Daimler to Expand Car2go to Amsterdam With 300 Electric Smarts
Daimler, the maker of Mercedes-Benz cars and trucks, will expand its Car2go car-sharing unit to Amsterdam with a fleet of 300 electric-powered Smart cars.
Amsterdam will start the service, which allows users to rent vehicles by the minute, by the end of 2011, Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler said today in an e-mailed statement.
The expansion will mark the fourth city for Car2go and the first with battery-powered versions of the two-seat Smart city car. Amsterdam will install 300 public charging stations by the end of this year, with another 1,000 planned for 2011, to facilitate the introduction, Daimler said.
Auto manufacturers have been turning to car-sharing services in a bid to attract young city dwellers, who see little value in owning their own vehicle. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW)’s DriveNow, which will start renting BMW 1-Series and Mini models in Munich this month, targets 1 million members by 2020. PSA Peugeot Citroen offers subscription-based access to Peugeot cars, vans, scooters and bicycles.
Car2go started renting Smarts in Hamburg last month after testing the service in Austin, Texas, and in Ulm in southern Germany.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Reiter at creiter2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net
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