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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.
It's not intended to completely replace cars for every resident of Copenhagen (with a population far greater than 400). It's surely intended as an occasional thing for people who don't have a car, or took public transportation into the city center.
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Depends on how much you use the car. Drive a brand new car off the lot to the used car dealer across the street, and you'll find the car is now worth about half what you paid for it. It takes a lot of 3.5 krona minutes to make that instantaneous depreciation seem attractive.
Now if you're like most suburban-dwelling American, you spend hours a day in your car, so it just makes sense to buy it, or lease it long-term. But if you lived and worked in Manhattan you'd be nuts to own a car for transportation unless you were a gazillionaire. Just the cost of keeping the car would exceed the cost of renting one on the rare occasions you'd need it.
I suppose most people in Copenhagen are in the same boat. It's far more walkable than most American cities and enjoys excellent bicycle and pedestrian public transit infrastructure. But every so often you and several of your friends might want to take a trip that's a little inconvenient to take by transit. If that's every day several times a day then sure, buy a car. But if it's only occasionally then it doesn't make sense to have a car sitting and depreciating in a garage somewhere.
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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!"
Yep the one car that is uglier than a PT Cruiser.
They chose the i3 for the same reason that US rental car companies use PT Cruisers: No one will steal them.
At $30/hr it sure doesn't sound like a big market.
It is cheaper than a taxi, and cheaper than Uber, and way less hassle than a conventional rental car. Those are all multi-billion dollar markets.
Or for slightly less per month based on average monthly usage, you could buy, insure and fuel an I3 and when you got tired of it, you could sell it and get some money back.
Not in Denmark... 2 / 3 of car prices in Denmark are taxes... Energy is also more expensive..
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.