Carsharing probably needs more cars

Share Now (nei(C) Car2go), in an email to members:

In an effort to improve the availability of the SHARE NOW fleet in areas of Seattle where they are most frequently requested, we are instituting a zone based pricing system, that will include either a Zone Fee or Zone Discount depending on the type of trip a member takes. The new model enables us to continue to offer our service to all areas of Seattle, a city requirement, while also providing incentives to members who bring our vehicles out of areas where cars sit idle for extended periods of time and into areas where they are most in-demand.

Less urbanized areas of the city, where cars were presumably seeing less utilization. Erica has a quote from the company's spokespeople:

Kendell Kelton, the North America communications manager for Share Now, says the new policy is designed to eliminate the problem of cars getting "stranded for 12 hours or more, effectively making them unavailable for a majority of our Seattle members who would otherwise use those vehicles." Currently, she says, one in five Share Now cars has to be relocated "in order to be close enough for members who need them." (That might explain why it's consistently so hard to find cars in West and Southeast Seattle.) "It should be noted we see much higher usage in more commercialized areas than residential ones," Kelton says.

The current city car sharing regulations allow up to 4 companies to offer 750 cars each. With BMW's Reach Now out of the picture, we have just two: Share Now and Lime (I don't believe Getaround or Zipcar count towards the 4?). Share Now is maxed out, while Lime's service, which started in the Spring, has grown by 300% and "has seen extraordinary success" according to spokesman (and friend of STB) Jonathan Hopkins.

The idea is clearly popular, and it seems likely that Seattlites would use the cars more often if there were more around. According to one study we covered, each carshare vehicle in the city removes as many as 10 private cars.

Carsharing has enormous capital outlays (the Mercedez-Benz GLA starts at $34k) and there seem to be winner-take-all dynamics to vehicle sharing, which says to me that it's unlikely we'll see four companies dive in to this market.

Since companies are forced to cover the entire city by the terms of their agreement, it would probably make more sense to raise or eliminate the cap and let the remaining companies determine how many cars the market will bear.