The popular car sharing company Share Now has announced it will be ending its North American business next year.
Share Now owns Car2Go, the car share option often seen around North Seattle. The German company sent an email to customers yesterday announcing the news, saying they’ve chosen to pull out of North America for two “extremely complicated” reasons: the “volatile state of the global mobility landscape,” and “rising infrastructure complexities facing North American transportation.” (Read their full letter here)
The company will maintain service in its 18 European cities, markets which they say show a greater potential for growth.
“We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to every employee, member, business partner and city stakeholder who have supported us throughout the years in these markets,” the company wrote in their letter to customers. “We deeply regret the inconvenience this decision causes.”
Share Now will discontinue its service on Feb. 29, 2020.
Photo: Share Now
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I’ll be sure to store my membership card next to my Zune.
Okay that’s funny….
They left due to a lack of business, plain and simple.
Seattle is not the right market for car shares. People here that don’t own cars dont want to drive. They just want to be whisked away to whatever their destination by someone else while they tweet about how environmentally conscious they are for not driving, from a car.
Hmmmm, I know a number of people who use Car2Go and normally would love to drive. They don’t use it to be environmentally conscious. They use it because they cannot afford to pay for long-term parking for their own vehicle. So they rent a car as needed, and otherwise take public transportation. One contributing factor is that many cities were charging exorbitant prices for parking spots for the cars and severely limiting the spots in some areas as well. Seattle is likely one of those cities.
Car shares were very widely used, by both car owners and non-owners. In fact, one of the negatives of car share was that they were so well used, it was difficult to find one, so some people likely stopped trying for car share.
Also, permit fees were around $1,800 per vehicle per year, which was based on an estimate of loss of revenue generated by an average meter for one year due to allow car shares to occupy metered locations. That is extremely reasonable, especially since there doesn’t appear to be an master permit fee.
What likely killed car share is the cost of maintaining a fleet of free roaming cars that get a lot of city driving, which is especially harsh on vehicles. A car that needs service requires getting an employee to that vehicle and (assuming it is still driveable), drive it to a service center, which is likely outside City limits or in an area that is not easy to get to. Those costs add up very quickly.