EV Car Sharing arrives in San Diego

[jcesare]

North America’s first all-electric vehicle car-sharing program will launch here (San Diego) by the end of the year.

Car2go, a subsidiary of the German automaker Daimler, announced the launch of the San Diego program on Wednesday at the El Cortez Hotel. “Another first, San Diego’s first high-rise building,” noted Nicholas Cole, president and CEO of car2go North America.

When the program begins, 300 blue-and-white smart fortwo cars (a name as quirky and cute as the vehicles) will start showing up on city streets.

The cars can be parked in any legal parking space, in a designated car2go space or at a ECOtality Blink charging station – as long it is within the yet-to-be determined car2go service zone.

There go the Blink parking spots. :roll:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jul/13/car-sharing-firm-car2go-plugs-san-diego/

 

[LMW]

I'm hoping that ultimately it will mean more infrastructure.

Also hoping that they'll be lovable enough that users will be more likely to consider purchasing an EV in the future. Am I dreaming?

 

[Randy]

Here are some photos I took on Thursday of the demo Car2Go downtown....They will be having some promotions on memberships when the program rolls out (free), but normally the memberships cost about $35 and then you pay a per minute or per hour charge to take a car. You have to keep it within the program area and they didn't announce yet how big the area will be. In Austin it is about 30 square miles. Pretty interesting concept, everything is included in the rental price (street parking, fuel, cleaning, insurance, etc.)...Check out the State of Charge meter....The cars have a 30kW motor and are limited in speed (64 mph, I think). I thought I heard that they have a 16 kWh pack. They are definitely city commute cars....

 

[mwalsh]

Well, I guess Daimler has to get rid of them somehow. :?

 

[Randy]

https://sandiego.car2go.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you sign up now for Car2Go in San Diego, you can get a free membership and 30 minutes free rental time...The code is PLUGIN....

Enjoy!!!!

Randy

 

[eHelmholtz]

Car2Go now has 300 smart EVs in San Diego! http://showtimesdaily.com/news-articles/300-car2go-battery-smarts-in-san-diego" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[prmiller]

I'm hoping that ultimately it will mean more infrastructure.

Also hoping that they'll be lovable enough that users will be more likely to consider purchasing an EV in the future. Am I dreaming?

Late Sunday afternoon they were plugged into 5 of the 7 Balboa chargers, with the other 2 chargers showing errors such that they wouldn't charge. That definitely made them much less "cute"!

I was able to park at one of the non-functional charger and unplug the car2go next to me (it was plugged in but not charging, apparently full).

 

[TonyWilliams]

That definitely made them much less "cute"!

One of the principles that will be installing some DC fast chargers in San Diego would like to restrict this somehow. With so few chargers in SAN, and with the Car2Go folks talking about 300 cars, wow! I wonder what they'll do when it costs money to be in the charging spot, presumably Jan 1, 2012?

I suspect, for the short term, the cost will be when plugged in and charging only. Which means these spots should be labeled with the new AB475 language to prevent this car rental company from blocking all the charging spots, but not actually charging (and paying for the spot).

Like anything new, there's going to be bugs to work out, but this bug affects the EV public and the EVSE owners most. Therefore, that's who will have to fix it.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Car2Go now has 300 smart EVs in San Diego! http://showtimesdaily.com/news-articles/300-car2go-battery-smarts-in-san-diego" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I don't think they yet have 300 cars, but that's the plan.

I saw this quote:

"Ecotality is the San Diego charging partner."

In other words, both Ecotality and Car2Go plan to profit off the charging spots provided by the hosts. Maybe this is good for the hosts, too, as those spots are more likely to be filled close to 100% of the time, hopefully with the meter running.

 

[richard]

car2go is showing "dedicated parking spots" on this page:
http://www.car2go.com/sandiego/en/parking-solutions/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The 4th & B station is a paid lot run by Ace. What definition is car2go using for "dedicated"?

 

[TonyWilliams]

car2go is showing "dedicated parking spots" on this page:
http://www.car2go.com/sandiego/en/parking-solutions/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The 4th & B station is a paid lot run by Ace. What definition is car2go using for "dedicated"?

From this page:

http://www.car2go.com/portal/sandiego/page/mybookings/mapEnlarged.faces" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

+++ currently 72 car2go available in San Diego +++

 

[TonyWilliams]

I went and signed up at their home office at:

633 9th Ave, San Diego.

 

[prmiller]

Late Sunday afternoon they were plugged into 5 of the 7 Balboa chargers, with the other 2 chargers showing errors such that they wouldn't charge.

It was late when I wrote that, and I misstated it. Of course there are 10 chargers in Balboa Park, and the smart cars were parked at 6 of them.

One charger had a Leaf, 2 Chargers were on the blink (pun intended), and one charger by Reuben H Fleet was inaccessible to me because of the 2 spaces it reaches the regular space was taken by a regular car and the open space was the handicapped space.

I thought when I first saw the layout of the chargers by the air museum that they did a poor job spacing them out. One normal Blink charger could easily reach up to 6 spaces, so it seemed a waste to pack them together side-by-side and back to back to reach as few spaces as possible.

 

[walterbays]

Late Sunday afternoon they were plugged into 5 of the 7 Balboa chargers, with the other 2 chargers showing errors such that they wouldn't charge.

It was late when I wrote that, and I misstated it. Of course there are 10 chargers in Balboa Park, and the smart cars were parked at 6 of them.

One charger had a Leaf, 2 Chargers were on the blink (pun intended), and one charger by Reuben H Fleet was inaccessible to me because of the 2 spaces it reaches the regular space was taken by a regular car and the open space was the handicapped space.

I thought when I first saw the layout of the chargers by the air museum that they did a poor job spacing them out. One normal Blink charger could easily reach up to 6 spaces, so it seemed a waste to pack them together side-by-side and back to back to reach as few spaces as possible.

I think Car2Go is a great concept. Unfortunately in the short term at least the arrival of Car2Go pretty much means the end of public charging in central San Diego. We can only hope that longer term Car2Go will help accelerate the development of more public charging - as it was supposed to have been through the EV Project already. Maybe when they install the next 20 chargers in Balboa Park they will locate them better - far away from coveted close parking so ICE cars won't be tempted, with 4-6 parking spaces per charger so they can be shared, and without the odious AB475 signage which would make sharing illegal. Car2Go should especially make city leaders realize the importance of charger sharing since they normally sit idle for much longer than they charge.

 

[TomT]

I signed because it was free and, well, you never know... By the way, the fine print says that it is actually fine to take it out of the program area, just that you have to return it to within that area.

You have to keep it within the program area and they didn't announce yet how big the area will be. In Austin it is about 30 square miles.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Yes, you can take it out of the area, and the area is likely to expand as they ramp up to 300 cars. Also, if you're at 20% SOC, you have to find a charger.

The rep at the main office told me that they would "always" leave an open charger for LEAFs. I do like that you don't have to pay parking fees anywhere. That alone makes it viable for me. I can drive in the LEAF to downtown, park at a charger, jump in a C2G, and park anywhere, grinding down their battery, and then return to my car after a bit, with more charge than I started with, and I got where I wanted to go.

I think the C2G and your EV complement themselves quite nicely. I could also drive the thing to my house (17 miles from downtown) if I got stuck with a low battery in my EV. I'm anxious to see if it's better / easier / maybe cheaper than the conventional car rental (now that my LEAF is numero uno for me). The per minute charge will apply for all the time you have the car out of the area.

I haven't got my card in the mail yet to try out the 30 minute free test drive. Also, they have an iPhone app to find the cars, called "C2G", costs $2.99. Easy to use, just select city (Amersterdam, Austin, Hamburg, San Diego, Ulm, Vancouver) and units of measure (miles or km) on first page, log in, then it pops up a page asking to let the C2G app access Car2Go (they must be a separate company), and then it kicked me out!!! (I'm probably not "in the system" yet).

EDIT: Update in the App Store, there should be a new version of C2G available (1.3.1) as a free download that fixes it. Be sure and get that first.

They are up to 104 cars now in San Diego.

 

[Randy]

I signed because it was free and, well, you never know... By the way, the fine print says that it is actually fine to take it out of the program area, just that you have to return it to within that area.

You have to keep it within the program area and they didn't announce yet how big the area will be. In Austin it is about 30 square miles.

Thanks, Tom. I guess I wrote that before I understood all the details. As Tony said, it is okay to take the care out of the area, but the GPS system on-board will not let you end the rental when you're out of the area. So you need to return back within the boundary to be able to let go of the rental. I haven't driven one yet, so I'm not sure how they notify the driver that you're in or out of bounds...

I was at a recent event with Car2Go on the cruise ship pier, which is just a short distance to the west outside of the operating area, and the cars could not be activated. So they are keenly aware of where they are located...

Randy

 

[Nekota]

"Car2go scoops up 6,000 electric car sharers in San Diego in first 100 days"

More recent news on car sharing -- this is good news for EV -

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/03/11/car2go-scoops-up-6-000-electric-car-sharers-in-san-diego-in-firs/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[TonyWilliams]

I picked up a C2G a few days ago, at Balboa Park. There must have been 6 or 7 of the Smart EVs there. Naturally, some of the Blinks weren't working, so I unplugged a C2G, plugged my car in, and motored to downtown in all the comfort of a gocart! (actually, not that bad, just don't go on highways).

As we know now, the service is free to the EV community, when you take one out of a charger spot. It's a service to them with the following restrictions:

Do not disconnect the Car2go vehicle if it was not over 50% charge, and to please not drive it for more than 15 minutes on the "free" account.

 

[ttweed]

As we know now, the service is free to the EV community, when you take one out of a charger spot. It's a service to them.

Just a minor nitpick with this statement--when I signed up for the free "EV community" account, I was reminded to not disconnect the Car2go vehicle if it was not over 50% charge, and to please not drive it for more than 15 minutes on the "free" account.

TT