car2go global car-sharing biz clocks 21% more rentals in 2016

Flexible car sharing company car2go has reported an increase in its customer base by 43 percent to 2.2 million.

A car2go is rented every 1.4 seconds somewhere in the world. Berlin remains the largest car2go city, with 175,000 customers. Worldwide, the roughly 14,000 car2go vehicles have been rented more than 22 million times. This is a 21 percent rise compared to the previous year’s figure. The highest customer growth was seen in the cities Madrid (+96,000), Berlin (+47,000), Vancouver (+26,000) and Hamburg (+26,000).

The utilisation of the vehicles increased by approximately 40 percent between Q4 2015 and Q4 2016. As a general rule, the more frequently and longer the vehicles are used, the better car-sharing fulfills its purpose in major cities. This is because the shared cars do not take up scarce parking space as often, and they more frequently replace private cars, which are becoming more and more of a burden on cities.                                                          

Olivier Reppert, CEO of car2go Group, is optimistic about growth prospects for 2017: “ Car-sharing is still a dynamic growth market. We will continue to grow our business in the coming year, too – with new fleets, new offers and new products.”

“car2go is an integral part of our comprehensive mobility offer,” says Klaus Entenmann, CEO of Daimler Financial Services AG. “More and more customers use our mobility services – and all of them have one thing in common: They want up-to-date, flexible and spontaneous mobility in their city – without owning a car.”