Toyota Europe's car-sharing platform Yuko expands to Venice

In 2016, Toyota was one of the first to offer self-charging Hybrid Electric Vehicles in the European car-sharing market. 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," says Managing Director Mauro Caruccio of Toyota Motor Italy.

Building on the Dublin (Ireland) and Forlì (Italy) projects, the citizens of Venice are set to benefit from innovations such as registering online in a matter of minutes, with a Smart Watch soon to be added to PC, tablet and smartphone apps. Station based service "YUKÕ One" (picking up and returning at a station of your choice) and the free floating service "YUKÕ Way" (leaving the car in any parking space in the city centre) is also available.

Customers can use "˜Venezia Unica', Venice's official City Pass, to begin and end the journey, allowing customers to switch between public and private transportation as a means of enhancing multimodality. A "barrier-free" Toyota Proace Verso has been added to the fleet to offer improved mobility for the disabled or elderly. Users will also have 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 today.