000,000 customers.[5] Starting in May 2015, car2go added a $1 'Driver Protection Fee' for each ride to offset the lowered deductible.[6]

Since inception, car2go withdrew from several locations, including Britain, where it closed its service in London and Birmingham after only a year of operation.[7] Due to a lack of charging stations, car2go in San Diego, California, decided to replace all of its all-electric vehicle fleet with gasoline-powered cars starting on 1 May 2016. When the service started in 2011, car2go expected 1,000 charging stations to be deployed around the city, but only 400 were in place by early 2016. As a result, an average of 20% of the carsharing fleet is unavailable at any given time because the cars are either being charged or because they don’t have enough electricity in them to be driven.[8]

Locations

Current

The following table details all locations where car2go is active as of January 2016:

car2go member card reader that allows access to the vehicle
car2go cars in Austin, Texas
City/
Municipality
Country Vehicles Type Start date Reference
Austin U.S. 300 Gasoline & Electric May 2010 [9]
Düsseldorf Germany 300 Gasoline February 2011 [10]
Hamburg Germany 700 Gasoline April 2011 [11]
Vancouver Canada 1,275 Gasoline & Electric June 2011 [12][13][14]
San Diego U.S. 400 Electric November 2011[15]
Amsterdam Netherlands 350 Electric November 2011 [16]
Vienna Austria 800 Gasoline December 2011 [17][18]
Madrid Spain 350 Electric November 2015 [19]
Washington, D.C. U.S. 500 Gasoline March 2012 [20][21]
Portland, Oregon U.S. 530 Gasoline & Electric March 2012 [22]
Berlin Germany 1,200 Gasoline & Electric April 2012 [23]
Toronto Canada 375 Gasoline June 2012 [24]
Calgary Canada 550 Gasoline July 2012 [25]
Cologne Germany 350 Gasoline September 2012 [26]
Stuttgart Germany 500 Electric November 2012 [27][28]
Seattle U.S. 750 Gasoline December 2012 [29][30]
Minneapolis–Saint Paul U.S. 535 Gasoline September 2013 [31][32]
Columbus U.S. 300 Gasoline October 2013 [33]
Denver U.S. 400 Gasoline June 2013 [34][35]
Munich Germany 300 Gasoline June 2013 [11]
Milan Italy 700 Gasoline August 2013 [36]
Montreal Canada 460 Gasoline November 2013 [37][38][39]
Rome Italy 600 Gasoline March 2014 [40][41]
Florence Italy 200 Gasoline May 2014 [42]
Frankfurt Germany 250 Gasoline September 2014
New York City U.S. 550 Gasoline October 2014 [43][44]
Stockholm Sweden 250 Gasoline November 2014
Turin Italy 450 Gasoline March 2015 [45]
Arlington, Virginia U.S. 200 Gasoline September 2015 [46]
Prato Italy 35 Gasoline November 2015 [47]

Former

The following table details all locations where car2go is no longer active as of January 2016:

City/
Municipality
Country Start date End date Reference
Ulm Germany October 2008 December 2014 [48][49]
Lyon France February 2012 June 2012 [50]
London United Kingdom December 2012 May 2014 [51]
Birmingham United Kingdom May 2013 May 2014 [52]
South Bay, Los Angeles U.S. June 2014 June 2015[2]
Eugene, Oregon U.S. October 2014 June 2015[53]
Copenhagen Denmark September 2014 January 2016[54]
Miami U.S. July 2012 February 2016[55]

Business model

The car2go business model is similar in all markets, although rates vary by location. The company charges a per minute rate, with discounted fixed rates for hourly and daily usage also available and applied automatically.[56] The rates are all-inclusive and cover rental, gas, insurance, parking (in authorized areas), and maintenance. In Horseshoe Bay, Canada, a popular satellite parking location near Vancouver, BC, Canada, a fee of $10 is now charged for ending your trip there on Fridays and Saturdays. A low fixed annual fee is sometimes also charged. In most markets, car2go vehicles can park in either specially designated parking spots, or in standard parking areas, with a special permit from the local municipality.[57]

Vehicles

Two car2go Smart electric drive cars charging at the Herengracht in Amsterdam

In most cities, car2go offers exclusively two-passenger vehicles. Their fleet operates two types of Smart Fortwo "car2go edition" vehicles: gasoline-powered, and electric-powered. The gasoline-powered cars can be found in three variants based on roof configuration: "original" with integrated solar panel roof; "upgraded" with a panoramic polycarbonate roof and power side mirrors; and "new" featuring a standard roof. Electric car2go models are currently available in several markets, have a range of 84 miles (135 km), and need to be recharged every two or three days.[58] In its Canadian markets, car2go has a pilot program in place to supplement their fleet with a small number of four-door Mercedes B-class vehicles.[59][60]

Apps

First-party and third-party apps for mobile devices allow users to locate and reserve vehicles.[61] When reserving a car online, the customers are able to see the car's fuel gauge (gasoline-powered cars) or the battery's state of charge (electric-powered cars), so if the customer wants to go for an extended drive, they can find the right car for that trip. [62]

See also

References

  1. Stephanie Steinberg and Bill Vlasic (2013-01-25). "Car-Sharing Services Grow, and Expand Options". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-01-26.
  2. 1 2 "Car2go car-sharing service to suspend South Bay operations".
  3. "Daimler's car2go: Rent a Smart anywhere, anytime". Autoblog.com. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  4. Jeremy Korzeniewski (2008-10-21). "Daimler's car2go: Rent a Smart anywhere, anytime". Autoblog.
  5. Nick Gibbs. "Car2Go poised to top 1-million users". Automotive News.
  6. Taylor Soper. "Car2go adds $1 'Driver Protection Fee' for each ride to offset lowered deductible - GeekWire". GeekWire.
  7. Griffin, Jon (23 May 2014). "Car2go scrapped a year after setting up in Birmingham". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  8. Garrick, David (2016-03-16). "Car2Go switching electric cars to gas". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
  9. "UPDATE: car2go car sharing program goes public in Austin, Texas". Gizmag.com. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  10. "smart News » Düsseldorf’s ready for car2go". News.thesmart.co.uk.s112875.gridserver.com. 2012-02-13. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  11. 1 2 http://web.archive.org/web/20130615132021/http://www.daimler.com/technology-and-innovation/mobility-concepts/car2go. Archived from the original on June 15, 2013. Retrieved June 21, 2013. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. "car2go Canada Ltd. | car2go Poised For Growth in Vancouver This Spring". Newswire.ca. 2012-03-20. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  13. "December Newsletter: Vancouver". car2go. 2012-12-21.
  14. "Car2go cuts Richmond, North Vancouver coverage". 19 January 2016.
  15. "Car-Sharing car2go Brings New Electric Fleet to San Diego". Times of San Diego.
  16. "Electromobility in the Netherlands – Highlights 2014" (PDF). Netherlands Enterprise Agency. April 2015. Retrieved 2015-10-15.
  17. "Car2Go starts in Vienna with contactless technology made in Austria. | NFC Development & Consulting". Nfc.cc. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  18. "Car sharing options growing fast in Vienna". 2014-07-11.
  19. "Madrid estrena su servicio de car-sharing eléctrico con 350 coches de car2go". elmundo.es. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  20. "Daimler's car2go car-sharing service starts in D.C., Portland this month". Green.autoblog.com. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  21. Clabaugh, Jeff (2015-08-20). "Car2Go comes to Arlington — with a catch". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  22. Lizzy Duffy. "First Car2Go Bike Rack Spotted In Portland". opb.org.
  23. "World's largest Car2Go fleet deployed in Berlin". Green.autoblog.com. 2012-04-30. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  24. "Car2go launches short-term car rentals in Toronto, joining Zipcar, Autoshare, even taxis in moving market". thestar.com. 2012-06-13. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  25. "On The Road: No slowing down for car2go in Calgary". Calgaryherald.com. 2013-07-25. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  26. "car2go Expands to Cologne, Germany - Rental Operations". Auto Rental News. 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  27. "smart News » Stuttgart says ‘guten tag!’ to car2go". News.thesmart.co.uk.s112875.gridserver.com. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  28. "Stromautos auch bald im Strohgäu". stuttgarter-zeitung.de. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  29. "car2go Introduces a New Way of Carsharing in Seattle, Washington". Retrieved 21 December 2012.
  30. "car2go-seattle-expansion". Retrieved March 2015.
  31. http://web.archive.org/web/20131217221758/http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/car2go-Introduces-Carsharing-in-Minneapolis-20130827/. Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved August 27, 2013. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  32. car2go N.A. LLC (8 January 2015). "car2go Kicks Off 2015 With A Bang With Over 20,000 car2go... -- TWIN CITIES, Minn., Jan. 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --". prnewswire.com.
  33. "car2go Brings Point-to-Point Carsharing to Ohio". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  34. Danny King. "Car2go comes to Denver with 300 Smart Fortwo car share vehicles". Autoblog.
  35. "Hello Denver". Car2Go. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  36. "Milano, Car2go aumenta la flotta". Corriere della Sera. 28 October 2014. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  37. "Auto en libre service: car2go arrive à Montréal". Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  38. "Media Advisory - Launch of car2go in Montreal". 2013-10-04.
  39. "Montreal looks into setting up an electric-car sharing service". Retrieved 2015-11-28.
  40. http://www.motorionline.com/2014/02/18/car2go-a-roma-il-car-sharing-smart-nella-capitale-entro-la-prossima-pasqua. Retrieved 2014-02-20. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  41. "Car sharing - A Roma Il Car2go Si Espande - Quattroruote". Quattroruote.it.
  42. "Hello Austin". car2go.com.
  43. "Car2Go expands to Brooklyn". Washington Post.
  44. "Car2go could redefine the way New Yorkers get around town".
  45. "Car2go si prepara allo sbarco a Torino". La Gazzetta dello Sport - Tutto il rosa della vita.
  46. "Car2Go to Come to Arlington in September". ARLNow.com. Retrieved 2015-12-29.
  47. "Il car sharing approda a Prato, ecco come funzionerà e quanto costa [notiziediprato.it]".
  48. "In depth: Daimler's Car2Go program is simple, amazing, but not perfect". Green.autoblog.com. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  49. "eSmart III Production Commences". Fleets and Fuels.com. 2012-06-19. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  50. "Car2go suspends operation in Lyon, France because of name conflict with Car' Go". Green.autoblog.com. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  51. "Reif für die Insel: car2go bringt smart(e) Mobilität nach London | Daimler Global Media Site > Mercedes-Benz Cars > smart > car2go". Media.daimler.com. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  52. "Daimler's car2go car-sharing service will launch in UK this fall". Green.autoblog.com. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  53. "Not Found - Eugene, Oregon". The Register-Guard.
  54. "Car2go shutting down in Copenhagen".
  55. "Car2Go suspending business indefinitely in Miami, Miami Beach". miamiherald.
  56. "Mobility for a reasonable price". car2go.com.
  57. "Hello Vancouver". car2go.com.
  58. "Hello Austin". car2go.com.
  59. "Four Door Vehicles". car2go.com.
  60. "How to find car2go's 25 new four-door Mercedes vehicles on the streets of Vancouver". straight.com. The Georgia Straight.
  61. "car2go Apps". car2go.com.
  62. "Just hop in". car2go.com.

External links

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