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SEAT eMii Starts Car Sharing Duty in Barcelona

Volkswagen’s Spanish brand SEAT is dipping its toes in uncharted waters, after it has begun this week a pilot program for a car sharing service it will be running at first internally in Barcelona.
SEAT eMii charging 8 photos
Photo: SEAT
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For the service, SEAT will be using a fleet of electric eMii prototypes which would link one of the facilities it operates in the city, SEAT Metropolis Lab Barcelona, to the Pier 01 Barcelona Tech City.

SEAT plans the fleet of eMiis to provide transportation for some 1,000 of its employees. Just as with any car sharing service, SEAT’s too relies on a mobile app to reserve, unlock, drive and park the cars.

“It’s practical and ideal for the city. I usually take one to attend meetings in Barcelona. When I return it, another colleague can reserve it and take it out”, said Sergi Vila, SEAT Metropolis operations manager.

“People have gone from wanting to own goods to simply wanting to use them, as a service.”

The car model to be used in the test project, eMii, has been presented by SEAT in 2017, at the Mobile World Congress, as the Spanish version of the Volkswagen e-Up, presented by the Germans in 2013. From the get-go, the car has been designed as a test bed for car-sharing services using electric cars.

The model is powered by an 82-PS electric motor and an 18.7 kWh battery. The battery gives the car a range of 160 kilometers (100 miles), enough for the task ahead.

The move SEAT is trying to make in the car-sharing market is in line with similar ones made by other automakers. Earlier this year, BMW and Daimler announced joint efforts to become the biggest players in this field.

Estimates cited by SEAT point to the fact that by 2025, over 36 million people will be using some car sharing service at a global level.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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