car2go experiment ends today
A PIONEERING car sharing scheme in Birmingham city centre has been scrapped at the end of a 12-month pilot project and its operator has withdrawn from the UK market completely.
The car2go scheme was launched in a blaze of publicity last year and hailed as a potential solution to the city centre’s traffic congestion.
Its blue and white liveried Smart cars, complete with their various slogans, became a familiar sight on the city streets but ultimately the company has been unable to make it a success.
However, the company said it had been unable to persuade people to give up their own cars in favour of the hiring option.
In a statement, it said: “car2go, the pioneer of ‘free-floating’ car sharing, will be withdrawing from Birmingham with effect from May 30, 2014.
“We’ve listened closely to customer feedback and taking the UK’s strong culture and tradition of private vehicle ownership into account, we have decided to withdraw from the UK market place. We’d like to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who has used car2go in Birmingham and London.”
As the world’s largest free-floating carsharing provider, it said it would continue to “observe” the UK market for cultural changes towards the “free-floating model”.
“car2go will continue to be a worldwide success story as we operate in a total of 25 cities around the world with more than 700,000 customers,” it added.
It said with one of its accounts and a validated driving licence people would still able to use car2go in 12 other European cities.
The scheme was launched in Birmingham last May aimed at cutting congestion and easing parking problems in the city’s main business district.
It allowed motorists to collect and ‘drop off’ vehicles when and where needed throughout the city.
Birmingham City Council signed an agreement with the firm enabling it to park 250 of its cars at council car parks throughout the city.
The company charged 29p per minute to drive one of its vehicles or £10.99 per hour and £59 a day.
