Booming car2go launches in Chicago
Having already added 300,000 new customers worldwide this year, carsharing specialist car2go recently also launched in Chicago. “This will be our most successful year yet”, says CEO Olivier Reppert.
“Carsharing is becoming increasingly popular worldwide”, says Reppert. “The cultural trend towards a sharing economy continues to pick up speed. Six months into 2018, all our figures clearly show that this year will be the most successful year in the history of car2go”.
Customer figures
And business is indeed booming for car2go, a Daimler subsidiary. Its customer figures have increased by 10% in the first half of 2018, to a global total of 3.3 million. Year on year (i.e. compared to the same period in 2017), customer figures are up by 25%.
The company's global fleet – about 14,000 vehicles – covered more than 90 million km in the first half of this year, around 10% of which was done by car2go's electric contingent, 1,400 vehicles strong.
Excellent conditions
On July 25th, car2go opened its 10th North American location in Chicago (pictured), with a fleet of 400 vehicles (including smart fortwo and Mercedes-Benz CLA and GLA models). As the third-largest city in the U.S. and thanks to its high population density and well-developed public transport system, Chicago offers excellent conditions for the success of car2go's flee-floating carsharing concept.
As of now, car2go is operating in 25 cities across three continents and continues to strengthen its market leadership in the free-floating carsharing sector.
Fastest-growing
The busiest car2go locations are Berlin (258,000 customers), Chongqing (255,000 customers) and Hamburg (212,000 customers). The fastest-growing ones are Berlin (+21,000 in the first half of this year), New York (+20,000), and Vancouver and Chongqing (+18,000).
The company is currently in talks with various large cities in different cities to further expand its carsharing network.
Promoting e-mobility
Convinced that the future of carsharing is electric, the company is actively promoting e-mobility by adding EVs to its fleets worldwide. In mid-June, car2go's Stuttgart fleet was the first to receive the latest generation of the fully-electric smart 453 series two-seaters.
In Montreal, a pilot project has made available 20 electric smarts since June. And the car2go fleet in Hamburg will be fully electrified by the end of 2019 – with other fleets in European cities likely to follow.
For the first time, car2go has introduced convertibles this summer. In Rome, car2go customers can rent the 20 new additions to the fleet since June 2018, to enjoy trips to the beach, for example.
