An elegy for Car2Go, the smarter Zipcar rival that lost its way

[brooklynite]

Fast Company

The first mainstream smartphone-optimized car-sharing service will soon roll into the junkyard. Car2Go announced Wednesday that it would exit North America Feb. 29.

The Daimler-owned company, which was in the midst of rebranding itself as Share Now after a minority investment by BMW, vaguely blamed the move on “the volatile state of the global mobility landscape.” It also cited “rising infrastructure complexities facing North American transportation.” (Read: Higher operating expenses and not enough electric-car charging stations, the latter problem having propelled its 2016 exit from San Diego).

The move will erase a convenient option for point-to-point travel in Car2Go’s remaining U.S. and Canadian cities: Chicago, New York, Seattle, and Washington, plus Montreal and Vancouver. It had backed out of Austin, Portland, Denver, and Calgary at the end of October.

Its fleet of Smart Fortwo and Mercedes GLA and CLA sedans, per-minute or per-hour pricing, and street parking prepaid by the firm have made around-town trips easy and cheap. You open its app to find a nearby car, walk to the vehicle and unlock it with the app, strap in and drive, pay about 40 cents a minute, and then park the car almost wherever.

[marble falls]

1. Its still a pretty good idea for cities where there is a high number of those who live downtown ...

in high rises.