(Photo courtesy of MotorAuthority.com)
Daimler has announced that it will expand its car2go mobility program from Ulm, Germany to Austin, Texas. The automaker’s pilot program in Ulm was so successful that car2go will be open to the public in Ulm as a similar first stage pilot is conducted in Austin. The Austin pilot will start in 2009 with an initial fleet of 200 smart fortwos to handle selected testers over several months.
The car2go mobility program was designed by Daimler to spread from Ulm and other German communities to major cities worldwide. This program allows registered users to rent smart fortwos in their communities any time of day. Daimler has created an online reservation system accessible via computer or mobile phone to facilitate advanced reservations but drivers in Austin can access pilot cars without reservation. Drivers partaking in the Austin pilot can be charged by minute, hour or day depending on their transportation needs. The only prerequisites for rental are online registrations through car2go and possession of valid licenses.
Daimler’s expansion into the Austin market is based entirely on the overwhelming success of the Ulm pilot. This initial pilot ran from October 2008 to March 2009 with 500 Daimler Research Center employees and family members participating in the program. Ulm testers had access to 50 smart fortwos at multiple locations, allowing Daimler researchers to assess technical and logistical problems with car2go rentals. As the pilot program moved along, Daimler researchers discovered that car2go was an overwhelming success. Pilot participants had completed 8,000 rentals during the five-month period with the entire fleet rented during heavy travel times. Daimler has made it possible for every resident of Ulm, a municipality of 120,000 residents, to access 200 smart fortwos as of the last week of March.
The Austin pilot of car2go should prove to be as successful as its predecessor in Ulm. Austin is a liberal island among conservative communities elsewhere in Texas, offering a natural constituency for the car2go program. As Americans struggle to make ends meet, the convenience of car2go will appeal to job applicants and professionals who cannot wait for spotty bus and train services. Daimler’s car2program may offer a solution to the transportation gap between incomplete transit networks and employers in the suburbs and exurbs. The success of the car2go experiment in Ulm shows that we can mobilize vehicles and technology quickly to ease transportation problems worldwide.
