Car2go Brings First All-Electric Car-Sharing Service To The U.S.

BY Ariel Schwartz
From:  http://www.fastcompany.com/

Get ready for the newest way to grab some wheels when you need them. The service, launching in November in San Diego, is gunning for Zipcar by making it easier to pay for and drop off your borrowed car.

Zipcar has long dominated the city car-sharing space. But Car2go, a program from Daimler AG that allows users to rent Smart cars by the minute, recently popped up in Austin, Texas to challenge the larger company's dominance. Now Car2go is set to gain even more attention as it launches the country's first large-scale electric car-sharing program in San Diego.

It makes sense on a number of levels to start an all-electric service in San Diego, explains Car2go CEO Nicholas Cole. "It's a bit of a tech hub, and one of the great things is that ECOtality and the EV Project are in the process of installing 1,000 charging stations in the city by the end of the fourth quarter in 2011. Car2go will have direct access."

Car2go's model is simpler than competitors like Zipcar. Whereas Zipcar requires members to pick up and return cars from the same location, make reservations to rent vehicles in advance, and pay by the hour, Car2go members can rent vehicles by the minute without reservations--and drop off the vehicles at designated points throughout the city.

If members in the San Diego program discover that their electric vehicle has a low charge, they will be asked to drop it off at a charge station. Car2go will also have a third-party maintenance fleet to move the vehicles to charge points at the end of the day so that they can juice up overnight.

Cole is confident that members won't run out of charge on their journeys. "We took a hard look at our current model from a use standpoint in Austin. We see the average trip is less than five miles for our members, and the Smart Fortwo is rated at 84 miles per charge," he says. "We're confident that we'll be able to shift that charging burden to evenings." Members will also be able to see how much charge each vehicle has using the Car2go website and iPhone app. That way, users can opt to take fully charged vehicles if they know they will be taking longer trips.

The San Diego program, which will feature 300 electric Smart Fortwo vehicles when it launches in November, is Car2go's second announced all-electric fleet--the company is also launching an electric car-sharing service in Amsterdam later this year. The company's other programs in Hamburg, Germany, and Austin use gasoline-powered cars.

Car2go doesn't have any plans to expand the all-electric car-sharing model to other U.S. cities--yet. "Our expansion focus is on identifying markets for combustion engines," says Cole. "But if a city determines the investment [in an EV infrastructure] is worthwhile, that could change over the coming months."
[Image: Daimler]

Would You Rent Your Car Out While Not Driving It? Car Sharing Explained

• Susan Johnston
• From: http://www.mint.com/

Sponsored by:

(photo: richardmasoner)

Since its launch in 2000, Zipcar has shaken up the car rental market and grown to include more than 550,000 members in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Its main selling points? The ability to reserve vehicles by the hour instead of by the day and the convenience of pickup locations all over major metropolitan areas. Similar services now include the nonprofits CityCarShare, I-Go Carsharing, and e-Go Carshare.
Now, new services are taking this model a step further. Instead of using a fleet of Zipcars, RelayRides, WhipCar, Spride Share, and Getaround allow car owners to rent out their vehicles to their neighbors when they’re not in use.

“Economically, it makes a ton of sense for both sides,” says Shelby Clark, the chief executive officer of RelayRides, which currently operates in Boston and San Francisco. “People underestimate how much it costs to own and maintain a vehicle.” AAA’s 2010 “Your Driving Costs” study revealed that that the owners of average-sized sedans spend more than $8,000 a year to own and operate their vehicle. Minivan owners spend more than $9,000 a year!

These sites allow car owners to offset some of these costs through rental fees. Owners get pricing guidelines based on their car’s year, condition, location, and other factors, but they ultimately set the hourly rate themselves.

For car renters, those rates can sometimes be lower than services like Zipcar. Tom Wright, cofounder of the UK-based WhipCar, says borrowers are motivated by cost and environmental factors. “Since they can use cars that are affordable and close to them, it doesn’t require extra cars and allows them to make better use of existing assets,” he says.

Many borrowers also appreciate that their money is going to a neighbor instead of a company, says Clark. Many of RelayRides’ car owners also offer special features like GPS, bike racks, CD collections, or even homemade cookies left in their vehicles.

But do the savings outweigh the safety and insurance risks?

As you can imagine, screening drivers and vehicles is a high priority for all of these sites. Wright says WhipCar conducts three-way conference calls with driving applicants and the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, the UK equivalent of the RMV) to ensure that the person has a spotless driving record. WhipCar also requires that vehicles be no older than eight years and checks if the vehicle has been stolen or involved in accident. Other sites have similar policies, and some allow the owner and the driver to rate the experience afterwards based on the caliber of the vehicle and the driver.

Like Zipcar, peer-to-peer car sharing sites bear the cost of gas and auto insurance. In the case of RelayRides, drivers over the age of 21 are insured by RelayRides’ $1 million liability insurance policy but are liable for a $500 deductible (Clark says this ensures that they treat vehicles as their own). Drivers are also responsible for paying any parking or traffic tickets issued during their rental period. Getaround has very similar insurance policies.

Though car owners are not liable for accidents that occur while their car is being rented, some auto insurance companies are squeamish about personal car sharing. But state legislatures are, in some cases, taking the side of the consumer: California recently passed a bill on car sharing that makes it illegal for auto insurance companies to void the policies of car owners who rent out their vehicles. The state of Oregon is considering a similar bill.
Car owners outside of California and Oregon would be wise to check their auto insurance policy before renting out their vehicle. However, with growing environmental and cost concerns associated with cars, other states may pass car sharing legislation in the future.

Clark sees this as just one example of the sharing economy. “Society is increasing rejecting traditional forms for ownership,” he says, pointing to Netflix as an example. “In the nineties, everyone had these giant bookcases of VHS tapes. But at the end of the day, I didn’t really want to own all these movies, I just wanted to watch them. It makes sense to access that movie whenever you need it. The global economic crisis has forced people to take a step back, and realize that ownership might not make sense.”

Fantastic Classic Car Rentals

Carla Davidson

LAUNCH SLIDESHOW

Where to rent old Jaguars, MGs, Triumphs and more

Next time you plan a vacation that includes a rental car, think vintage. “I believe that everyone should drive an E-Type before they die,” says Richard Gaunt, proprietor of the aptly named Aspirations Classic Cars, based in Brisbane, Australia. “There is nothing like driving a car with personality.” One of his enthusiastic clients volunteered about the E series Jaguar, that was unveiled in 1961: “It’s sexy to look at and sexy to drive. Most sports cars are stiffly sprung, but this just undulated.”

So for those who aspire to drive the iconic Jaguar XKE, a 1959 MGA, a 1966 Ford Mustang, or a 1960 Triumph TR 3, there are lots of options worldwide. The rental business for vintage cars, some of which are true automotive classics, is thriving, as drivers cite the allure of the smell of wood and old leather, the thrum of the engine, the whipping wind in an open cockpit.

See our slideshow of Vintage Car Rentals.

John Pollack, of Sports Car Rentals in Charlottesville, Va., points out that he’s no more than a ten-minute drive from scenic Shenandoah National Park. Dream Car’s owner Ted Stevens, calls his 1950s and 60’s vehicles “rolling pieces of art.” Pollack never got over his affair with an MGA he owned in college. He sold it when he married and started a family, but in his late 40s after he sold his previous company, he bought an MGB “out of the blue.” That launched the Charlottesville business he’s owned for the last 15 years, now with a fleet of six cars and growing. Other U.S.-based outfits include Imperial Classic of Albuquerque and Dream Car Rentals in Las Vegas.

But stringent insurance requirements can create difficulties for the vintage rental market in the U.S., where the driver is generally required to arrange his own insurance. In the less litigious U.K., says Tony Merrygold of Open Road Rentals near Stratford, England, the situation is completely different: British companies have insurance and don’t require a collision damage waiver.

If you’re ready to consider a vintage car rental, the next steps are which to choose and where to go. Merrygold has simplified the quest by creating a web site, Classiccarhireworld.com, organized by both the dream car and the country you might want to explore. This and sites like it can put together memorable driving tours, complete with maps, routes, special inns and hotels, and suggestions for wonderful places for a meal. Elsewhere in the U.K. Motorparty Classic Car Hire promises a getaway in the “lovely forgotten South West of Scotland,” where owner Martin Edgar says that you might not see another car for an entire day.

See our slideshow of Vintage Car Rentals.

Ask any owner of a classic car rental business how he got into it (and from our informal survey it’s usually a he) and you’ll find he followed his heart back to childhood and teenage days. “Whatever cars were around when you were growing up and learning to drive” remain the most coveted, says Merrygold.

Scotland’s Edgar agrees that by the time people reach their 50th or 60th birthdays they’re reminiscing about the cars their dads owned and recalling Sunday drives in the country. To fulfill that dream Edgar offers a 1960s Morris Oxford, “a super practical stylish saloon,” or to bring back the way we were in college days, there is his Triumph Herald: “Great fun on hot sunny days and challenging on cold wintry ones.”

Although the driver is more often than not a man, it turns out that the majority of customers are women. Merrygold, explains: “The women buy presents as surprises for the men and often keep it a secret until they arrive at our door to collect the cars.”

The customer pool also comes from former owners of vintage cars. “If you’re only going to use it now and then,” Edgar says, “it can get rather expensive. And quite often the novelty wears off." So why not spend a day with his extraordinary 1933 MG Midget (“the sweetest of the pre-war MGs”) for 270 pounds rather than buying one for 20,000 pounds and driving it only once in a while?

Philip Rowe, whose Vintage Classics is based near the Cotswolds says, “Buying and maintaining classic cars can be a significant investment and too often people follow their hearts rather than their heads and the car ends up being left neglected in the garage. Old cars can be just as reliable if properly looked after. Today a lot more cars are being serviced by garages. In the '60s and '70s the average motorist in the UK would carry out his own servicing and repairs but today it is a rare sight.”

See our slideshow of Vintage Car Rentals.

All these experts agree that the cars are in better shape being run regularly than languishing at home. Questioned about the fabled unreliability of so many sports cars, Merrygold speaks for his colleagues when he says, “Not as much of a problem as you would think. They are all well-maintained and the more they are driven the more reliable they are.” And Aspirations’ Richard Gaunt says, “Having owned classics, we all know the issues that you are comfortable with to ‘drive around’ if it’s your car. We can’t and don’t do that with hire cars.”

For pampering and luxury at the highest level (and price) Vintage Car Tour in Rome is the newest kid on the block, preparing for a “soft opening” this September. La Dolce Vita on wheels, this is a group drive through the Italian countryside comprised of three to eight cars. Their Lancias, Alfa Romeos and Fiats are privately owned and regularly used, which the founders promise means that they are in very good condition.

The three women behind the concept are long experienced in the travel industry in Italy. They’ll take care of everything. You can drive with the group or decide on a detour on your own. You’ll be assured of overnights in castles, villas, grand hotels and the like, and in a unique wrinkle, the group is accompanied by a host and a valet-mechanic. “Every evening,” the promotional material promises, “the valet-mechanic checks the tires and the engine, washes and polishes the car and fills it with gas.”

Where will this fantasy on wheels take you? So far, among the available itineraries are Tuscany, the Amalfi Coast, and Abruzzo. The cost? For the five-day Tuscany route, $10,950 per person based on two people sharing a room. We’ve definitely come a distance from the simple Sunday country drive of memory.

See our slideshow of Vintage Car Rentals.