Volkswagen starts car sharing project in Hanover
12 May 2011
The Volkswagen Group is launching a new car sharing concept in Hanover, Germany this fall featuring 200 VW Golf BlueMotion. The name of the concept is “Quicar – Share a Volkswagen”.
Volkswagen is cooperating closely with the city on this project. The first model in the fleet will be the VW Golf BlueMotion. Its 1.6 TDI diesel engine has an average fuel consumption of 3.8 liters per 100 kilometers (62 mpg US), corresponding to CO2 emissions of 99 grams per kilometer. A start-stop system and recuperation (brake energy regeneration) are standard features and make the Volkswagen fleet in Hanover among the most efficient car sharing service providers. In the medium-term other models such as the VW Caddy or the newly launched VW Beetle will be added to the fleet.
To begin there will be some 50 pick-up and drop-off locations distributed throughout the city. In the medium-term, this number could reach 100. The high availability is intended to make it easy for customers to collect and return their cars to these stations. Customers interested in car sharing will be able to register and find out more at shops located across the city.
Once customers have registered they can book a Golf BlueMotion via the Internet, a special app or a call center up to five minutes before the car is needed. Collecting the vehicle only takes a few seconds. The customer holds a chip card or a chip fixed to the driver license over a reader fitted to the car and the vehicle is unlocked. The ignition key in located inside and the driver completes the authorization process by entering a PIN using the touch screen.
A new telematics and software solution for bookings, reservations and vehicle management has been developed for the car sharing fleet. In addition, all the vehicles are fitted with navigation and entertainment systems. Customers are issued with an additional SD memory card for this equipment, allowing them to save individual destinations or routes. There is room to store music.
Car sharing would work very well if you had an electric car (and lived in a town). 90% of the time the Ecar would be fine.
Then when you needed to make a long journey, you take an ICE car.
You could also make your e-car available for hire (if you wanted) to save costs.
Companies selling e-cars should arrange for this.
For instance, if you buy a leaf, you should get N (say 10) rental days per year free, or at a very low cost (from your local Nissan dealer).
Posted by: mahonj | 12 May 2011 at 05:19 AM
Car companies could follow the Zipcar model. They sell cars at a discount to car rental companies with offices and advertising. Just cut out the middle profit and rent direct to the people. Then people try their cars and some day might buy one. Consider it a paid test drive without the sales people.
Posted by: SJC | 12 May 2011 at 10:32 AM