car2go launches its services in Paris

Daimler owned car-sharing platform, car2go, announced its launch in the French capital.

car2go will initially offer 400 of the very latest fully electric smart EQ fortwo cars for spontaneous and flexible rental to the inhabitants of Paris. More cars will be added during the year 2019.

“Paris offers ideal conditions for our free-floating carsharing principle,” said Olivier Reppert, CEO of car2go. “I am really pleased that we can launch today with a fleet of fully electric smart fortwo and thus offer Parisians as well as visitors of the city a sustainable, flexible and convenient way to move around in the city. The smart cars are already one of the most popular vehicles in Paris - not only because they are manufactured in France, but also because they are the perfect cars for that city.”

After Amsterdam, Stuttgart and Madrid, the French capital is the fourth city in which car2go operates a fully electric fleet of cars. In total, car2go now has 2,100 electric vehicles in use in the four cities. Paris is the 15th car2go location in Europe and the 26th on a global scale.

With the launch in Paris, car2go expects to further extend its leading position in the electric carsharing sector. The new customers in Paris will join an ever-growing community of currently 3.6 million car2go users worldwide and 430.000 in the electric car2go locations.

With 77 square kilometres, the Parisian car2go Home Area, in which customers can start and end their rentals, covers Paris “intra muros”, that means the area within the Boulevard Périphérique highway surrounding Paris. The minute rate will be from €0.24 to €0.34 depending on where and when the customers start the rental.

Moreover, car2go customers in Paris will be able to charge the cars themselves using the existing public charging infrastructure (former Autolib). For this, about 1100 charging stations are available.

“I would like to thank the city of Paris for their very welcoming attitude towards car-sharing services, for example, regarding the parking permit or the charging network policy,” stated Reppert.