Car2Go launches in Portland

I took my first trip in a Portland car2go vehicle this wet morning — a 10 minute trip from NW Portland over to my house in NE Portland.  Given the weather it was probably the least auspicious launch of any car2go city.  But by noon at least the rain had stopped and people were venturing out of the houses and condos and coming downtown.

Yes I could have done the trip by transit — 44 minutes by bus with one transfer (and we have frequent service) — or 22 minutes by bicycle, but I was soaked and, besides I had this brand new car2go membership cards that was itching to be used.

Portland must now hold some sort of record for the most number of carsharing vehicles per capita — a little over 700 vehicles from the 3 companies — Zipcar, Getaround and now car2go — for 500,000 people in the city.  With 3 services, each with slightly different niches, the choices to go car-lite or even car free have never been greater.

What are the niches for Zipcar, Getaround and car2go? This is my take:

•  Zipcar is the premium brand for reservation-based, round-trip carsharing.  They've got a wide variety of new and late model cars, pickups and minivans.  The cars are parked throughout the close-in neighborhoods and, for regular users, they've got some membership plans that bring the cost down.

• Getaround, the peer to peer carsharing option for reservation-based round-trips has slightly older vehicles (none older than 1995) in an almost infinite variety of types, with the older vehicles at considerable discount over Zipcar, making them the affordable carshare choice.  Accessing the fleet is a bit more complicated since you have to request most vehicles from the owner via text message and you may have to meet them to exchange the keys (depending on how they've set up their Carkit.  (It's worth noting that both Relayrides and Just Share It also have a few vehicles listed in Portland.)  

• Car2go, of course, is on-demand carsharing with floating parking anywhere in a large (but not quite large enough) "home zone" + one-way trip option.  As long as a Smart car will get you and a friend to your destination it's an amazing service.  And, I think it will likely transform many peoples' trip habits as they get familiar with it.

I've put together a table comparing the services here.

One local, long-time industry observer (not me) predicts that zero car households in the close-in neighborhoods could be greater than 50% in the next few years — that's a long way from the current 16% we are now.  Of course that won't be solely because of carsharing — Portland has done many things right over the past 20 years — density, walkable neighborhoods, good transit.  And, it looks like we'll even get public bikesharing sometime soon!

And if you're interested in what infrastructure is conducive for households to actually start lowering their vehicle ownership, transportation planner Jarrett Walker has written a very interesting piece about it.  He thinks Portland has many of the right factors in place, even though we are not even in the top 50 cities for low car ownership.

So, I welcome car2go to Portland.  You're in good company here.  And thanks for the free coffee and Honkin' Huge Burrito (from one of Portland original food carts) this morning, too.

Carsharing Competition Returns to Washington DC

National capitals seem to have a way of attracting carsharing companies:  London, Berlin, Paris, Madrid and Amsterdam all have several competing carshare operators.  With the demise of Flexcar in late 2007, Zipcar has had Washington DC mostly to itself.  

Now both Hertz On Demand and car2go have announced a full-scale operations.  Hertz On Demand publicly launching the city and car2go intending to launch later this year.   This will be an interesting year in DC!

Zipcar — is the big kahuna of casharing, with 850+ vehicles in the DC metro area, including Arlington, Virginia across the river (arguably the city with the most  transportation options and most progressive transportation policies in the US (except for taxing carsharing) and several cities in Maryland.  Zipcar was the big loser in a DC DOT parking space bidding fracas last year, but the hegemony was bound to end.  And Zipcar is no stranger to parking bidding wars, having driven up carsharing parking costs in several other cities when they entered the market.

With the return of competition to Washington, Zipcar has competition in all four of what it calls its "established markets" — Boston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.  These cities were all launched between 2000-2005.  (That these markets are their "established" markets always seemed a bit arbitrary to me, since they now operate several markets established by Flexcar of the same vintage, and which were launched with similar level of investment - Seattle (2000) and Portland (1998).

DC's thoughtful online new source TBD Online thinks Hertz and car2go may be "better deals" than Zipcar, primarily because of no annual fees, but Zipcar has shown it will match and beat the deals of competitors in other markets, so I fully expect them to effectively counter with equally attractive new member packages, especially when the weather gets better and the spring marketing swings into action.  And pricing for Hertz and Zip are essentially the same and car2go's pricing really isn't comparable.

Hertz On Demand has had a couple of cars in the area for several years and has quietly started to build out their fleet with 10 cars in a couple of neighborhoods when I was in DC in January for TRB.  Hertz says they're planning to get to 100 vehicles in phase I, but didn't give any idea how long that might be.  The recently launched batter electric rental cars at Union Station will be converted to Hertz Car Rental to On Demand service.

Hertz has indicated they would NOT be offering one-way service, at least not initially, as they do in New York City.  But, my guess is they will do start offering one-way to the airports sooner rather than later.  Although offering one-way to airports is great for marketing and a wonderful service for customers, it's probably closer to self-drive taxi than anything else.  In the meantime, their vehicles have the clunky but useful Never Lost navigation system and their insurance has a $250 deductible rather than $750 for Zipcar.

Car2Go has been long-rumored to be eyeing Washington and now it's real.  The "floating parking" service area spans the entire District of Columbia, but excludes several areas - including the National Mall - presumably in hopes of avoiding huge vehicle relocation issues that Capitol BikeShare continues to struggle with.  The Smart vehicles will be gas, not electric.   I expect that car2go will be very well received in DC, already a very multi-modal town.

I'm still waiting to see what sort of impact car2go's unique one-way service only with Smart cars has on traditional "round-trip" carsharing services.  My suspicion that the small 2-seat vehicle defines a different type of trip than that of "round trip" carsharing with its bigger 4-5 passenger vehicles, is now somewhat confirmed in other car2go cities.  Fortunately, an early study from Europe is showing that vehicle ownership rates for car2go members is lower after joining, though not as much as traditional round-trip carsharing services.

Some Other Perspectives on Competition

Is competition bad or good for carsharing?  It sort of depends on who you're asking.  It's probably good for the companies, since multiple players in the market likely provides some legitimacy to this new mobility option in the minds of some prospective customers.  But as far as the allocation of public resources, such as on-street parking spaces, it may be a mixed bag since most customers are only members of one service, at least of the round-trip type (I fully expect many Zipcar and Hertz On Demand members will also have car2go membership.)  

For what it's worth: during the competition deliberations when Zipcar was acquiring Streetcar in London at least one city (Islington) reported to the Competition Commission, that it preferred to keep its partnership with only a single carsharing operator since they felt it would be better for residents since they could be assured of using every carsharing in the area, and was certainly easier for them administratively.

Meanwhile, down in Raleigh, North Carolina, there are complaints that competition is hurting the growth of carsharing.  Actually, I doubt it's the competition as much as the lack of commitment by the carsharing companies.  WeCar has never put much juice into marketing WeCar that I've seen and the Zipcar operation there is on two college campuses and, in general, they seem to keep these operations close to campus and not use them as springboards to developing city-wide operations.

Amsterdam's 3rd EV Carsharing Project

For the launch of car2go in Amsterdam last November, Radio Netherland Worldwide produced this nice 3 minute history of EV carsharing there.  It's in English.

It has some nice pictures of Witkar ("White Carts"), an earlier attempt at an EV carsharing service from the 1970s, a short comment from its founder Luud Schimmelpinnik; pictures of an even earlier EV from 1914 (!) and a comment from a skeptic of the whole idea.  Enjoy.

 

Carsharing Year in Review - 2011

2011 has been a landmark year for carsharing in the US and worldwide. Here's my annual review of developments in carsharing for 2011.

Before getting into specific developments, I'd like to make two general observations:

Are we seeing a demographic tipping point? — This was the year when the mainstream marketers admitted that many in Gen Y ("the Millennials") weren't thinking about cars the same way their parents were - they'd rather have their iPhone than a car. Car registrations and VMT are down; significantly fewer teenagers waiting before getting their driver's licenses; and especially an explosion of bicycle use in cities (even those without bike-friendly reputations).

I've always thought this 2009 headline in the Globe and Mail (Toronto) newspaper captured this shift in thinking about cars very nicely - "Object of desire or necessary evil?"

Parking is fundamental - Parking is a fundamental but often under appreciated aspect of car use. It wasn't until Donald Shoup layed the cards on the table in his landmark "The High Cost of Free Parking" that most of us realized just how fundamental parking really is. And carsharing operators also know how fundamental parking is to the success of their business. That's why designated parking on public streets has been such a holy grail - convenient access and great marketing exposure. And, as you'll see in several items below, some carsharing companies are slicing the parking issue in new ways - car2go and Zebramobil, as well as RelayRides in San Francisco are opting for floating parking (among other things).

And while on the topic of parking, I can't ignore the really goofy decisions that led to a bidding war for dedicated on-street parking spaces for carsharing companies in Washington DC during 2011.  DC has had a troubled history with carsharing parking, almost from the start in 2001 on-street parking seemed to generate more negative publicity than I've heard in any other city.  I'm sure the companies don't mind paying for such a valuable resource but for something that supposed be good for the city, the "bidding war" seems like a terrible to try to backfill the DDOT budget.  And if press reports are any indication, Zipcar probably didn't handle things as smoothly as they might have.

Now on to the big news of 2011:

Zipcar IPO — it finally happened!  After several years of speculation, Zipcar's new life as a publicly-traded company started in April.  And it got off to rousing start jumping from the $16 asking price to over $30 for a few days and then back to the mid teens, where it's been most of the time since then.  Since then investors have been debating the underlying fundamentals of Zipcar, and trying to understand carsharing, in general.

I think the significance of the IPO is, first and foremost to legitimize carsharing as a valid business model that investors can and should take seriously - a sort of "coming of age" for carsharing and new mobility.  So far profitability seems to be just out of reach for Zipcar, but they seem to be close enough and seem to have a big enough scope that investors continue to be cautiously optimistic. The market has spoken — certainly for North America but to some extent worldwide, as well.

Auto Manufacturers Enter the Carsharing Space — Daimler's car2go service started rolling out new cities at an amazing pace in 2011 — with gasoline-powered Smart cars in Hamburg, Germany, Lyon, France and Vienna, Austria in Europe and Vancouver, BC in North America and all Electric Drive Smart service in San Diego, Calif. and a day later in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Meanwhile BMW launched it's look-alike one-way service in Munich and Berlin, Germany, albeit with larger (but still small) vehicles - 1-series and Minis.

On this side of the Atlantic, GM announced a partnership with RelayRides to integrate the OnStar vehicle telematics system with the peer-to-peer carsharing service - providing a potentially powerful marketing channel and at least partially solving RelayRides technology dilemma.

New Operational Models — As far as re-thinking the internal operations of traditional carsharing, peer-to-peer has been getting most of the attention.  Changing the cost of fleet from a fixed to a variable expense that is paid only when an actual rental occurs, changes the finances of the operator significantly.  It also changes the internal management responsibilities significantly, redefining the fleet managers' job to a marketing job to sign-up and manage vehicle-owning members.  So far signing up car owners does not appear to be a major hurdle.

There are some other interesting experiments that got underway in 2011, as well. In Munich, Germany, Zebramobil has implemented a round-trip service without fixed parking locations.  Vehicles must be left within a several block distance of various zones.  As with car2go, members find a vehicles in each zone via the internet.  In Nice, France, a high profile well-funded all EV carsharing service, Auto Bleue, got underway.

Autolib — In less than a year from contract signing the Bollore Group began the roll out of the service in Novemeber and December.  Opreationally, Auotlib vehicles must be returned to an available Autolib charging bay, unlike car2go's electric fleets in Amsterdam and San Diego, which can be parked anywhere (legal) within the floating parking zone.  Rates are almost identical between Auotlib and car2go.

Autolib is in a category by itself given the major commitment from the City of Paris government and significant private investment (reportedly € 50 million) by Bollore Group itself. As with the Velib public bicycle system, the world is watching at this distinctively French undertaking.   London has already expressed Autolib envy.  But it remains to be seen whether Autolib will serve as a model for the development of EV auto mobility services in other cities.

New service models — While peer-to-peer slices the operational issue of fleet in a new and potentially very profitable way, as far as users are concerned it's still the traditional reservation-based, round trip carsharing service model. In 2011 on-demand, open-end, one-way carsharing really burst on the scene - in both Europe and North America.

I think it's under-appreciated just how completely new on demand, open-end, one-way carsharing services like car2go, Drive Now and Autolib, really are.  On-demand overcomes a significant consumer complaint about traditional carsharing - requiring a reservation and especially having to specify the end time of the trip. A few services in Europe have successfully implemented "open-ended" trips but the challenges of maintaining good utilization with this great amount of flexibility for the user is daunting for any company, and especially a smaller companies.

The implications of these on-demand services on other modes urban transportation are really unknown at this point and I eagerly any shreds of information from modal split research. I expect they will show that a significant number of trips are by "card-carrying" car owners who use the service simply because parking is so easy with these services. But some of these trips may be taken from transit, as well. In the long run, I think it will be another transportation option that leads people away from car ownership.

Smaller carshares doing just fine, thank you — With all the attention being paid to the "big guys" 2011 saw the entry and expansion of a number of smaller carsharing operators, as well.  New operators include Time Car focusing on university campuses in Oklhama and Texas, PATS Carshare in San Jose. And joining the P2P universe Wheelz in  In Australia new entrant Green Carshare took over CharterDrive and the UK continues to see the launch of new car clubs serving much smaller cities and towns than anywhere in the US and many parts of Europe. The industry is now at a place where just keeping track of the companies is a major commitment.

Although college campuses seemed to be where most of the expansion in North American carsharing was taking place, most surprising to me was the move by NYC-based Mint Carsharing moved into Zipcar's home turf in Boston/Cambridge, Mass. taking over a recent start up as their toehold in the marketplace.  I expect there's plenty of room for growth in the Boston market and entering a market where an existing operator has already started the education process simplifies things somewhat.

And long-time carsharing companies, Autoshare, CommunAuto, Modo, I-Go, HourCar, LAX Carshare and City Carshare continue to thrive.  They are joined by host of smaller community-based groups doing great work serving their local areas.

2012 promised to be even more interesting, which I'll sketch out in another post.  If you want to see last year's review, it's here.  Best wishes for the new year

Car2go Chief Says Buyers are Users

Many people have asked me why a car manufacturer would offer an alternative to car ownership?  My response has always been, look who's doing it: Daimler, a high end company, has little to lose offering Smart cars in their unique one-way rental service  — it helps the production of Smart cars and doesn't cannibalize sales of their other Mercedes models.  (Arguably, BMW is in a somewhat similar position.)

And, I would argue, that other European manufacturers, such as VW, which have entered the carsharing space are realizing they're approaching the limit to how many new cars can be sold to European customers so they'd better start thinking about other car-related ventures.

The German newspaper Die Zeit recently published an interview with Robert Henrich, worldwide head of Daimler's Car2go program that provides some helpful insight about Daimler's thinking.  Below are some loosely translated highlights of that interview:

Die Zeit: What does Daimler hope for car2go?

Henrich: A new and profitable business model. Carsharing is not just a hype, but a social trend . People want to be mobile, perhaps even more than before, but do not necessarily own the vehicle. We are at the forefront of this trend and want to become market leaders.

Henrich says that Car2go is expected to be profitable by 2014.  In the interview he confirms my thesis, that car2go does not compete with their core business.  The value of car2go, he says, is that with car2go, "we talk to new customer groups, especially young urbanites" and since "(car) buyers are also (car2go) users" Daimler hopes this will help them extend their brand into the younger generation, some of whom will eventually buy Mercedes autos.

Die Zeit: What will mobility look like in ten years?

Henrich: I am convinced that car-sharing, especially in the cities will play a much wider area than today. Everything will revolve around the question of how the various modes of transport can be networked - this is the future.

I must admit I don't completely buy the whole networked future of automobiles idea, mostly because I'm still skeptical that enough pieces of the "pay by the mile" puzzle will ever be in place - at least in the US.  At least not until some sort of comprehensive information privacy pact can be developed.  But since all the "car guys" are talking about it, something is likely to happen.

And what about US auto manufacturers following their European counterparts into providing other mobility services?  My guess is that's a few years away.  Considering that they all recently went through major restructuring allowing them to be profitable at lower sales volumes than before, I expect they will stay closer to their core business for a while.  To date, the Ford deal with Zipcar can be viewed primarily as getting exposure to a younger demographic for Ford vehicles.  The GM/OnStar deal with RelayRides is more interesting and could turn into something big, but we won't know until we see RelayRides version 2.0.  Shelby Clark puts a positive spin on the GM/OnStar deal in  The Auto Industry Embraces Its Own Disruption  on a Harvard Business School blog site. 

Electrifying Carsharing

(Note to readers: this article has been significantly updated since the original posting.)


With the arrival of highway-capable battery electric vehicles (EVs), a number of carsharing companies are adding them to their fleets.  And it's happening all over the world.  Here are some of operations and concepts that caught my attention.


In the North America many of the operations are adding Nissan Leafs, since it was the first vehicle in wide availability but Mitsubishi iMievs are becoming available.  

• Hertz On Demand — New York City has been busy adding Nissan Leafs and other vehicles to their New York City operation.  Although not widely publicized they offer one-way trips between many of their parking locations.  Although they don't offer city-wide carsharing in other cities, they do offer EVs in San Francisco and Washington DC, as well as London.  Hertz has set out a goal of 1,000 EVs systemwide by the end of 2012.
• CommunAuto — Montreal & Quebec City; has had a long interest in EVs, starting with a proposed Branché project in 2003; possibly the first carsharing service to add battery EVs in North America; will add 50 Nissan Leafs in 2012.
• car2go — San Diego; opened for business on November 18 with Smart ED (electric drive) in one-way service over a large area of downtown (including the airport) and adjacent neighborhoods.
• Getaround — And then there's Getaround P2P carsharing using the Tesla Roadster as their signature vehicle for marketing; now they have 3 privately-owned Teslas enrolled - at $50 per hour ("gas and insurance included").  They've also undertaken to recruit EV owners through a marketing campaign with PlugShare.com
• City Carshare — Announced plans to power half it's fleet with renewable energy; they will do this using Renewable Energy Credits (REC) from 3 Degrees.
• I-Go — Chicago, with great fanfare (deservedly) announced not one but plans to add 11 solar powered charging stations for Mitsubishi iMievs they will adding to their fleet in 2012. Each station, from 350 Green. will cover 4 parking spaces and house 2 I-Go EVs and have room for charging two other EVs. Congratulations IGO!

(Arguably, the first EV carsharing was the Electrovaya Altcar service at the Baltimore Science Center starting in 2009, but it is defunct now.)

France — EVs from major manufacturers have been available in France continuously since the 1980s and France started the first EV carshare in 1999.

  
• Auto Bleue — Nice; the first EV carsharing in France; round-trip service model; a very well funded partnership with Veolia Transport, EDF (the French electric utility) and Transdev; launched in the spring of 2011 with 15 stations 61 vehicles; eventual goal is 70 stations and over 200 vehicles; telematics by Vulog.  "Nice" logos, too, as they say in Nice,)
•  Autolib — Paris; Group Bolloré started it's one-way EV carsharing last week month with the official launch of 250 "Blue Car" vehicles less than a year after signing the contract with the City of Paris.  Pricing is the same as somewhat similar car2go service with Smart EDs in Amsterdam (see below) - 0.29 € per minute.  (I will have a more complete report about Autolib soon.)
• Yelomobile — La Rochelle; rebranded successor to Liselec, the oldest EV carshare (started 1999) operated by the city; with an upgrade from Veolia Transport which integrates the brand (and the member card) with city's Yelo buses and public parking operations.
•  Cité Vu— Antibes (southern France); operated by telematics supplier VuLog allows round trip and one way service between 6 locations.
• Carbox — Toulouse; Carbox is a unique business to business carsharing service, primarily in Paris, but also provides fleet carsharing to Airbus in Toulouse, recently announced they would be adding 15 Citroen C-Zeros (Mitsubishi iMievs) to the 150 vehicles they currently provide the aircraft manufacturer.  

Spain seems to be suddenly very active in EV carsharing, with several demonstration projects:

• CochEle — Sevilla; This is by far the largest operation 6 stations and 16 Peugeot iON (Mitsubishi iMievs) vehicles; rates are 4.95 € per hour or 19.95 € day + 0.29 € per kilometer (I'm a little mystified why they charge so much for "fuel"?)  Cochele has announced a partnership with NH Hotels (major hotel chain in Spain) showing the MIT folding City Cars now being built in Spain (no details)
• E:sharing — Sagunto (just north of Valencia, on the Mediterranean); using Th!nk vehicles; currently with 2 stations
• SareCar - Ataun (northern Spain; tiny village of only 1,500 people); demonstration project with 2 Th!nk vehicles.

Elsewhere in Europe — 

• Move About — offers carsharing with Th!nk EVs in corporate fleet sharing service as well as public carsharing in Oslo, Norway (80 vehicles), Copenhagen, Denmark (launched this month); and Goteborg (Gothenberg) Sweden 5 vehicles in a science park.  Here's a nice video (in English) showing the service.
• GreenWheels — started adding their first Peugeot Ion to their fleet in Amsterdam in July with plans to add 25 EVs total, 7 more in that city, as well as additional vehicles in Utrecht and Rotterdam.
• car2go — Amsterdam; expects to have all 300 Smart Electric Drive models deployed by the end of the year; rates are slightly lower than car2go in other cities (0.29 € per minute; 12.90 € per hour and 39 € per day)

Japan was one of the earliest countries to offer EV carsharing, but took some time out until the current generation of EVs.  Several Japanese auto makers have announced EV carsharing —Nissan (partnering with Mitsububishi in Kyoto) and Toyota (at housing developments in Tokoyo and Nagoya using IQ EV vehicles).  These build on innovative demonstration projects in the 1990s at the manufacturer's corporate campuses -- a project on the Toyota campus using their earlier generation "Crayon" vehicle; and the Honda ICVS project (which currently sponsors the Intellishare program at UC Riverside and once had Honda EVs; as well as the DIRACC one-way carsharing program in Singapore; currently testing in EVs in various commuter projects.

Several independent development concepts have also been announced.  One called the "Green Cross-over Project" would locate EVs at convenience stores and equip them with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capabilities.  Another would use home delivery storage lockers, which already have security features, to make carsharing vehicle keys available to members.


China, which has been very active in developing all sorts of electric mobility - e-bikes, a variety of cars, now a EV carsharing service has launched:

• EVNet — Hangzhou; arguably the first carsharing in China (and joins the largest public system in the world); has 15 vehicles at 4 rental locations near university and office park, both gas and Chery EV (surprisingly their signature Smart car is gasoline Smart not the Chinese knock-off electric Smart). Thanks to Lewis Chen of Invers for this tip and to the Team Red (my consulting firm) man in Shanghai, Dominik Villaret, for update that rates are between $3 - $5 per hour  They have good support from the city government.  Watch this short video.

The future of EV carsharing?

Given the high cost of battery-electric vehicles themselves, plus the cost of charging stations, carsharing and EVs seem like a logical relationship. I have recommended to cities I've worked with, that if they are obtaining EVs and charging stations for their city fleet they consider partnering with a local carshare to make these vehicles available to the general public, while still having access to them for city employee use.  Such application also better utilizes the charging stations.   Since carsharing offers a variety of vehicle types, members can select whether an EV is the right type of vehicle for the type of trip they're planning to make — replacing more trips with vehicles that are the cleanest operating.  The carsharing company should be able to keep an EV in use much more than most private individuals could.   

The installation of solar charging stations overcomes one of the major drawbacks to current battery EVs - instead of recharging from electricity generated from coal-fired power plants, these EVs would be truly renewable transportation.

In the long run some transportation experts believe there will be fleets of shared very light shared EVs, even smaller than Smart cars, in major cities.  These might look like the Renault Twizzy or other light vehicle designs not yet thought of.

Meanwhile in the present, one of the important operational questions all carsharing operators are asking themselves is how often members won't accurately judge the range of their trip and find themselves stranded a long way from home; and what will they do about it.  As of now, there aren't any AAA trucks with quick chargers cruising the streets.  Car2go has got an even more complex situation to manage.  They don't require that vehicles be returned to a charging station so really have to depend that members will look at the fuel level reported on the web or app to decide which vehicle to take.

Where is Zipcar on the on the question of EVs?  They have been cautious (or perhaps "strategic", depending on your point of view). Only 2 years ago Scott Griffith was quoted that Zipcar would "not be going electric anytime soon".  Earlier this year they did announce a partnership with Toyota to place a number of Prius Plug In Hybrids in several Zipcar cities, so they've arguably gone at least partially electric!  For them to implement battery EVs would require a not insignificant upgrade to their system to be able to manage vehicle battery state of charge so that members would get a vehicle with sufficient range to meet their needs.

As EV technology improves (particularly range and recharge times) and vehicle costs come down (or subsidies increase) my guess is Zipcar will be increasingly interested.

CommunAuto, one of the most skillful companies in building partnerships, explains their approach pretty well in these slides from their Nissan Leaf partnership launch event.

If you know of other interesting or exemplary EV carsharing services or concepts.  Please let me know and I'll add them to this post or create new ones.  Thanks.

Carsharing Update for October

I've been traveling the past month (a bicycle trip in Croatia) and there's lots to report while I was gone.  One certainly gets the impression that the carsharing industry is moving into high gear these past few months.  There's lots to report:

RelayRides and General Motors partnership — RelayRides continues with yet another very significant high-level partnership with GM's OnStar division.  This enable the OnStar telematics installed in all new GM vehicle to serve as the "on board computer" enabling them to sign up with RelayRides and immediately start renting their vehicle, nothing to install.  Vehicle owners would still have to subscribe for other OnStar services — emergency help, turn by turn navigation instructions, automatic crash response, stolen vehicle location.

This is the first announcement of what I expect to be other telematics partnerships as cars increasingly become wired.*

Autolib starts its shakedown in Paris — The all-electric, station-based service that's been the source of some controversy in Paris, launched at the beginning of October with 66 vehicles at 33 stations, each with 4 to 6 parking spaces.  The next major ramp up is scheduled for December with 250 of the projected 3,000 stations set to open.

Annual Autolib memberships will cost 144 €, and rates will be 5 € for every half-hour of driving — about the cost of 2 Metro tickets, as one new report observed.  Daily and weekly subscriptions will also be available for 10 and 15 € respectively with higher rates 7€ per 30 min. rates.   

New members can join using the futuristic waiting rooms (?) and will be able present and passport and credit card and activate their membership.  It's not know yet whether visitors from the US, without the European standard issue chip card, will face the same hurdle as those trying to use Velib.

Industrial giant, EV manufacturer, Bolloré, seems to be overcoming early skepticism that their BlueCar vehicle would be ready on time. They are also major investor in the project.

There are already reports that London is interested in developing their own EV carsharing service as well.

If you just can't get enough here's a short video showing the vehicles, stations etc.  

London's Streetcar begins conversion to Zipcar — The Tweets are starting to fly, preparing Streetcar (and Zipcar) members for the upcoming integration.  Rates have been published and FAQs have been written.  The challenge for Zipcar will be to keep their customers happy service as Streetcar's "home town" identity goes away.  And the usual Zipcar bells and whistles will apply — smart phone apps, phone/text reservations and reminders, etc.

Lowering the rates slightly, at least on weekdays, is a good first step. For example a VW Polo's drop from £5.25 to £5.00 per hour and daily rates drop from £52.50 to £49. VW Golf and BMW 1 series also dropped by £0.25 per hour.  Included miles increase from 20 miles per calendar day to 40 miles. Excss miles increased slightly from 23p to 25p.   Only the BMW3 series and van/transporter rates increased a tiny amount from £8.95 to £9.00 per hour.  Annual membership fee of £59.50 stays the same, as do the cost of various insurance options.  Weekend rates are £1 - £2 per hour over weekday rates.  A summary of Zipcar's London rates is here: http://www.zipcar.com/streetcar/welcome/faqs?for=rates-streetcar

A VW Up!

VW Quicar adds car rental — They haven't even launched in Hannover, Germany and VW is making a last-minute addition to the service.  In addition to the 200 Golf BlueMotions in the original announcement, VW will be adding an option for members to rent 70 other vehicles for 10 hours minimum.  Vehicles include the new VW Up! (a sub-sub compact) for ten hours starts at €30 (about $41 when this was written); a Beetle at €40 (about $54) and the Golf cabriolet or Passat for €50 (about $68).  Pricing for the core Quicar carsharing usage is €6 (about $8.25) for the first 30 minutes and €0.20 (about $0.27) for each additional minute.

Like Peugeot Mu project, this looks to me like a car manufacturer is getting into the car rental business.

Closer to home, it's worth noting that the pace of RFPs from US cities to attract carsharing services to their communities continues.  As this is written, Austin, Knoxville and Eugene have RFPs on the street.  Why Austin, you might ask? They have car2go, what more do they want?  If you find out the answer, please post the answer in a comment below.  Thanks.

Suggestion to cities evaluating the proposals - don't get hung up on the membership fees, concentrate on the package the provider offers for attracting new members - time-limited discounts off the normal application cost (to get people to join), free usage for the first trip (to get people to actually use the service).  And don't worry about the second year membership fee.  If members aren't willing to pay $50 - $75 a year for access to the vehicles, they probably aren't using them anyway — in which case, the city isn't getting much benefit from a symbolic member!

Finally, the car2go juggernaut continues with the announcement of plans to offer the "mobility on demand" service in Lyon, France.   Daimler expects the free-parking zone to be about 44 square kilometers.  The car2go operation in Lyon will be another joint-venture with Europcar, similar to the car2go service in Hamburg, Germany.

I'll be watching to see if their Smart cars face the same rebalancing challenge that the public bicycle system in Lyon, Velo' V, faces — residents regularly "clean out" certain stations on top of a hill, taking the bikes downtown and then ride the bus home in the evening rather than pedal back home.  Maybe the gas power to get them back up the hill will avoid this problem.

That's it for this month.

- Dave


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* I couldn't help but smile at a great opening line in a recent NY Times article on after-market gizmos for cars: "Cars, one of the great mobile devices to begin with, are about to get connected to the Internet like never before. It will change not just how we drive, but the economics of the car business."

Car2Go All Charged Up about San Diego

Today car2go North America made a double announce-ment - its next city in North America will San Diego - and, through a strong partnership with the City of San Diego and various other agencies, it be fleet of all electric fleet Smart for Twos - starting with 300 vehicles. (This follows the announcement in April of all-electric car2go fleet in Amsterdam.)

Although the exact operating area (free-floating parking zone for vehicle returns) hasn't been decided, with that many vehicles it seems likely that the operating area will pretty large. Vehicles do not have to be returned to a charging station, but can be returned anywhere within the operating area. Users will be able to see the approximate state of charge for each vehicle on their iPhone or computer.

Rates have not been set, but CEO Nicholas Cole said it was likely they will be similar to Vancouver, BC - 35¢ per minute or $12.99 per hour - basically, the hourly rate kicks in after 38 minutes of use.

They plan to launch sometime in the fall with a free registration blitz followed by the start of operations several weeks later, similar to the Vancouver launch. Because gasoline vehicles were brought for the press event from the Austin fleet, San Diego unexpectedly showed up on the car2go iPhone app.

The announcement signifies the return of carsharing to San Diego, following a lull after the now forgotten heyday of carsharing in San Diego, when Flexcar had 85 vehicles here.  Presently, Zipcar has two vehicles at University of San Diego campus and several more out of town at UCSD.

Reservations

As in Austin and Vancouver, two types of reservations are possible - a 30 minute "hold" to give the user time to get to the vehicle after identifying it on a computer or app. Or a vehicle can be "reserved" up to 24 hours in advance. But the meaning of reserve is different than traditional carsharing programs, where a specific vehicle at a specific location is blocked for use. Because of car2go's free-floating parking, what you actually reserve is the "closest vehicle to the address you specify". 15 minutes before the start of your trip, you get a text message (SMS) telling you the location of the closest vehicle. With so many vehicles, it would appear that the need to make a reservation isn't really that necessary. (Chief Technology Officer for car2go Helmut Ritzer told me that they've actually ended the 24 hour reservation option in Ulm.)

Partnership

The other major partner in this project is Ecotality, which plans to install as many as 1,500 of their Blink charging stations in the San Diego area. Jonathan Read, CEO of Ecotality, echoed the sentiments of other speakers at the press conference saying he hoped this announcement would make San Diego "the ground zero of the electric vehicle movement" (presumably he meant that in a good way!)
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders indicated that City Council was expected to pass changes to the municipal code that would allow car2go to park on street and provide dedicated on-street parking for vehicle recharging.

CleanTech San Diego, San Diego Gas and Electric and SANDAG, the regional planning agency were also instrumental in bringing car2go to San Diego.

Smart ED

The Smart EDs (for "electric drive") will have the same touch screen and internal telematics as the regular gasoline-powered car2go Smarts. The vehicles will have an estimated range of about 80 miles and they're hoping that vehicles will be able to go for 2 to 3 days worth of trips between recharging. Car2go reports that using fast chargers, the Smart ED battery pack can be brought up from 20% to 80% state of charge in about 3 1/2 hours.

I took one of the electric Smart's for a test drive through the hilly part of downtown San Diego and found the acceleration certainly adequate but without as much of the low-speed torque that is so surprising in the Nissan Leaf. (Presumably a little less acceleration means a little longer range?) As with other Smarts it feels far more secure and stable than its diminutive size would suggest.

During the press conference speakers revealed some other nuggets about the car2go service:

• 40,000 members in North America in Europe - pretty impressive for 3+ cities (Vancouver has only been operating for a couple of months)
• Average trips in Austin have been about 30+ minutes and under 5 miles
• Customers are not limited to younger demographic but have a wide range of ages
• Future car2go cities might be a combination of gasoline and electric vehicles or a city could start gasoline and become electric when the recharging infrastructure was available. 

Daimler also displayed two fuel cell prototype cars at the press conference - reminding everyone that fuel cell cars are pure electric, too.

CAR2GO Is On a Roll

I was fortunate to be able to attend the press conference announcing the launch of car2go in Vancouver this June.  As you would expect, it was an impressive and well-staged event.   Mayor Gregor Robertson was most enthusiastic and car2go CEO Nicholas Cole was able to work in some "Go Canucks" to take advantage of the hockey fever sweeping Canada right now.


(It didn't hurt that Vancouver's "liquid sunshine" let up for the morning, and don't ask me why, but just seeing a Smart car makes me smile.  So having several of them sitting around in their special white with blue car2go trim is a good sign.)

The plans car2go has for Vancouver are impressive - starting out with 225 Smarts (the new special car2go model), floating parking + designated on-street stations in certain areas; a large floating parking zone (18 sq. miles or 47 sq. km) and rates same as Austin - 35¢ per minute; $13 per hour or $66 per day and 45¢ per kilometer for trips over 200 per day.

Vancouver follows on the earlier announcement of car2go in Hamburg and recent announcement of a fleet of electric car2go Smarts coming to Amsterdam.   And it appears that several more cities will be announced this year, as well.  

Car2go joins Modo Car Coop (the very impressively rebranded Cooperative Auto Network) and Zipcar (offering premium service) in the traditional "round-trip" carsharing by the hour.  Meanwhile, on the launch day the Twitter-sphere had a flurry of Tweet and counter-Tweet about car2go.  The Modo loyalists were sticking up for the home-town company but, perhaps not surprisingly, the coolness factor of one-way seemed to dominate the conversation.  Zipcar was silent the whole time.

I've noted before that Daimler has used the phrase "personal public transportation" to describe car2go.  Given the unique aspects of the Smart car, it's an apt phrase.  Certainly there will be many people who will maintain memberships in both services - especially given car2go's willingness to give them away at first - using Modo for longer trips and when more people or stuff needs to be carried.  35¢ a minute adds up and $13 per hour if you're traveling outside of the zone makes it somewhat of a lifestyle statement.  (If you're traveling within the floating parking zone I think there's little reason not to end your trip when shopping or going to a meeting - if you're downtown and "your" vehicle is taken, there are almost certainly going to be others available nearby (you do have an iPhone, don't you?) and if you're in the outskirts of the zone, then the likelihood that someone will take the vehicle is very low - except if you've parked near a rail station.)  

So perhaps we'll have an interesting test of the competition of "mobility on demand" model versus the classic carsharing as an "alternative to car ownership" service.  (I don't think the demise of Austin Carsharing last year says as much about possible competition between the two services as it does about the viability of Austin Carshare.)

But the real test will be how Zipcar responds to this additional pressure.  They've been struggling to get traction ever since coming to Vancouver — the price differential compared to Modo for similar vehicles is significant.  Modo's rates are highly affordable $3 per hour + 40¢ for the first kilometers (declining to 15¢ per km for longer distances) or $33 per day.  Zipcar is $11/hour gas included or $75/day.  But I wouldn't underestimate Zip, especially after their recently completed IPO.

For me, the big unanswered question right now is about the transportation impacts of any "mobility on demand" service.  I certainly expect that a small percentage of walking, cycling and public transport trips will be shifted to the Smart cars.  But this is probably analogous to the increased VMT from non-car owning members after they join carsharing.  And I'm told that an evaluation by the University in Ulm is forthcoming.

It's worth noting that Car2go has set up a nice retail shop in Gastown and I expect they will do good business in walk-in memberships and customer relations.  (I've been very impressed by the activity I consistently see in the Zipcar store in downtown Portland.)  Something else that car2go has done right (at least I'm aware of it in Austin) is becoming part of the community - no small feat for corporate carsharing - they seem to be at or associated with many events in Austin - an event-ful town!  So, we'll see if they can replicate that engagement in VanCity.

Finally, this trip provided my first look at new Smart with the new (proprietary) telematics system with a very handy ignition key and card holder right in the unit (see picture) and integral navigation system (bravo Daimler telematics people).  Plus the vehicles have a solar roof - cool, eh?  (But what is a solar roof on gasoline car all about, anyway? See comment below for the answer. - DB)  

As always, getting into a Smart is an exercise in cognitive dissonance - it appears so tiny on the outside and yet feels so unexpectedly roomy on the inside.  The best thing about this new Smart is that Daimler seems to have finally overcome the jerky, uncertain autoshifting that I have found so disconcerting in the previous Smarts.

Car2go seems to be off to a good start in Vancouver.

Car2Go and Taxis

(Note: this article has been signficantly updated since the original posting.  - Dave)

Logically, you'd think that car2go's one way service would be a threat to taxi companies. And at least in one European country you might be right.  According to a recent article in Die Welt am Sonntag, taxi drivers in Germany aren't feeling too threatened by car2go.

According to the Feb. 1, 2011 article by Steffen Fründt, the taxi business in Germany is cashing in.  50,000 taxis driven by 22,500 operators (many are one-person companies) and did more than 3.5 billion Euro business in 2010.  (They do this driving about 2.6 hours of the 9.5 hours average shift, the article says.)  And taxi operators in Germany have done a good job using regulations to keep others, such as van services, from poaching their core business.  As in other countries, taking people to airports and transporting seniors seems to be a major part of their business.

In the article Thomas Gratz of the Taxi- und Mietwagenverbands BZP (Taxi and Rental Car Association) is quoted saying he doesn't think car2go poses much of a threat.  Given that the majority of car2go users are between 18 - 35 years old, the article explains:

"The highest trump in the sector was the demographics, "says Thomas Gratz of the taxi association. "There are more old people, and are more likely than the young to rely on a taxi." Seniors become loyal clientele for taxis, which can be driven to shopping, hairdressing, opera or dialysis. "In rural areas, ambulance runs make for some entrepreneurs from 70 to 80 percent of the business," says Gratz. The biggest competitor to the taxi industry was the DRC.

Gratz was quote saying that the biggest threat to taxis are van services, which are currently restricted, getting a foothold in Germany.  No doubt he's right but it seems to me likely car2go will have an effect.  

Meanwhile in Spain

Thanks to local intel, I've been made aware that taxi drivers in the city of Valencia are feeling a lot more threatened by the possibility of car2go coming to that Mediterranean coastal city.  Following initial conversation with car2go last November, the President of Valencia Taxi Federation and came out strongly opposed, according to the El Mundo newspaper in Valencia.  

"We do not want this project to go forward because it proposes a service that goes directly into competition of the taxi industry, "said Juan Antonio Guardeño, the head of the federation.  He explained that taxis have experienced a 40% drop in business as a result of economic crisis, which has reportedly affected Spain much worse than Germany.

Reader response to the taxi drivers' complaint on the El Mundo web site seems mostly in favor of having a car2go option.  Said one writer: "It seems ridiculous for the taxi drivers, or whoever, to protest improved citizen services. I am sure there will be many users of this service as soon as it is started.  I'm sick of the blood sucking taxi drivers who let other car and van delay them in order to scrape a few pennies more my pocket - as if they don't already have enough."


My 2¢


It would appear the taxi drivers in Valencia need to do a little PR, at least with one customer!  And as a commenter in Valencia he taxi observed, the taxi companies did not oppose a one-way bike sharing system, which, arguably, will affect their business, at least slightly.  


Any new innovation that "gets traction" (to use a car metaphor) results in winners and losers.  My guess is that, overall, taxis will lose less than they think from one-way carsharing in their cities.  But, I can certainly understand that it's in their interest to do what they can to minimize these losses.  And it is ultimately the duty of city governments to do balance competing interests to do what's best, overall, for their city.  


Overall, car manufacturers will be the big losers - but they're already watching the decline in sales in their home markets and thinking about options — such as one-way carsharing.   

Car2go opens for business in Hamburg

Hamburg became Car2go's second city in Germany, which opened for business last week. Unlike other operations, the service is operated by EuropCar, which will have a majority 75-percent stake in this shared project. Reports suggest that this relationship may be extended to other cities in the future.

 The Hamburg car2go launch is set to start with 300 vehicles. Prices for car2go usage in Hamburg will be 0.29 € per minute or at least 14.90 € per hour.  Here's a link to the map showing the large area that one way trips can end in.



Daimler has high hopes for car2go.  Last year Daimler Chief Financial Officer Bodo Uebber told the Financial Times Germany, that "it might have revenue potential comparable to our vehicle manufacturing" (rough translation).  Some analysts have calculated that car2go has a worldwide market potential of more than 100 million € is possible. The FT article indicated that Daimler was still considering whether to take the service to Paris using their Smart ED electric drive vehicles.

Daimler has some unique advantages in considering alternative mobility concepts, such as car2go and their dynamic ridesharing "app" car2gether, since they don't have any "entry level" brands or models, they can pursue the carsharing and car-alternative sector without fear of cannibalizing their up-market cars.

Previously, Daimler reminded us that in the first year of Ulm project, almost 18,000 customers had signed up, taking more than 235,000 trips. On average, the trips were used 30 to 60 minutes long and about 15 km. Daimler claims that in Ulm one in three driver's license holders between 18 and 35 years old is a car2go customer.

Meanwhile, there's still no confirmation about the second North American car2go city.