Car2goThe service operates in Amsterdam and other European cities, as well as in Austin, Tex., but the E.V. program intended for San Diego is unique.San Diego will soon be home to an all-electric, one-way car sharing service from Car2go, the Daimler subsidiary. The first of its kind in the United States, the program would allow members to rent the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive by the minute in a city that is becoming a focal point for E.V. launches.
Unlike Zipcar, the car-sharing service that requires users to pick up and return a vehicle from the same reserved spot, Car2go allows a driver to choose from open parking spaces in designated areas. The idea is to make car sharing more practical for circumstances where a car might otherwise sit parked, racking up charges during the hours between arriving at a destination and returning home.
Car2go first began in Ulm, Germany, three years ago. In late 2009, Daimler brought the service to the United States as a pilot program for city employees in Austin, Tex. The service now is available in Austin, Ulm, Hamburg, Germany, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Those fleets used conventional Smart cars.
The electric Car2go program in San Diego,scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2011 with 300 cars, should be followed by a similar service in Amsterdam later this year, Car2go representatives said on Wednesday.
In 2009, a small-scale, all-electric car sharing program backed by ExxonMobil and run by a local museum began in Baltimore using batteries and cars produced by Electrovaya, a Canadian manufacturer. Autolib, a subscription-based program in France, expects to start rolling out 3,000 electric vehicles in the fall. And earlier this year, Zipcar introduced eight plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius vehicles, well ahead of the cars’ 2012 showroom target.
Previously, members of Zipcar and some regional car sharing services have had access to plug-in hybrid conversions, but with major automakers rolling out purely electric models, the services have another option, provided they are willing to guarantee a sufficient battery charge for each trip.
The electric Smart Fortwo can travel up to 84 miles on a full charge, according to Daimler, and recharging a battery from zero charge takes up to eight hours. A statement issued by the company on Wednesday, however, said the charge time should not pose a challenge to adoption. Recharging, it said, was “seldom necessary, as the daily stretch covered by Car2go drivers in urban areas rarely exceeds six miles.”
In San Diego, the electric Smart cars will recharge at stations developed by Ecotality, the Arizona-based E.V. infrastructure company, which is identifying sites and installing its charge points. Ecotality plans to install as many as 1,000 charging stations throughout the San Diego area by the end of the year as part of the federally funded E.V. Project.
Still, some details have yet to be resolved. Rachel Laing, press secretary to San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that the city is working to change the municipal code to “allow car sharing services to park on-street and have charging there.” A car sharing provider like Car2go then would reimburse the city for lost revenue from parking meters. The city council is expected to vote on the amendment next Tuesday, a final legislative hurdle before Car2go can move forward.