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Monday, February 21, 2011

4:06 PM

Map of World Carsharing

People have asked why I've stopped updating my map of North American carshares.  Basically, it's because there's so much going on that it's hard to keep up.

I'm happy to report that someone has taken up the challenge.  Today I came across this wonderful map produced by Kwatwor in France showing all the "autopartage" companies in the world and noting whether they have electric vehicles in their fleet or not (icons with a little green electric plug). You can zoom in to each area for more detail.  Below the map is a listing by country and name.  They also have maps of bicycle sharing and other transportation services, as well.

As you can see, there's a lot of carsharing going on in the world.

I've put a link to the map on the right.  Thanks, Kwatwor.
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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

11:37 AM

AAA Driving Costs for 2010

AAA has released the 2010 edition of Your Driving Costs and not surprisingly, it isn't getting any cheaper to own a car.

Even for a small sedan, direct operating cost are over 14¢ per mile and when depreciation, insurance and other costs of ownership are included, the cost per mile is over 56¢ per mile when factored over 10,000 per year.  Larger vehicles cost over 90¢ per mile when driving 10,000 miles per year.  (Gasoline was calculated at $2.63/gal.)

As I have suggested before, I don't think that most prospective carsharing customers are really comparing the cost of a new car (which AAA assumes) but, still, these numbers are a useful reminder that mobility comes with a price tag.  And they certainly ought to motivate vehicle owners to consider recouping some of their costs by listing their vehicle with a P2P carsharing service — RelayRides, GetAround, Spride or CommunAuto (in Montreal).

Robin Chase, who has a keen interest in this topic recently posted some interesting data showing how different the cost of car ownership was in different cities.  Her data source was actual reported costs from people all over the country as stored on the Mint.com budget tracking web site.  Thanks, Robin.
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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

3:48 PM

Carsharing Association Launched


Following several years of ad hoc meetings, independent carsharing organizations in North America launched a formal organization to promote their interests - the Carsharing Association. Presently, they are a variety of non-profit, for profit companies, most in the US and Canada.

Independent carshare bascially means - not Zipcar, Connect or U Carshare. Along the way, they have added an international flavor with carshares in Australia (GoGet) and Brazil (Zazcar). Car2Go and none of the start up peer-to-peer carsharing companies in California are members, although at least two of them have met with the group.

The Car Sharing Association has a well-developed "Code of Ethics" which builds on the earlier Code the group developed several years ago. The code describes standards of customer service, operations, environmental standards, etc. One goal of the group is that government agencies wanting to define carsharing eligible for partnership services, such as on-street parking, will use membership in the Association as their criteria.

An important test of the group will be watching how the organization deals with competition situations. Previously, there was no discussion about competition in earlier versions of the Code, and there seemed to be an unwritten expectation that since the companies were all community-based they would not move into each others' territory. Now, the Code has specific language about how competitors should treat each other.

At this early stage no carshares in Europe are members of the Carsharing Association presumably not finding any great need to belong to another organization when there are organizations that have more immediate benefit close at hand - CarPlus in the UK, the Bundesverband Carsharing Deutschland, Autopartage France and the Italian gruppo.

Formalizing the Car Sharing Association is a useful next step for independent carshares to take and the code of ethics a good way to insure that the benefits of carsharing to individuals, cities and the environment are not lost in the rush to make a profit along the way. Hopefully, the group will come to see the value of an organization with "the big guys" in it, as well, since there is much needed in the regulatory area of every country in order to level the playing field of car ownership and carsharing. Good luck.
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Friday, January 14, 2011

8:51 AM

Carsharing and Shared Vehicle Sessions at TRB 2011










The 90th annual Transportation Research Board Meeting will be happening January 23-27, 2011 in Washington DC.  It's the great annual meeting of academic researchers and industry practitioners.   There are several sessions that include presentations about various aspects of carsharing, as well as public bicycle system and multi-modal connectivity.  Sessions general include several presentations summarizing research followed by questions and answer. Complete information about attending TRB can be found here.


While the conference isn't cheap, it is good and you will be able to to attend many other interesting sessions as well as interact with the leading people in transportation. (Sorry, it is really isn't possible to "crash" sessions without registering.) TRB members get a discount on the conference and can participate in defining the discussion about the research agenda in various areas. 


 Carsharing sessions are sponsored by the the AP020 subcommittee on Emerging and Innovative Public Transport and Technologies, chaired by Dr. Susan Shaheen of UC Berkeley.















Below is a summary of the carsharing and shared vehicle sessions at the 2011 TRB:

Hilton, 
Jan 23 2011 1:30PM- 4:30PM; i
ncludes:


Total Connectivity Ideas (P11-0493) 
     Sturges, Dan - IntraGo and 






Raney, Steve - Cities21.org 
Interconnecting Public Transport and Shared Transport (P11-0500) 
     O'Sullivan, Sean - Avego Limited 
Cybercars for Sustainable Mobility – A European Collaborative Approach (P11-0496) 
     Parent, Michel - French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control 
Architecturally Linking All the Pieces (P11-0497) 
     McDonald, Shannon Sanders - American Institute of Architects 
Public-Private Innovation: Implementing Seamless Mobility Linking Modes, Services, Technologies,   
Design, Policy, and New Business Models (P11-0498) 
     Zielinkski, Susan - University of Michigan 
Panel Discussion (P11-0499) 
     Young, Stanley E. - University of Maryland, College Park, 



Liu, Rongfang - New Jersey Institute of Technology, 






Cervero, Robert - University of California, Berkeley, 





Fabian, Lawrence J. - Trans.21, S






haheen, Susan A. - University of California, Berkeley, and 






Andreasson, Ingmar J. - Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden 






Marriott, 



Jan 24 2011 10:15AM- 12:00PM; 


Includes:








Carsharing and Older Adults (P11-0218) 
     Shaheen, Susan A. - University of California, Berkeley 
Older Adults and Walking: The Benefits and the Promise (P11-0219) 
     Ragland, David R. - University of California, Berkeley 
Peer-to-Peer Carsharing: Market Analysis and Potential Growth (11-3463) 
     Hampshire, Robert Cornelius - Carnegie Mellon University 
Volunteer Senior Transportation: The Vanguard of Community Transportation (P11-0221) 
     Freund, Katherine - ITNAmerica 













Hilton, Jan 25 2011 8:00AM- 9:45AM; includes:
Understanding the Factors Affecting Vehicle Usage and Availability in Carsharing Networks: Case Study of Communauto Carsharing System from Montreal, Canada (11-0840) 
     de Lorimier, Alexandre - Quartier International de Montréal, Canada, El-Geneidy, Ahmed M. - McGill University, Canada 
Broadening the Market for Carshare? Results of a Pilot Project in the Netherlands (11-0615) 
     Martens, Karel and Pasman, Sander - Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands, Sierzchula, William - Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Estimation of Carsharing Demand Using Activity-Based Microsimulation Approach: Model and Preliminary Results (11-2077) 
     Ciari, Francesco, Schuessler, Nadine and  Axhausen, Kay W. - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich
Hangzhou Public Bicycle: Understanding Early Adoption and Behavioral Response to Bikesharing in Hangzhou, China (11-3041) 




     Shaheen, Susan A., Zhang, Hua, Martin, Elliot and Guzman, Stacey - University of California, Berkeley


Meeting of the Subcommittee on Emerging and Innovative Public Transport and Technologies, 
AP020 

Hilton, L'Enfant room,  Ja
n. 25, 1:30 to 5:30pm

Hilton, 
Jan 24 2011 2:30PM- 5:00PM; 
includes: 
Typology of Carsharing Members (11-1236) - D08 
     Morency, Catherine, 
Trepanier, Martin, and 
Agard, Bruno - Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada 
There are a number of other topics being presented at this session.


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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

7:54 PM

Millennials Driving Less and Enjoying It More

I've mentioned before that the "younger generation" seems to be developing a different relationship to driving and car ownership than when I was growing up.  

Who better to find out more than Zipcar, which last fall commissioned a survey of 18-34 year olds (one of their sweet spots) and released a short Powerpoint on the results.

The survey of 1025 adults, including 287 Millenials found that:
  • 54% reported they "sometimes choose to spend time with friends online instead of driving"
  • 45% "consciously made an effort to reduce how much I drive"
  • 67% said "If there were more options in my area, such as public transportation, carsharing or convenient carpooling, I would drive less than I do now"
  • 80% "somewhat" or "strongly agreed" that the high cost of car ownership is making it difficult to own a car
The survey reminded us that Millenials have been hit hard by the recession (although they didn't distinguish how hard hip, urban professionals were affected) and that as a group they were already in debt from school.

The survey was picked up by a couple a couple of writers, the best being by free-lancer Jim Montavalli, who wrote a very nice column Why Facebook is better than driving and recycled it several places.  Montavalli was skeptical that this is actually good for Zipcar and, even after talking to Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith seems to not understand that the less you drive (your own car) the more attractive borrowing a carsharing vehicle becomes.

Of course, Millenials, also called Gen Y, are a hot topic in the automotive and probably just about every other industry.  MillienialMarketing.com had a good overview of the research - "What's Not in a Millenial's shopping cart - a car".   BrandChannel writer Sheila Shayan interviewed Ford Motor Company's Sheryl Connelly, manager global trends and futuring,
  • "I don't think the car symbolizes freedom to Gen Y to the extent it did baby boomers, or to a lesser extent, Gen X-ers. [Digital technology] allows teens to transcend time and place so they can feel connected to their friends virtually… we also understand the context in which they use cars has changed. ... It has nothing to do with performance or getting you from point A to point B. It's just a change in what people expect to be delivered." 
Of course, for the time being, this is perhaps primarily a delay in purchase, not an overall reduction.  But I certainly expect the overall number of cars in the US will continue to decline.
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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

8:37 AM

Big Carsharing Stories of 2010 and reading the tea leaves of 2011

Kevin McLaughlin of Autoshare, and a very astute observer of the industry, has posted his top 10 carsharing stories of 2010 on carsharing.net.   So, with the year end rapidly approaching I wanted to organize my thoughts about carsharing during the year gone by and my reading of the tea leaves for 2011.

Zipcar

Without a doubt the big news of the year was Zipcar taking the first step in its Initial Public Offering (IPO), filing its intent with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.  Scattered throughout the hundreds of pages of the initial filing, and now several quarterly filings since, is a revealing look behind the curtain of corporate carsharing - the financial situation and all sorts of numbers to ponder - vehicles, members, various markets, and profitability.   

The other big Zipcar news was the proposed merger with their biggest competitor in the United Kingdom Streetcar.  Followed by the surprise delay while the UK Competition Commission sought testimony and reviewed the evidence.  Responses, filed by a variety of parties, also pull the curtain back a little bit on UK carsharing - Greenwheel's intention to enter the London market, as well as the benefits and drawbacks to local governments of competition in the carsharing (car club) marketplace, among other things.  In the end the commission has blessed the Zipcar-Streetcar merger. Hopefully, Zipcar will continue the successful aspects of Streetcar's operation at least in the UK. 

And, finally, Zipcar gave observers a year-end surprise again announcing a $21 million round of investment by two US venture capital firms.  With additional funding it appears they will consumate their investment in Avancar in Barcelona before the end of the year.  And, like the merger with Streetcar, this round of financing appears to set up a hoped-for stock price of the initial offering.

So what's in the cards for Zipcar for 2011?  My guess is that the IPO will finally happen, and if the recent addition of 10 vehicles in Hollywood, Calif. (bringing the LA total to 75) as well as adding more vehicles in most other markets (now over 7,000 vehicles) means that Zipcar is ready to get back in the urban carsharing business after several years of belt tightening and concentrating on sweetheart deals on college campuses (now on over 200 campuses).   Zipcar will certainly continue to be a contender in most North American markets and, its excellent branding and marketing and ability to avoid getting distracted by side deals and ideas should serve it well.  

Peer to Peer Carsharing

The other big development for 2010 is the launch of a pilot in Cambridge, Mass. by start up RelayRides.  Although many in the industry have talked about it, RelayRides CEO and founder Shelby Clark persevered to obtain the first P2P carsharing insurance in North America.  And, after almost launching in Baltimore, RelayRides realized that the best place to demonstrate the feasibility of P2P CS was in an area of successful traditional fleet-based carsharing and decided to launch in backyard of Zipcar - Cambridge, Mass.  The pilot test quickly put to rest any doubts that car owners would want earn a little money from their vehicles, and, of course, had no trouble showing that carsharing members were happy to pay $2 per hour less than the competition.

By year's end RelayRides had announced it's first full-scale city launch on the other side of the continent and in San Francisco, the backyard of other P2P carsharing start ups Spride and GetAround.  And Shelby and crew also finally made the internet connection that has eluded other carshares with a major investment by Google Ventures.  

Meanwhile Spride (in partnership with City Carshare) and GetAround both launched their own pilot projects in anticipation of the passage of AB1871, which defined "personal vehicle" carsharing for legal purposes.  The bill makes some important distinctions - when is private vehcile in "carsharing" service, required levels of insurance and specifies that the vehicle owner cannot make more money from sharing than they have in actual expenses.   As yet to be defined is the local, state and federal tax implications for vehicle owners - particularly, if local governments will require vehicle owner's have to get a business license for P2P carsharing?  

For 2011 I think we can look forward to seeing a serious evolution in carsharing in-vehicle technology motivated by the P2P market, and, when that happens, the start of a major expansion of carsharing into much larger areas of cities (and even new cities) that previously could not viably be served by carsharing.  Also on the horizon is P2P car rental, basically a web site/service providing link up between owners and renters but providing only the traditional minimum level of insurance that distinguishes car rental from (most) carsharing services.  Right now JollyWheels is the best example of P2P car rental, operating in six US cities.  In the UK, Whipcar is the prime example.  (An unsuccessful effort in LA closed down during 2010.)

Car2Go 

Meanwhile, down in Austin, Texas, Daimler's innovative demonstration of on-demand, open-ended, one-way carsharing passed the 10,000 member milestone in Austin in November, following the opening up of the project to general public in the spring.  Car2Go claimed 80,000 trips and appears to be doing sufficiently well with their "personal public transportation" model that they expanded the "geofence" area in Austin where trips could be ended.  The no-cost deal with City of Austin provides free use of car2go for city employees in return for free parking in any legal parking space. 

Daimler announced the next city to get the car2go service would be Hamburg, Germany, operated in partnership with EuropeCar, a possible model for the future expansions.  And rumors persist that Vancouver, BC is also on Daimler's radar.   The German manufacturer also showed a special car2go version of their iconic Smart car at the Paris autoshow that will include a solar panel on the roof, improved integration of carsharing technology with the navigation system.

Connect By Hertz

Meanwhile, Connect by Hertz quietly expanded opening up several more world capitals - Berlin, Madrid, joining Paris and London.  And, taking advantage of an opportunity, jumped down under to acquire 5-year old Flexicar, the smallest of Australia's 3 carsharing companies - with 90 vehicles in Melbourne and Sydeny.  

But the bulk of the expansion was responding to RFPs from various college and universities, in many cases competing with Zipcar and Enterprise WeCar for the honors.  Earlier requirements for "guaranteed revenue" contracts were largely abandoned, not only because of competition but also because of greater confidence in what it takes to keep college/university cars busy.   Connect is now on more than 40 campuses in the US and Canada.

Battery electric vehicles were very much in the news in 2010 and Connect By Hertz appears to used it's "connections" with partent company Hertz to put them into service in New York City starting Dec. 15.  EVs in Washington, DC and San Francisco to follow next year, suggesting an expansion in these markets.  Plug In hybrids are already part of the fleets of several carshares HourCar in Minneapolis, Autoshare, Toronto and City Carshare, San Francisco and Zipcar.  (Arguably, this was only the latest round of EVs in carsharing fleets - earlier efforts involved Th!nk EVs by City Carshare in San Francisco and Flexcar in Long Beach, through their association with the Bike Station there.)

In a little noticed move, taking advantage of their Eileo in-vehicle technology, Connect quietly unveiled one-way service in their New York market.  It's a specialized one way service that sure to attract to new members - one way trips to all 3 New York City airports!  Right now cars can only be picked up from a single location in Manhattan (the Hertz rental location at 126 W. 55th).  At $10 per hour to drive to/from the airport, this seems likely to be a huge win for Hertz.  But late flights and traffic jams could really spoil the party.

Other Developments in 2010

In Paris, the ground-breaking city-wide Autolib project moved another step closer to reality with the award of the contract to dark-horse proposal by French start up electric vehicle manufacture, Bolloré.  The company was chosen by the Autolib partnership over several other proposals by consortia of major French companies.  When operational Autolib will allow one-way (or round) trips by 3,000 battery electric vehicles between 1,200 recharging stations in Paris and surrounding communities.  The implications of this service could be the tipping point that will finally bring on a "mobility on demand" lifestyle.

In Janauary, consulting firm Frost and Sullivan got industry juices flowing with visions of the possibility of millions of carsharing members - 4.4. million in Europe and US - a long way from the current 388,000 members sharing 7,600 vehicles at the beginning of 2010.   Assuming a growth 50% growth rate to derive the 4.4 million-member number that seemed rather far fetched to me at the time.  But the possible explosion of P2P carsharing now makes that seem more possible.  Still it will take some major shifts in government policy to “mainstream” carsharing, and those might be happening.

Finally, an event in 2010 that may have major implications for carsharing, and all transportation policy, is the decision by the Obama administration that the Environmental Protection Agency to move forward with regulating GHG by rule rather than waiting for a grand consensus.  But so much is still contingent on digging out of the economic recession, particularly in face of Republican plans to drive the country into bankruptcy so that rich people can have tax cuts.

Happy new year.
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Saturday, November 6, 2010

3:09 PM

First Impression: Nissan Leaf - Good for Carsharing

I took a short test drive in a Nissan Leaf yesterday at SolarWorld offices near Portland and will share some impressions.  To give you a sense of it here's a short video on our test drive.  We got up to 40 mph. on this street.  (That's my wife driving and the Nissan handler talking.)  As you can hear, it's very quiet.
Nissan has done a very nice job on the exterior - it's a lot fresher looking than a Versa, and, for better or worse, not as distinctive as the Prius (perhaps to appeal to the Civic Hybrid mentality?)  Car designer and friend Jose Paris in his itMoves blog had a stronger reaction to the Leaf than I do.  (His blog is well-worth following for his thoughtful and progressive comments on lot's of things automotive.)

I was very impressed with how comfortable and familiar it seemed inside.  It has a similar interior feel to a Prius (which I own).  Although the Leaf is a lot smaller than our Prius it doesn't feel cramped (including the back seat (at least with 1 or 2 people in back).  I thought the performance was amazing - very peppy acceleration (the Nissan handler in the car with us said it would do 0-60 in 10 sec.)  With a quoted 90 mph top speed certainly seems like it would be a comfortable car for freeway driving.  However, the published 100 mile range would be at more moderate speeds!  There's a good amount of room behind the 60-40 split rear seats, which fold down.

Nissan does a good job of addressing the "range anxiety" question - using the nav system map to display circles from your current location showing you available range based on your current battery charge, as well as the map displaying the location of EV charging stations.  (They also claim they'll have roadside assistance providers to give you a boost or a tow if you run out of juice.)

Overall, Nissan has done a great job of putting enough technology on display to appeal to Prius owner and techy types) - a very similar dashboard layout, a navigation system, and even a backup camera.  If has full heater and air conditioning, radio (including optional XM button) etc.

The whole test drive experience was an up-scale production - including a mandatory warm up pitch to wow you with the technology, sell you on electric drive and compare the cost of fuel — electricity in our area is 10¢/kWh and Nissan claimed it would still be cheaper to operate than gas at $1.10/gal. (Presumably this will change somewhat when the equivalent of gas taxes are applied to the electricity for recharge; which will presumably will be facilitated since utilities are creating special low(er) tariff rates for off-peak recharging.) 

This summer I was also impressed (as a passenger) in an equally short (around a couple of blocks) trip in a Mitsubishi iMiev that Sharon Feigon of I-Go Carsharing had on loan.  Also very quiet and much cuter than a Leaf.  The model I rode in was a right hand drive prototype from Japan so it's hard to judge what the interior will be like when they're sold in the US.  The other prospective highway-rated EV out there is the Smart Electric Drive, likely to cost far more than either the Leaf or iMiev but presumably would offer at least some vestige of the Daimler panache.

At this stage, the primary thing that tempers my enthusiasm about EVs right now is that in most parts of the country EVs will make a the relatively low contribution to greenhouse gas reduction.  The problem is so much of our electricity comes from coal-fired electric generation (which we hope will change over time).

So does a Nissan Leaf make sense for carsharing?  Definitely - especially if someone else is paying for the charging stations.  Either the Leaf or iMiev would be an excellent specialty vehicle and should be a good marketing tool for the carsharing company.  Yes, there will be some management issues as customers get used to driving EVs, but they will quickly pass.  (I remember talking with a number of CarSharing Portland driving our Honda Insight (the original one, not the current one) who didn't understand the engine autostop feature and called on their cell phone when the engine stopped at a stop light!)

Given the government money flowing on both sides of the North American border to promote EVs, it's no surprise that a number of carshares will be adding EVs as soon as they're available.  I-Go will get some of the first production iMievs, City Carshare is getting a $2.4 million grant to add 12 Nissan Leafs, 12 Prius Plug In Hybrids and 5 Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) along with 24 charging stations. Hertz Connect has announced they will be getting some of the Leafs in the Hertz allocation, as well.  CommunAuto in Montreal has announced they'll be adding 50 Leafs (Leaves?) to their fleet - with 18 stations already on the map.  (Since Hydro Quebec provides such a large part of Montreal's electricity, CommunAuto customers really will be doing their part to reduce GHGs for the planet.)  Hopefully car2go will get some Smart Electric Drives to round out the picture.

Meanwhile there's Altcar the so-called carsharing scheme started in Baltimore last year by Canadian EV manunfacturer Electrovaya renting vehicles the Maryland Science Center (I say it's "so-called carsharing" because after over a year they've still got only 1 station - perhaps that will change?)  In Europe, what may be the under-reported carsharing news of last year, newly revived EV manufacturer Th!nk created an all-electric carshares in Copenhagen, Gothenberg and Oslo called Move About and the Oslo branch recently reported they had signed up their 1,000th member.  Last year Better Place (battery swap company) partnered with the Danish Railways to provide EV carsharing at sevveral stations (but otherwise continues to avow they're not interested in carsharing). And, of course, when it finally launches, the "grand Pere" of them all will be the Autolib service in Paris.
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