car2Go

car2go

Type	Public (subsidiary)
Industry	Car rental
Founded	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 and Mercedes-Benz 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 October 2016, car2go is the largest carsharing company in the world with over 2,000,000 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 October 2016, car2go operates over 14,000 vehicles, which serve eight countries and 30 cities worldwide with over 2,000,000 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 November 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	500	Electric	November 2015	[19]
Washington, D.C.	U.S.	700	Gasoline	March 2012	[20][21]
Portland, Oregon	U.S.	465	Gasoline & Electric	March 2012	[22]
Berlin	Germany	1,200	Gasoline & Electric	April 2012	[23]
Toronto	Canada	375	Gasoline	June 2012	[24]
Calgary	Canada	600	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]
Prato	Italy	35	Gasoline	November 2015	[46]
Chongqing	China	400	Gasoline	April 2016	[47]

Former

The following table details all locations where car2go is no longer active as of November 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	[53]
Eugene, Oregon	U.S.	October 2014	June 2015	[54]
Copenhagen	Denmark	September 2014	January 2016	[55]
Arlington, Virginia	U.S.	September 2015	May 2016	[56]
Miami	U.S.	July 2012	February 2016	[57]

Future

The following table details all planned locations for car2go as of November 2016:

City/ Municipality	Country	Start date	no. of cars	Reference
Brussels	Belgium	October 2016	300	[58]

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.^[59] 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.^[60]

Vehicles

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

Car2Go 4-door Mercedes-Benz B Class and a 2-door Smart ForTwo in Downtown Vancouver

In most cities, car2go offers only two-passenger vehicles, namely 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.^[61] In its Canadian markets, car2go has a pilot program in place to supplement its fleet with a small number of four-door Mercedes B-class vehicles.^[62][63]

Apps

First-party and third-party apps for mobile devices allow users to locate and reserve vehicles.^[64] 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. ^[65]

See also

• Carsharing

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. "car2go Crosses Two Million Global Member Milestone".
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. https://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. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
31. http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/car2go-Introduces-Carsharing-in-Minneapolis-20130827/. 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. "Il car sharing approda a Prato, ecco come funzionerà e quanto costa [notiziediprato.it]".
47. "Il Car2go's strong first month in Chongqing".
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. "Car2go car-sharing service to suspend South Bay operations".
54. "Not Found - Eugene, Oregon". The Register-Guard.
55. "Car2go shutting down in Copenhagen".
56. "We've Bridged the Gap!". washingtonDC.car2go.com. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
57. "Car2Go suspending business indefinitely in Miami, Miami Beach". miamiherald.
58. http://www.fleeteurope.com/news/car2go-arrives-october-brussels
59. "Mobility for a reasonable price". car2go.com.
60. "Hello Vancouver". car2go.com.
61. "Hello Austin". car2go.com.
62. "Four Door Vehicles". car2go.com.
63. "How to find car2go's 25 new four-door Mercedes vehicles on the streets of Vancouver". straight.com. The Georgia Straight.
64. "car2go Apps". car2go.com.
65. "Just hop in". car2go.com.

External links

• Official website
• Daimler Mobility Concepts