Wednesday, April 21, 2010

In Austin Texas, Car2Go is going official

zipcar1-300x200Austin, Texas, will soon be seeing SmartCars in an entirely new light thanks to German company Car2Go. All city and state officials in Austin will have the chance to share vehicle service with the year old pilot program. Car2Go is a service in car-sharing that charges users by the minute of their SmartCars, a model that appears to be becoming popular in big cities.

Car2Go and how it works

Car2Go is a system in car-sharing that places many cars in one urban area. Anyone who’s a "member" of Car2Go can rent cars with their intelligent car by the minute. Car2Go cars could be picked up or dropped off within the Car2Go area. With 35 cents per minute rental, Car2Go bridges the gap for urban residents that don't have a car but need one once in a while.

ZipCar vs. Car2Go

As an American business, founded in 2000, ZipCar is currently operating in 49 U.S. cities also as in Toronto, London, and Vancouver. After getting Flexcar in 2007, ZipCar represented about 50 percent of the automobile sharing in the world. ZipCar relies on "members" that use the membership card to unlock and rent ZipCars just like Cars2Go. ZipCar is also partnered with many universities and companies that want to help commuters and students time-share their cars.

The Benefits of sharing cars

ZipCar and Car2Go are just two companies that both are part of the growing number of car-sharing services being offered within the US and around the world. Cities within the US such as Minneapolis-Saint Paul ,Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Denver, NYC, Boulder, San Francisco, and Buffalo have all began a car-sharing business. These car-sharing systems reduce congestion, increase flexibility, and tend to be much a lot more environmentally friendly. Also, large fleets of automobiles like ZipCar and Car2Go tend to use hybrid and electric cars, which will increase the overall fuel efficiency for hundreds of drivers in each city.



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