car2go Expands in Miami, Toronto and Calgary; More Charging Points in Amsterdam

car2go North America LLC will expand its carsharing operations in the United States and Canada this summer, making urban mobility more convenient, more flexible, and more widely available than ever before.

car2go will officially start operations in Toronto on June 30, in Calgary on July 21 and in Miami, Florida on July 28.

For a limited time, people can use a promotion code to receive 30 free minutes of driving time and have the one-time $35 membership fee waived: Codes are TDOT for Toronto, ONWARD for Calgary and HEAT for Miami. You can sign up at the car2go website.

Each car2go city in North America has a large network of 200 to 300 fuel-efficient smart fortwo cars that are available for members to use 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As the world's first free-floating carsharing service, car2go provides a new way of carsharing that is unique, particularly in these three areas:

• FREE FLOATING: Members can pick up and drop off any car2go anywhere within the car2go Home Area — they do not need to drive the car back to its original location or commit to a predetermined amount of time. They can simply drive the car for as long as they need it, park the car at their destination, and end the rental by swiping the card on the windshield reader. At this moment the car becomes available for the next member to use.
• PAY BY THE MINUTE: Members pay by the minute for the actual time they use the car, with discounted rates for hourly and daily use. There is no minimum amount of time that a car can be used — whether they need a car for ten minutes or an entire day, members simply get in and drive, for as long as they want, without a mandatory return time or location. Parking fees, fuel, maintenance and insurance are included at no additional cost, and there are no annual or monthly fees.
• ON DEMAND: Members can use the first available car2go they find, via a smart phone app, with the car2go vehicle finder at car2go.com, by calling the customer call center, or by simply locating an available car2go on the street. Members can also reserve a vehicle up to 24 hours in advance, although reservations are not required. Members have unrestricted and unlimited access to car2go vehicles 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In Europe, at the already-existing program in Amsterdam, the smart fortwo electric drive models now have new places to charge up. car2go today announced that 18 new dedicated electric vehicle charging points are available in three Amsterdam Q-Park garages.

After successfully launching car2go in November 2011, more than 7.000 members are using the service for their trips in the Amsterdam city center. To locate available vehicles, car2go provides all members with a free Dutch Smartphone application and is going to introduce its driving style analysis called “EcoScore” to reduce power consumption.

Developed four years ago at the Daimler Business Innovation Unit in Stuttgart, Germany, car2go currently provides more than 4,000 fuel-efficient smart fortwo vehicles (including 625 electric drive cars) to more than 100,000 members worldwide for shared use. Collectively car2go members have taken more than two million trips throughout 11 cities worldwide. The number of car2go cities, members, and trips has more than doubled within the past six months.