This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.
The new car-sharing Share Now, a result of the integration of Car2go (Daimler) and DriveNow (BMW Group), foresees that by the end of this year the share of electric vehicles in its fleet in Europe will reach 25% of the total (compared to the 20% that is currently).
This intention demonstrates the "clear commitment" that the car-sharing company has to the future of zero-emission mobility and the electrification of its fleet, Shareholder CEO Olivier Reppert said in an interview with EFE.
Share Now currently has 3,200 zero emission cars, which serve four fully electric European cities - Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam and Stuttgart - and another thirteen cities with partially electrified fleets.
In addition, the head of this new supplier of car-sharing, which will bring together the 20,000 vehicles that make up the combined international fleet of Car2go and DriveNow, has underlined that the goal of Share Now is to be now "more efficient and able to expand" to other cities, both in Spain, and in Europe and North America.
Specifically, Reppert has mentioned Valencia and Barcelona as possible next options in Spain to launch their service, although the final decision will depend on "different factors" and on being "welcomed" by the different local partners.
"As soon as this is the case, we are ready," he said.
Share Now applies "different approaches" to land in new cities, because not all are ready for electrification and, therefore, in some cases they start with combustion vehicles, although their plan is to move towards zero emissions mobility.
Reppert has indicated that the company has cities that are already profitable, although in the case of those that have electric fleets, where there are more operational costs, they apply a long-term perspective.
For now, the Car2go and DriveNow teams are working on synchronizing all the activities that were being developed in each company, deciding which will be the next city where they will launch their service and analyzing what opportunities they have.
In fact, according to Reppert, "if BMW and Daimler have joined their services, it is also to grow and continue to add additional cities (to their platform)".
The CEO of Share Now has recalled the variety of options and models (of the Mercedes-Benz, Smart, BMW and MINI brands) that will be able to offer their four million users when the service is fully integrated.
This will allow drivers to have a high availability of cars to rent and increase the chances of finding a car near where they are.
"We are very excited to have joined all the experience we have accumulated in Car2go and DriveNow in a great and relevant product to shape the future of car-sharing", underlined Reppert.
The next steps for full integration will be to launch an application from which the entire fleet can be accessed, since now, if the user opens the Car2go applications, he can see the Drive Now cars (and vice versa), but not rent them. .
For that reason, Reppert has affirmed that they will begin to consider deploying more vehicles once the processes of both companies have been aligned and integrated into a single "ecosystem".
Model for the car-sharing fleet, Photo Share Now:
For the manager, car-sharing is helping to change the mindset of people about private car ownership and offer citizens "flexibility" in urban mobility.
Shared car companies such as Share Now are "part of the mobility ecosystem of cities", but for this service to be successful, it has to be combined with a good public transport infrastructure, said Reppert, for whom "the future is to share "Not only in mobility, but also in other areas.
"Both companies (Car2go and DriveNow) know that the future of mobility in urban areas has to be more efficient and has to help the city reduce pollution and congestion, so joining the joint experience was the right step that we had to give to create and advance in the future of car-sharing in the cities, "he explained.
This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.
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