Car Sharing Come To Austin Thanks To Daimler
Don’t think things are changing, then swing by Austin, Texas next year, and you should see people driving around in Smart cars that they don’t even own. Autopia had mentioned this back in March when it was just a proposal from Daimler (Mercedes Benz parent company), and now it looks like the deal has been finalized.
The Texas capital will be the United States showcase for the car2go car sharing firm to see if Americans will go for the whole idea of car sharing as a viable form of personalized transportation. Yes, we know about Zipcar, having covered it extensively, but car2go is aimed more at a business-to-business model. Or more accurately it’s a business-to-government model, since car2go will be in a partnership with the City of Austin aimed at providing personal, on-demand mobility for more than 13,000 city employees.
Austin will become the official headquarters of car2go North America LLC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler. This first, pilot phase, starts with 200 smart fortwo vehicles and a defined group of users, namely, City of Austin employees. Car2go aims to increase the number of vehicles at some point in 2010, and then make them accessible to all Austin residents and students.
Daimler, car2go and Austin are aiming to make city driving as easy as using a mobile phone, planning for the system to be easy, flexible, reasonably priced and work as a progressive solution to growing challenges of urban mobility.
The car sharing system is fairly uncomplicated. The 200 smart fortwo vehicles are available within Austin for all car2go members and they can be accessed 24/7. Once you’re a car2go member you can use the service immediately and access any available vehicle on the street, or, if you’re one of those plan ahead sorts, you can reserve a smart in advance through the online reservation process.
Being able to use a “car on demand” is a significant difference from traditional car-sharing programs like Zipcar, and another big difference is that car2go allows you to use the vehicle for as long as you like, without having to commit to a specific return time. Also, car2go allows users to make one way trips. Charges are not based on distance, but on time – with rates starting by the minute.
“Car2go is an innovative answer to current and future mobility needs in urban areas. We are pleased with the success we achieved in Ulm, Germany – the first car2go city – and we are ready for the next logical step on our way to an international rollout,” says Dr. Thomas Weber, member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars Development.
Now let’s see if Austin can do as well as Ulm, when car2go where smarts were rented 500 to 1,000 times a day and they are used by 15,000 customers, which is the equivalent of more than 15 percent of the citizens with driver’s licenses in Ulm.
Photo: Mercedes Benz
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Updated November 19, 2009