Another car sharing business comes to Canada

Highlights:

Car2Go free-floating car sharing service, in Ulm and Hamburg Germany and Austin Texas is now in Vancouver.

Car2Go members can access a car “on demand” in the downtown area without a reservation. They can find the nearest car using GPS technology and drive it anywhere. Members are billed by the minute and can leave the car in either a designated parking spot or any available public space including “permit only” parking in residential neighbourhoods.

Car2Go uses Smart Fortwo cars. Members use an RFID card to access a car. To find a car, members either phone the call centre, go to the web site or use an app for smart phones. The app can even show you where your GPS tracked vehicle is if you can't remember where you parked it. If you are walking by an available car, you can take it and go. As soon as you need a car, you can search for the closest one. The system will find a car wherever it is, even if it isn’t in a designated spot.

Because the service is location based, you can drive somewhere to do some shopping, end the rental, then start another rental when you are ready. If you don't think there will be any available cars again when you need one next, just choose to keep the original car. Or end the rental and check the app to see where the nearest car is for the next leg of the trip.

Car2Go staff are ready to take any car that either needs gas, needs cleaning or relocation to another area due to the constant movement of cars.