Toyota Europe's hybrid car-sharing offer expands to Venice, Italy

YUKÕ "“ Japanese for "˜Let's go' "“ gives customers the opportunity to drive hybrid electric vehicles without the need for car ownership. In Venice, a fleet of 49 self-charging and plug-in hybrid electric Toyotas will be made available to the public, ranging from the Toyota Yaris Hybrid to the Prius Plug-in Hybrid.

"We are pleased to have the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, here with us to officially kick off "˜YUKÕ with Toyota' in Venice. Launching this hybrid electric vehicle car-sharing business represents a first, concrete step in our journey to enhance sustainable mobility in the city of Venice together. Thanks to the environmental credentials of Toyota's hybrid electric YUKÕ fleet, every citizen can choose to contribute to reducing emissions and congestion in the city. "˜YUKÕ with Toyota' is a service that is available to all, including people with reduced mobility thanks to the "barrier-free" Toyota Proace Verso, especially equipped to support specific mobility needs," said Managing Director, Mauro Caruccio.

Building on the know-how gathered from Dublin (Ireland) and Forlì (Italy) projects, the citizens of Venice can benefit from the following innovations:

Registration: online in just a few minutes; Smart Watch soon to be added to PC, tablet and smartphone apps

2 service options: station based service "YUKÕ One" (pick up and return at a station of your choice) and free floating service "YUKÕ Way" (simply leave the car in any parking space in the city centre)

Use "˜Venezia Unica', Venice's official City Pass, to begin and end the journey, allowing customers to easily switch between public and private transportation to enhance multimodality

A "barrier-free" Toyota Proace Verso has been added to the fleet to offer improved mobility for the disabled or elderly
Free access to the traffic restricted areas and to paid parking areas.

With YUKÕ, Toyota is reconfirming its commitment to popularise self-charging and plug-in hybrid electric driving "“ adding to the 12 million Toyota and Lexus hybrid customers around the world already today.

Hybrid electric technologies are helping to tackle air quality issues in cities. The results of research* by CARe in Rome shows how Toyota's 4th generation Prius on a daily commute travels 73% of the time with zero emissions. This figure was as high as 79.4% when purely in an urban environment.

Hybrid car sharing meets both societal and customer needs. The technology offers quiet, stress-free and fuel efficient driving, helping to improve air quality whilst car sharing tackles urban congestion.