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CARSHARING/
NEW PARTNERSHIPS
source: www.communauto.com/
abonnes/SperlingShaheenW.html
money.cnn.com/2000/07/
19/home_auto/q_zipcar/
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Linkages between carsharing services and automotive companies may seem problematic at first glance, but several companies are exploring a variety of innovative connections to carsharing. … - these connections have various motivations and are manifested in very different ways. For instance, when people buy a Mercedes ‘Smart’ car in Switzerland, they can also purchase a mobility package for US$400, or US$50 per year. This package includes free access to all carsharing vehicles (of Mobility CarSharing) at 700 locations in Switzerland - with no membership fees - at a slightly higher hourly rate and the same mileage rate paid by carsharing members. This package also includes a half-price pass for the Swiss transport system. This allows the pass-holder to purchase train and bus tickets for half price throughout the year. In this partnership, ‘Smart’ fits smoothly into a new consumer-oriented mobility package, since this vehicle only carries two persons and is generally too small for long trips. The carsharing service is a good complement for ‘Smart’ owners, providing individuals and households with an expanded set of mobility options;
- ‘Drive Stadtauto’ of Germany started perhaps the most innovative partnership with a car company (known as CashCar, implemented as part of CHOICE). They paid people who leased cars from Audi to make them available to the CSO. Drivers arranged to deliver their leased cars to the local CSO lot when on vacation or not in need of a vehicle. The lessees received payments based on demand for those types of vehicles at those times. As of 1999, 100 vehicles were leased. However, later in 1999 CHOICE learned that Audi would not continue their leasing contract with CHOICE. CHOICE is currently seeking a new automotive partner;
- a natural linkage is with car rental companies, four of which now participate in some way. Europcar, a large car rental company, owns and operates an Austrian CSO, DenzelDrive (70 stations and 1,050 members in 1999); Hertz has formed partnerships with a number of CSOs, including Mobility CarSharing Switzerland, Delebil in Denmark, TH!NK in Norway, and is managing a limited carsharing program at a rail transit station in the San Francisco area; Sixt AG, a German car rental company, recently created a new service called Car Express in which authorised users can rent vehicles from self-service stations at any time of the day or week in several German cities; and Budget Rent-a-Car is planning to supply up to 100 vehicles in 2000 to a technologically-sophisticated start-up CSO in Edinburgh;
- since 2001, Volvo Cars have been operating the SunFleet Carsharing car pool in Sweden in cooperation with car rental company Hertz. As the only car pool in Europe based exclusively on environmental cars, SunFleet gives companies, communities and organisations access to environmentally compatible and easily accessible personal transport. The fleet consists of electric hybrid, ethanol and methane-driven cars, including Volvo Bi-Fuel models. 24 companies, organisations and public bodies, with a total of 1,300 users, were subscribers to the Swedish SunFleet car pool in 2004 – an increase of no less than 175% compared with the year before;
- in the United States, carmakers are keen on getting in on the action, too. Honda has sponsored two University of California carsharing projects. Toyota is working on one with UC-Irvine. Ford, Nissan, Mercedes and General Motors all have expressed an interest or already have started programs;
The transport sector (mainly automotive and aircraft industries) was physiologically on the forefront in experimenting innovative – and more efficient – transport patterns…- Lufthansa instituted an automatic rental system at the Munich and Frankfurt airports in 1993, in which a computer releases a key and starts the billing. By the end of 1994, 12,000 employees at the two German airports had access to this ‘carpool’ system. Lufthansa reportedly saved over US$20 million in avoided parking infrastructure costs. The system is being technologically enhanced with smart cards and coordinated with local transit operators;
- Swissair’s program, called ‘CarShare’, was introduced in 1993 at the Zurich airport for flight attendants. It is technologically simpler and works in collaboration with Hertz Rent-a-Car;
- Volkswagen launched a broader smart carsharing program in Germany in 1997 and now operates two carsharing projects. Volkswagen has indicated that it believes the carsharing market will grow at a rate of 50% per year into a potential market of 2.45 million shared-use vehicles in Europe within the next ten years (it has been estimated that by reaching such a target, 12 million tons of CO2 emissions could be avoided);
- since the early ‘90s, DaimlerChrysler (DC) spends lots of efforts on the development of sustainable mobility systems and investigates concepts of alternative car utilisation. As a manufacturer of premium mobility products DC drives several research projects on transport and telematic services in Europe and California, partnering with vehicle fleet operators, public transportation companies, as well as IT and telematic service providers.
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