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GM's Maven car-sharing service is shutting down
GM is shuttering its Maven service after COVID-19 and a general decline forced the automaker's hand.
Toyota Kinto combines leasing, car sharing and other services in Europe
Toyota wants to evolve from a car-maker to a mobility company. To do that, it's launching Kinto, a new brand that will provide full-service leasing, car sharing, carpooling and subscription-based leases. Unfortunately, those offerings will only be available in Europe.
Lime will shut down its car-sharing service in December
Lime is shutting down the car-sharing service it launched in Seattle last year and will start pulling vehicles from the city's streets next month. It'll stop accepting new user sign-ups on October 14th and will close LimePod completely on December 31st, according to GeekWire. The company, which is mostly known for bike and scooter rentals, launched LimePod as a pilot last year to test the economics of car-sharing. Its plan was to run the pilot until December and then do a full launch with a fleet of electric vehicles.
Car2go will raise hourly rates by up to a third
Car2go just became slightly less viable as a replacement for owning a personal ride. The rental service has introduced a variable-rate pricing system that, for all intents and purposes, will raise prices for customers starting on September 9th. The base per-minute rate has dropped from 45 cents to 35 cents, but that's only at "times, locations and days" when there isn't much use. In practice, you'll pay up to 49 cents when it's busy. By-the-hour use, meanwhile, is unambiguously more expensive. Where a two-hour session used to cost a flat $29, you're now paying up to a third more ($40).
Hertz launches monthly car rental subscription starting at $999
Today, Hertz announced a new vehicle subscription service, Hertz My Car. For a monthly fee, users will have access to select sedans, crossovers, SUVs and trucks. The service follows on the heels of a similar, but more expensive, pilot program that Enterprise launched last month.
GM dramatically scales back its Maven car-sharing service
GM's car-sharing program, Maven, is leaving eight out of the 17 cities it serves across North America, according to The Wall Street Journal. Maven never quite made it big and only ever became available in a handful of locations -- in fact, while WSJ mentions 17, the service's list of cities only has 12 entries. It sounds like instead of expanding to more locations, the automaker decided to focus on its strongest areas instead. A spokesperson told the WSJ: "We're shifting Maven's offerings to concentrate on markets in which we have the strongest current demand and growth potential."
Volvo is forming a global car-sharing business
Swedish automaker Volvo is establishing a car-sharing business that will operate not just in Sweden, but in other countries across the globe. It will be based on Sunfleet, the car-sharing service that it's been running in its homeland for decades. According to TechCrunch, you can avail of Sunfleet's services by booking a car through its website, which you can then unlock with an app. While you can book a car for a day or two, you can also set up a monthly subscription. The new business will likely offer something similar, though the company says it will also introduce "an entirely new range of mobility services." Who knows -- someday that might even include the ability to rent one of its self-driving vehicles.
Report: Google is turning Waze into a ride-sharing platform
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is planning to launch a carpool-based ride-sharing service using Waze in the Bay Area. The new feature would connect drivers and potential passengers going along the same route via the navigation app.
Ford wants customers to rent their cars to other people
Although Ford's main business is selling cars, it also operates a number of other services that help people do more with them. It's app-based GoDrive service already allows Brits to rent a car on a pay-as-you-go basis, but now it's experimenting with letting its US and UK customers rent their own vehicles out to other people and offset the money against their car payments. Today, it's inviting 12,000 Londoners and a further 14,000 US customers from Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago and Washington D.C. to join its new scheme.
Ford's GoDrive brings app-based car hire to London
London is home to a number of car-sharing services, but over the past few months car makers have also been getting in on the action. BMW brought pay-as-you-go vehicles to the capital late last year, with Ford piloting a new service called City Driving On-Demand just a month later. For Ford, it appears those tests were successful, because the American car giant today announced the launch of GoDrive, an expansion of its existing service that will offer 50 cars in 20 locations across the city.
BMW is bringing its pay-as-you-go cars to London
While there's no shortage of public transport across London, the city is actually the most popular market for car-sharing services in Europe. Companies like ZipCar have enjoyed the burgeoning market for short-term vehicle rentals and now BMW wants in on it too. The Financial Times reports that the German carmaker will bring DriveNow, its own pay-as-you-go car-sharing service, to the capital later this week after successful launches across Germany but also in Vienna and San Francisco.
Uber still offering rides in Belgium despite court order
Despite seized vehicles, a court order and possible €10,000 fine (per pickup!), Uber says its UberPOP ride-sharing service remains available in Brussels. In its blog, the company complained that the original lawsuit was filed by Brussels radio taxi companies trying to limit choice, and that "if anyone should be filing lawsuits, it's Brussels consumers." Concluding the truculent post, Uber said it would "continue to provide our car-sharing platform," which we assume means that it'll carry on operations. We'll have to see if it sticks to its guns considering the looming fines, and what its opponents' next move will be. [Image credit: Uber]
Taxi service apps could be hit by a proposed ban on GPS metering
Taxi and car-sharing apps which quote for journeys based on GPS data could find themselves outlawed by regulators. Transport authorities across fifteen US and Canadian cities are looking at a set of rules that would prohibit anything except physical metering to calculate the cost of a trip. The proposals would also put the kibosh on demand pricing, whereby quotes automatically rise when more people are making bookings, and also on the use of drivers who don't have proper taxi licenses. Some of these practices are already banned in a number of states, and in fact three online transport services -- Zimride, SideCar and our old friend Uber -- were fined in California this week precisely for allowing unqualified hands to take the wheel. If the current proposals are adopted, the role of smartphones would likely be restricted to hailing regular taxis or putting electric money into traditional cabbies' pockets.
BMW DriveNow EV car sharing comes to San Francisco Bay Area, ParkNow follows suit
BMW kicked off its DriveNow car sharing service in its home country last year to see if urban EV rentals would catch on. Something must have clicked in Germany, as the automaker is exporting the concept to the San Francisco Bay Area as of September. DriveNow's initial fleet of 70 ActiveE vehicles will rely on a different business model after getting its American visa: the service drops the strictly by-the-minute model of the German operation in favor of a $12 base fee for a half-hour's trip, with a 32 cents per minute rate kicking in only during longer drives. Travelers will have to drop off the cars at specified stations, too. There's a consolation for the trouble through a ParkNow reservation service, which locks in a parking space at a guaranteed rate and navigates there through an iPhone app or the web. Just be aware that those spaces will be limited -- only eight DriveNow stations and 14 ParkNow lots are active, which doesn't afford a lot of free roaming even after discounting the lack of immediate plans for other US cities. We're nonetheless glad that Bay Area locals without their own ride will have an easier time staying green for their cross-city jaunts.
OnStar seals partnership with RelayRides, makes renting out your car even easier (hands-on video)
Remember that partnership between OnStar and RelayRides we wrote about last March? Well it's finally coming to fruition today, with the peer-to-peer car sharing service launching support for remote door unlocking via OnStar's proprietary API. As a result, RelayRides members with OnStar-enabled vehicles no longer have to exchange keys in person if they so choose. Another benefit is that participants can list their automobile on RelayRides directly from their OnStar account -- renters then benefit from the added safety and security that comes with OnStar. We had the chance to test an early version of the functionality on a Chevy Volt at SXSW a few months ago and it worked pretty much as advertised. There was a bit of a delay between the time we sent the unlock command from RelayRides' website on the demo iPad and the moment the doors actually unlocked on the car, but we're told this has been significantly improved since our hands-on. Of course, RelayRides also supports remote unlocking via text message. Take a look at the galleries below then hit the break for our hands-on video, RelayRides' video and OnStar's PR.%Gallery-160469% %Gallery-160496%
RelayRides hooks up with GM, opens P2P car sharing to OnStar subs
Usually when a stranger gets behind the wheel of your car, it's more a situation for the authorities than General Motors. But with the impending nationwide rollout of RelayRides' P2P car sharing program, owners of GM vehicles will soon be actively looking for complete strangers to take a spin at their wheels in exchange for cash. The startup, backed by venture capital from Google, launched its unique rental service two years ago in Boston and San Francisco and is now poised to expand that reach to about six million OnStar subs with an upcoming smartphone app. Admittedly, it's a bizarre, though potentially lucrative concept, as those who opt-in and open their driver-side doors to randoms could net anywhere from $250 to $1000 per month, while renters only have to cough up about $5 to $10 per hour. It's a tough sell when compared up to the more traditional, well-established likes of, say, ZipCar, but if you're keen on sniffing that previously-owned car smell, this should be right up your alley.
Car2go brings North America's first all-electric carsharing program to San Diego
When we tried out car2go's carsharing program earlier this year, we knew it was only a matter of time before the service rolled out to other parts of the country. Little did we know, however, that it would be doing so atop a flotilla of EVs. Yesterday, the Daimler subsidiary announced that San Diego will be the next city to adopt car2go, making it the first in North America to boast a completely electric carsharing system. The program will kick off sometime before the end of this year, when 300 Smart Fortwo plug-ins storm the city, each powered by a 30 kW electric propulsion system and a lithium ion battery that promises to last for up to 84 miles on a single charge. Whenever the cars run out of juice, drivers will be able to recharge at any of the 1,000 Blink EV charging stations (due to be installed by the end of 2011), before heading off to windsail, buy white linen pants, or whatever people do under perennial sunshine. Curiosity piqued? Steer past the break for the full press release.
Getaround app takes car sharing peer-to-peer on the iPhone
Getaround is a brand new app launching today on the App Store that is designed to be a "peer-to-peer car rental marketplace." The idea is that it's like a Zipcar sort of service, but run peer-to-peer style, so anyone can rent their cars for just a few bucks an hour. If you need a car for a limited amount of time, you can load up the app, do a quick search in your area, and then find a car and an owner renting it just long enough to take a trip to the grocery store or pick up a piece of furniture. And if you want to be an owner, you can sign up with the service online, and Getaround will cover the insurance after an eligibility screening, and even provides a special carkit that lets users unlock and lock their cars straight through the iPhone app (just like the official Zipcar app). It seems like a great service, both for people who want to make a few bucks renting cars, and for current car sharing users looking for a cheaper or closer service than they're currently using. If you live in an urban area and could make use of a shared car, give it a look.
Hertz launches hourly EV rentals in London, self-satisfaction comes free
Contract-free cellphones, declining marriage rates and car-sharing services all tell us you're a bunch of commitmentphobes. Lucky for you the world is willing to oblige your wishy-washy ways, and for those who also happen to have a bit of a green streak, Connect by Hertz offers hourly rentals on electric cars. After launching its EV rental program here in New York last year, Hertz promised to expand to several other cities and countries by the end of 2011, with London being the next to go online this Friday. British urbanites averse to car ownership will be able to pick from a fleet of vehicles including the iMieV, Nissan LEAF and Renault Kangoo, range anxiety diminished thanks to the city's 16 charging stations. It's not exactly the Jetsons, but if this is the future of transportation, we're ok with that -- we're thinking Mother Earth is too.
BMW launches DriveNow, the 'premium' car sharing service with a Dell Streak on every dash (video)
If you liked the idea of the Car2go service we profiled a few weeks back, Smart fortwos available for rent by the minute with and some pretty fancy tracking apps to help you find them, but maybe you wanted to drive something a little bit bigger, BMW has you covered. Well, assuming "you" are German or at least living in Germany. The company has launched its own car sharing service it calls DriveNow. This one is billed as a "premium" -- though curiously none of the company's truly premium models will be offered. That said, the Minis and 1 Series autos that make up the initial fleet are hardly low-rent, and we'd be utterly shocked if the upcoming i3 didn't get added to the mix down the road too. Usage details are still a little bit scarce, but we do know that each car will have a dash-mounted Dell Streak through which users will log in after unlocking the car doors with an RFID-equipped membership card or even a suitably endowed drivers license. Renting a car costs 29 cents per minute, up to €14.90 (about $21) per hour, and there will be 300 cars available at first starting in the Munich area. If you're not in Munich it's tough cookies for now, but BMW is hoping to have one million members worldwide by 2020. Maybe one of them will be you.
