Car2Go Becomes World’s Largest Car-Sharing Company

• December 10, 2014

by Lark Turner

Car2Go is officially the world’s largest car-sharing service, the Daimler-backed company announced on Wednesday.

More than a million people have signed up to use the service’s 12,000 vehicles in cities around the world, the company said. Users have so far taken the company’s ubiquitous blue and white Smart Fortwo cars on more than 32 million trips.

Car2Go has the distinct advantage of being backed by car giant Daimler, the owner not just of Smart but also Mercedes-Benz and many other car companies. That backing allowed the service to roll out quickly and smoothly in cities in Europe and North America without worrying about fundraising like a traditional start-up.

Car2Go also released some details about the service’s users on Wednesday. They’ve driven more than 136 million miles, but tend to take very short trips. Trip times have averaged 19 to 25 minutes since Car2Go launched in North America.

Car2Go’s rollout in the DC area has been slightly hampered by the District’s jurisdiction issues — for the initial rollout, cars taken out of DC had to be returned to DC to complete the trip. One of Car2Go’s advantages is its ability to be used for one-way trips, so having to return the cars to DC wasn’t ideal for the company. This summer the service announced plans to expand to Arlington County, starting with Crystal City.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/daimler-backed_car2go_becomes_worlds_largest_car-sharing_company/9321