Daimler Expanding Car2go Throughout Europe with Europcar

Car sharing plans still seem like a concept that works better in theory than in practice. In cities without good public transport, the plans are be too expensive to be worth it. In cities with good public transport, the only reason a car might be necessary is if you want to transport something big, and then the small cars that the services offer will be too small. Car sharing only seems appropriate for a small portion of drivers. 

There must be enough drivers to make it worthwhile for Daimler to expand its car2go car-sharing service. Until now car2go existed in Vancouver, Austin, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Ulm. Daimler is working with European rental car company Europcar to expand car2go across Europe. Dailmler says that the joint venture will add 40 to 50 European cities to the car2go service. 

Car2go is Daimler's car sharing program that uses a mix of electric and petrol Smart Fortwos. The company was founded in 2008 and launched in Ulm in 2009. Since then it has slowly been adding cities to the service with Lyon, France, and San Diego, California, coming later in the year. Subscribers reserve a car online and pick it up at various locations already full of fuel. Prices vary by region. In the US it costs $35 to sign up and $.35 per minute, $12.99 per hour or $65.99 per day of driving. In Hamburg, it costs €29 to sign up and €.29 per minute or €14.90 per hour.