Features
12 mar 19

Regional car sharing Awto hits South America

Chile-based car sharing company Awto, in partnership with Nissan Motors, has kicked off its services in the neighboring country of Argentina.
 
"As Awto is already offered in Chile and expansion into other countries are underway, we are actually the first regional car sharing service in Argentina," says Fleet LatAm advisory board member and co-partner of the Awto brand and technology, Arturo Simone.
 
Mr. Simone, who is also a partner of local vehicle renting and fleet management company RDA Renting, explained that the service will first start in Buenos Aires but upcoming plans include Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Colombia, and possibly Brazil.
 

Arturo Simone (source: Global Fleet)

The cell phone app-based service offers two car options, being the Nissan compact SUV Kicks and the subcompact March. When renting, keys are located in the vehicles and doors are opened by the app. For now, Awto has 25 stations in Argentina with 95% of them being in Buenos Aires.
 
Although renters can pay per minute, the hourly cost (60-minute equivalent) for the Kicks is 570 pesos (US$14.25), and for the March, 440 pesos. A daily fee (five-hour equivalent), is also available.
 

Nissan kicks and two Nissan March models (source: Awto)

Other car sharing options

Besides Mykeego which is an independent car sharing service operating excusivly in the city of Buenos Aires, Ford, Honda and FCA are eying similar opportunities in Argentina, according to local news service La Nacion.

Meanwhile, there are several other OEM-based services being offered around the world. Among them is Toyota Mobility which has been up and running since November 2018, offering several models (Etios, Yaris, Corolla, Prius, Camry, 86, Innova, Hilux, SW4, RAV 4, Land Cruiser).
 
Car2Go from Mercedes-Benz has been operating in Europe since 2015 (Smart, Class A and Class B models) and Maven from General Motors is focused on the United States (Chevrolet Malibu, Bolt EV, and GMC Yukon).
 
Finally, WeShare from Volkswagen is operating in Berlin and has plans to expand in other European cities, starting in 2020.
Authored by: Daniel Bland