Car-sharing system eyes DC expansion

Daimler car-sharing subsidiary car2go may expand to Washington (DC). According to Greater Greater Washington, the program may bring 300 cars to the nation’s capital as early as this fall. Car2go’s dynamic model differs from conventional car-sharing programs like Zipcar in several ways. Zipcar (and other programs) have dedicated spaces for each car in the fleet; members make a reservation, pick up a car from a designated location, use it, and return it. Car2go does not require reservations and designates parking zones instead of spaces. Greater Greater Washington describes the difference:

Car2go’s model doesn’t have designated spaces. Instead, cars are just parked at various places on the street and in garages. If you want a car, you use the web, a mobile app, or call into a call center to find out where nearby cars happen to be parked. Then, you go to one, unlock it with a code, and drive it.When you’re done, you just park it anywhere on the street, even in a wholly different neighborhood than where you picked it up.

Currently in Austin (TX) and Vancouver (BC), car2go recently announced its expansion to San Diego (CA) with North America’s first all-electric car-sharing fleet. Link to full story in Greater Greater Washington.

Original post