Daimler has launched its car2go electric carsharing in its “home town,” using vehicles equipped solely with electric drive systems.
Operation of the fully electric car2go fleet is made possible by an extensive and publicly accessible charging infrastructure that is being established by EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG as part of the showcase project.
car2go customers and all other drivers of electric vehicles can now recharge their cars at around 300 charging points. EnBW will increase the number of charging stations in Stuttgart and the surrounding region to 500 by the end of 2013. The electricity supplied to the electric vehicles is produced exclusively from renewable energy sources.
The use of a fully electric smart two-seater in Stuttgart costs the same as a drive with a gasoline-powered vehicle at other car2go locations: 29 euro cents per minute of driving – a price that also includes taxes, insurance, and electricity for the first 20 kilometers traveled.
There are no parking fees, and when drivers pull over and stop their cars, the price falls to nine cents per parked minute. The discounted hourly and daily flat rates are €12.90 and €39, respectively.
As is the case in other cities, Stuttgart’s car2go service is jointly organized by Daimler’s car2go subsidiary and the Europcar vehicle rental company. Registration is required, but the process can easily be completed at the car2go shop (Stephanstraße 25) and at the Europcar outlets on Friedrichstraße, in the main train station, and in Vaihingen and Bad Cannstatt. Public transport customers can use car2go by obtaining a mobility pass at a Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen AG (SSB) customer center.
Registration for car2go will remain free of charge until the end of the year – and all new customers will also be credited 30 minutes of free driving. Moreover, customers from car2go’s other German locations in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Hamburg, and Ulm can use their membership cards to access the service in Stuttgart without any need for further registration. Conversely, Stuttgart car2go customers can drive the white and blue cars in the cities mentioned above without any additional formalities.
When car2go was first tested by Daimler in 2008, it simultaneously established a new segment for flexible carsharing services. With its launch in Stuttgart, car2go is now available in 16 cities in Europe and North America.
The company currently has around 250,000 customers – more than four times as many as were registered at the beginning of the year. As a result, car2go is now the fastest-growing carsharing company in the world. A car2go vehicle is rented around once every four seconds on average around the globe. This mobility concept will be available in more than 50 cities worldwide by the middle of the decade. Daimler’s car2go GmbH subsidiary is part of the Group’s Financial Services division (Daimler Financial Services AG).
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