“Similar to the initial car2go Hamburg
joint-venture, founded last October, the new company is built around a
balanced cooperation between the same two strong partners,” said Robert
Henrich, CEO of car2go GmbH. “car2go Europe will be able to swiftly
launch large-scale rollouts and strengthen our first mover advantage as
the world’s first free-floating, one-way carsharing service.”
Headquartered in Stuttgart, car2go Europe GmbH
will be a limited liability company owned 75% by car2go GmbH of Ulm,
Germany and 25% by Europcar of Guyancourt, France. Branches and
subsidiaries of car2go Europe GmbH will be established throughout Europe
as operating companies.
car2go Europe plans to rollout car2go services in
40 to 50 European cities, and will announce shortly the fifth European
city to be launched by year end. The resources benefiting the new
company include access to car2go technology and know-how, the “car2go”
and “Europcar” brands, Daimler’s vehicle-related services and Europcar’s
car rental know-how and infrastructure.
The launch of car2go in the French city of Lyon
early 2012 will be the first under the responsibility of car2go Europe
GmbH. Existing European car2go operations, including those in Hamburg,
will be integrated into the new company, with the exception of those in
Ulm, which will continue to serve as a long-term test location.
The partnership offers both partners far-reaching
advantages: car2go can benefit from Europcar's vast expertise in terms
of fleet management and logistics as well as using its partner's
extensive network of branches to offer customers further places to
register for the scheme alongside its own car2go shop.
The CEO of Europcar Groupe, Philippe Guillemot,
commented: "car2go sees us expanding our range of mobility services to
include a highly innovative element. Europcar has been offering
individual-mobility solutions for more than eighty years and has always
anticipated changes in mobility behaviour at an early stage. Now,
together with Daimler, we are providing innovative urban mobility
solutions to serve current and future needs and reach new categories of
customers. The partnership generates synergies for both partners and
offers a wide choice of mobility options for practically any occasion."
The innovative mobility concept car2go was
developed by Daimler AG in 2008. Today, with a total of more than 45,000
members and 1,100 vehicles worldwide, car2go has proven success in four
cities: Ulm and Hamburg in Germany, the Texan capital Austin in the US
and Vancouver in Canada. Three other cities are announced yet: Lyon
(France), Amsterdam (Netherlands) and San Diego (USA). In Amsterdam and
San Diego car2go will start operations before the end of 2011 with
full-electric fleets of 300 car2go smart fortwo electric drive vehicles
in each city. Since the first launch in the southern German city of Ulm
in March 2009, more than 900,000 trips have been made and approximately 9
million kilometres have been covered.