Daimler car2go Campaign Goes to Texas in Autumn

An army of 200 smart fortwos cdi are currently stationed in the German city of Ulm, home of the tallest church in the world, are patiently awaiting residents and visitors to get behind the wheel and drive around the city. As we reported last year, the car2go campaign debuted with a pilot project for a new, flexible and environmentally compatible form of mobility concept of the city in October 2008 and just ended its internal pilot phase.

The concept behind car2go is that whenever a car is needed, it can be rented spontaneously in passing out on the street, or it can be pre-booked via mobile phone or Internet. The car then can be used as long as one likes, and can be returned to any unoccupied public parking space within the area of operation.

Users will have to pay 19 euro cents per minute (the fee includes taxes, insurance, mileage and even fuel), but they can also opt for longer term rentals and choose to pay 9.90 euros per hour or 49 euros per day.

The only thing one has to do to be eligible for the car2go campaign is to register (a one time effort) and have a valid driver's license. On it a small seal is affixed so that the driver can be recognized by the vehicles as a valid user. Any of the 200 smart fortwos can be opened by means of a card
reader placed behind the windshield.

“The success of the first pilot phase surprised even us and shows how much importance already is attached to forward-looking mobility concepts today. In just two weeks more than 500 customers had registered with car2go – a number we had not anticipated. Sometimes I could see from my office window how employees sprinted to the parking lot after work to get a car2go before they were all gone,” Robert Henrich car2go project head said in a press release.

As for the future, Daimler plans to pack up and go to Texas. While the Ulm stage was to test the general acceptance of the concept and to stabilize the technical systems, the second phase involves expanding car2go on a global scale. The first step into that direction will be taken in Austin, where the program is set to debut in autumn.