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Copenhagen's New All-Electric Public Carsharing Programming
dkatana writes: Residents in Copenhagen have a new all-electric, free-floating, carsharing service. DriveNow is launching 400 brand new BMW i3 electric cars in the Danish city. The service is one-way, and metered by the minute. The big news is that residents can sign-up on the spot taking a picture of their drivers' license and a selfie and use their public transport accounts to pay. There will be a car available every 300 meters, the same distance as bus stops. The cost will be 3.50 kroner ($0.52) per minute driven. If members decide to park the car for a few minutes continuing the rental, those stationary minutes are charged at 2.5 kroner ($0.37). The maximum charge per hour is capped at 190 kroner ($28.50). There is no annual fee.
I had the pleasure of spending a couple of weeks in Copenhagen earlier this year. The public transport is excellent, there are separate cycle paths with their own traffic lights everywhere, and now you can rent an electric car if you absolutely need one. We used the train a lot and walked around many Km too. It was easy to rent a car when we did need one but if I lived there it is highly unlikely I would want to own one because the traffic is pretty bad and the public transport offered is excellent. The car is such a dinosaur when it comes to getting around a city.
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
I think recall a service (car share? Bike share? Figment of my imagination?) where the price was greatly reduced, or in some way incentivized, if you parked in a specific spot. (Bikes tend to accumulate at the bottom of hills, not the top -- that sort of thing.)
If properly incentivized, I suspect you could get your customers to de-cluster them for you.
It's surely intended as an occasional thing for people who don't have a car, or took public transportation into the city center.
Exactly. This is not for people that drive every day. My house has three drivers (me, my wife, and my daughter). We also have three cars. 90% of the time we could get by with just one car. 99% of the time, we could get by with two. So we have the 3rd car "just in case". If these "rent-by-the-hour" cars were available within 300 meters of my house, I would definitely sell the 3rd car, and maybe even the 2nd.
That's what I did when we moved to Berlin/Germany: Sold my car. My wife has the only car in the house.
I have joined two carsharing services in case I need a car - one of them DriveNow as in the article. But that occasion pops up far fewer times than I originally thought.
There is no guarantee to have a car nearby but usually there is one down the street. The iPhone app works great to locate the cars and provides a filter in case I want a specific model (do prefer the Mini).