A decade of car-sharing with Daimler’s all-electric fleet

Mon, Sep 16th 2019, 18:53 Last updated 6 days, 1 hour ago

Daimler was the first manufacturer to put a fleet of 200 smart vehicles on the road for location-independent car-sharing in 2009. Ten years later, the sharing economy has grown into a booming industry – with car-sharing as one of the most popular business models. The brand celebrated the anniversary together with Share Now in Paris with a panel discussion on the topic.

Smart can rightfully call itself a pioneer of the sharing economy. In 2009, Daimler established the first fleet for free-floating car-sharing in Ulm with 200 smart vehicles. One year before, car2go – today Share Now – had started operations as the first location-independent car-sharing system worldwide. Today, Share Now has more than four million customers around the world, more than three million of them in Europe alone. The service provides some 20,000 vehicles, including 3200 electric cars. Customers take advantage of the offer in 31 cities in 14 countries for more than 100,000 drives a day, with more than 12,000 of them on all-electric power.

"When we started in Ulm in 2009, the sharing economy was still in its infancy,” said Jakob Luickhardt, portfolio strategy and hardware smart services.

“Today, free-floating car-sharing is a perfectly natural part of the daily routine in larger cities. We are delighted that we at smart together with Share Now have shaped this field from the very start and have also paved the way for private car-sharing. Because car-sharing reduces congestion, air pollution and parking shortages. Smart delivers the perfect vehicles for this purpose."