Cambio Jumps to Ireland

The announcement didn't get much publicity but Cambio GmbH of Bremen, Germany has put together a deal to bring carsharing to the Republic of Ireland. As the opening press release says the service will launch on July 4 in Cork in the south of Ireland.

It will be operated by Mendes GoCar Ltd. under the brand name GoCar – Cambio Ireland. Interestingly, they refer to the service as "carsharing" and not a "car club" as they do in Great Britain.

The operation will launch with 6 Ford Fiestas, a Ford Focus and a Ford Transit Connect van at 3 "Go Bases". Ford was selected because of a long association with the company, according to the press release, which had a factory there until 1984. Rates will be €5 - 6 per hour and €0.30 - 0.40 per kilometer. There is a refundable deposit of €200 and a monthly fee of €7 per customer (€3 per additional driver).

The new company will be taking advantage of the service provided by Cambio and the experience of Cambio members in Germany and Belgium. GoCar will use Invers technology and the Cambio web and reservation system.

The service is being operated as part of the Cork City Integrated Sustainable Transport System. Free on-street parking spaces have been allocated. "Corkonians are going to be ahead of the pack. Operations of this new CarSharing service will commence in Cork on the 4th July, followed later by Dublin and other cities," according to Graham Lightfoot, managing director of the new service.
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That name may be familiar to old timers, since Lightfoot was the author of Pay As Your Drive Carsharing report for the EU. He was involved with an effort to form a carsharing cooperative in Dublin in the mid-1990s. More recently Lightfoot was the head of the Irish Community Transport Association and he and others organized a high profile conference (pdf) last September to lay the groundwork for the current launch.

The city of Cork has already signed up for 3 vehicles so they off to a good start. Best wishes to a new a service in a new country. Congratulations to Graham Lightfoot for his persistence over the years and to Joachim Schwarz at Cambio for making this happen.

Giving up the American way of life

NBC Nightly News did a very nice story about carsharing last night showing two carsharing members were "giving up the American way of life" in the face of $4 per gallon gasoline.

It had a nice quote from a carsharing member who told reporter Kelly Sanders that "I owned a BMW before and today I'm driving a BMW - although it's not mine, I'm driving it for the next couple of hours."

The report features Zipcar, in DC and Boston, and certainly seemed to stay close to the Zipcar line - seeming to claim that the high tech was developed by a "a grad student at MIT" - true enough for Zipcar, but not the rest of the world.

Thanks to eagle eye Richard Katzev for this tip.

Update on Rental Car Taxes

Sara Nassauer has written a very informative article for the Wall Street Journal about the current state of carsharing and rental car taxes.

Currently, carsharing customers are paying the state or local jurisdictions' rental car taxes in Washington state, Pittsburgh, Pa., Chicago, Ill., Boston, Mass., New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pa. These car rental taxes are in addition to sales taxes.

Nassauer reports, "In 2006, Chicago exempted car sharing from the city’s car-rental tax on hourly rentals but not daily rentals. Boston allows Zipcar to charge members a flat annual “convention center tax” of $10, instead of the $10 per rental it charges customers of traditional rental-car companies..."

Even with Enterprise in the carsharing business, the article suggests that rental car companies may be using carsharing as leverage in their efforts to get the taxes lowered or removed. The article mentions efforts to straighten out the car rental tax mess in Chicago and Washington state and the possibility of imposing the tax on Colorado's two non-profit carshares.

Rental car taxes typically are used to fund convention and visitor services. Carsharing companies argue that since their members are local and not the prime users of these facilities they should be exempt. (In one case I'm familiar with, here in Portland, rentals to local residents are already exempt but rental car companies seem to continue to charge the tax anyway.)

So, word to the wise: if your car rental tax is levied locally, get to work right now and get carsharing defined and exempted from the tax. We shouldn't be taxing the things we want to promote!

At Long Last Ithaca Carshare Launches

Welcome to the newest carshare in North America, Ithaca Carshare which went into service ttoday. It has had probably one of the longest gestation periods of any carshare, struggling against major hurdles and New York state's arcane laws to get vehicle insurance.

The launch press release says they will be launching with 6 Nissan Versas and adding a pickup truck soon. Vehicles are spread out in downtown Ithaca, Fall Creek, Collegetown, on the Cornell University and Ithaca College campuses, and at EcoVillage (see current map).

Ithaca offer two membership plans:
• "Just In Case" plan with a $50 per year membership fee and usage at $7.95 per hour and 20¢ per mile
• "It's My Car" plan with $20 per month membership and usage at $4.95 per hour and 20¢ per mile. This plan offers "1 hour free" and includes two drivers.

They're able to accept drivers over 18 (with proof of other insurance coverage) and 21 or older, who have been driving for at least 2 years and have a good driving record (no vehicular manslaughter, excessive speeding, excessive disregard for red lights/stop signs, reckless driving or driving under the influence).

Ithaca Carshare serves a major college town in upstate New York and has arrangements with Cornell University and Ithaca College for special promotions, typically free usage or reduced price memberships for staff and students.

Ithaca expected to launch in the fall of 2007 when they were close to a deal with Flexcar to handle their vehicles and insurance. The demise of Flexcar in the merger with Zipcar ended those hopes. This is likely a better arrangement.

Congratulations to Executive Director Jennifer Dotson and all the others who helped make this a reality! May your phone be silent at night and busy during the day!

Paris proposes a dubious idea

The Guardian (London) and other newspapers report that Paris is moving forward with its plans for an electric carsharing program - hoping to follow onto the success of the Velib public bicycle system.

They're hoping for 4,000 vehicles at 700 locations around Paris - twice as many vehicles as when the concept was first mentioned 6 months ago. The system would allow one-way trips between stations. Guardian article suggests that rates would be €200-€250 (about $300-$400) per month to drive about 60 miles. No specific brand of electric vehicle is suggested (but US readers should remember that France has had several pure electric highway cars made by major French car manufacturers for many years).

You know it's a different political system in France when a cautionary note about the whole idea can be sounded by a Deputy Mayor, "I'm very sceptical," said Denis Baupin quoted in the Guardian article, a Green party deputy mayor. "If this scheme encourages people to pick up these cars every day, using them to go into work and back instead of using bikes or the metro, crowding roads and changing habits, that's a problem. I think we would be better off promoting car-sharing schemes like the ones in Britain that work for occasional use."

My 2¢: Unless the rates are very carefully designed this service will be a huge expense (without the advertising revenues that the comparatively expensive Velib bicycle system depends on) and could easily have exactly the effect Mssr. Baupin menions: robbing passengers from the Metro and Velib bicycle program.

For what it's worth, the article is incorrect in stating that it's the first electric car project in Paris. Just 10 years ago Paris was the site of the innovative Praxitele program that provided a small-scale demonstration (50 vehicles at 5 stations) of exactly the service being proposed now - self service electric cars allowing one way trips between stations. Here is some background information about the Praxitele. Praxitelle rates were 40 francs per 30 minutes + 2 francs per minute beyond (no distance fee).

Philadelphia Picks a New Carsharing Provider

In a surprise upset, Philly Carshare lost the carsharing contract with the City of Philadelphia. Apparently, $5.90 per hour + 9¢ per mile didn't cut it.

According to the Boston Globe and press releases the city used about 6 to 10 cars a day from PhillyCarShare, and expects to use the same from Zipcar, according to procurement commissioner Hugh Ortman. He said the city way paying about $35,000 a year and expects to pay about $5,000 less with Zipcar.

Philly Carshare pioneered the relationship and it was the highest-profile relationship with a city that any carshare has had in a fleet-offset deal to date. PhillyCarShare has about 500 cars in its fleet; Zipcar has about 110 (having taken over the fledgling Flexcar operation there as part of the merger last November.

The Philadelphia Inquirer quotes PCS Deputy Executive Director Clayton Lane, "We're proud to have partnered with the city, but it will only have a very modest impact on our business."

Sixt Car Rental Gets into Carsharing in Berlin

Ever vigilant Bodo Schwieger of Team Red transportation consultancy tipped me off to really big news out of Germany: Sixt Rent A Car, an international car rental company, is getting into carsharing. And they're starting in one of the ripest plums of Europe — Berlin — going up against the major Dutch carsharing company, Greenwheels, which took over ailing StattAuto several years ago. It is expected to the first of many cities in which Sixti will provide car club services.

As reported in Börse Online, the Sixti Car Club, operating under the brand of Sixt's low cost car rental service, will launch on Wednesday with 100 cars at 8 locations in the center of Berlin.

Vehicles types will be Smarts, Mercedes B-class and, of course, the ever popular darling vehicle of carsharing - the Mini, showing 4 vehicle classes. The early information indicates that members can book cars via the web or "handy" (cell phone) and that they will be able to unlock the cars using a code text messaged to their phone (the website FAQ doesn't mention this feature).

Pricing sets up an interesting dynamic: the Sixti web site says vehicles start at 1.50 € per hour, but a closer look reveals that this is the overnight rate; with day rates starting at 4.50 € per hour + 0.12 € per kilometer. Greenwheels, on the other hand, with a somewhat limited selection of vehicle types, starts at 4 € per hour + 0.23 € per kilometer. Daily rates from Sixti Car Club are 32 € + 0.15 € per km for Smart rented 1-4 days (dropping to 22 € for 5-7 days). Greenwheels does not offer daily rates, but their 25 € a Month plan offers rates as low as 2.40 € per hour + 0.20 € per km (functionally a 42 € daily rate including overnight rates).

The Börse article states that Sixt will also be join to the German Federal Association of Carsharing, which presently has 80 members with over 3000 vehicles.

Sixt, based in Munich, has been an innovator for years. The were a pioneer in automated key dispensers for business travelers, with machines similar to ATM for check out and check in at all major European airports and many German train stations. Then they started a low-cost subsidiary, Sixti, that advertises vehicles "starting at 9.99 €" a day. Sixti has 92 locations in 9 countries. The Börse article says that 56% of Sixt's rental come from business rentals.

They're not the only car rental company operating carsharing in Europe, but likely to soon be the largest: in Austria Denzel Car Rental operated carsharing in several cities (but recently spun off the operation into a partnership with with Mobility Carsharing Switzerland); the Hertz franchisee operates carsharing under the Hertz name in Denmark and Avis partnered with Vinci Parking Company to create Okigo in Paris.

Sixti has produced a nice intro video (in German) to their service that has a cute opening.