Zipcar Inc., the world's leading car sharing network, completed its final step in the acquisition of Streetcar, a car club in London, according to a Nov. 1 press release.

With integration complete, members now have access to more than 1,700 vehicles across London, Cambridge, Oxford, Brighton, Bristol and Edinburgh, and more than 9,000 vehicles including the US and Canada. UK vehicles are available by the hour or the day for a fee (as low as 5 pounds Sterling per hour and 49 pounds Sterling per day) that includes parking, insurance, petrol, 40 free miles, a “congestion charge” and 24/7 roadside assistance.

“The idea behind bringing the two companies together was to offer a superior service to our members while achieving profitable growth,” said Scott Griffith, chairman and CEO of Zipcar. “With this important milestone in our rear view mirror, we are ready to continue the journey toward our vision of a world in which car sharers outnumber car owners in cities around the world.”

According to research by Frost & Sullivan, the market for car sharing in Europe could reach 5.5 million members and 3 billion euros.

UK members also have access to Zipcar's "Reserve a Zipcar" Facebook app, enabling members to reserve a car, check availability and manage existing reservations without leaving Facebook.

During the course of the past month, Zipcar coordinated a complex and comprehensive migration of more than 1,000 vehicles and tens of thousands of members from the Streetcar network into the Zipcar network. According to the release, the process went smoothly and every vehicle is now part of the Zipcar network and can be reserved via the Zipcar.co.uk website.

Every Streetcar member has been assigned a Zipcar account, and all members need to do is register online at https://zipcar.co.uk/streetcar/account/login to finalize the conversion and activate their new Zipcard.

Zipcar began its acquisition of Streetcar in April 2010; it was then approved by the UK Competition Commissioner in December 2010, according to archived press releases.

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