car2go Usage Increases 40% in First Half 2017

car2go N.A. has seen an increase in its carsharing service during the first six months of 2017.

Usage of car2go increased by 40% year-over-year in the first half of 2017 compared to the first half of 2016 across all 11 of the service's North American locations — with more than 4.5 million trips taken so far this year.

car2go members have also spent 33% more time traveling in car2gos in the first half of 2017 versus the first half of 2016, according to the company.

"car2go is an increasingly important part of more and more peoples' lives, and it's so satisfying to see how we are tangibly improving quality of life through carshare in cities across North America," said Paul DeLong, CEO of car2go North America. "We are continually working to help more people in cities travel easily and affordably, and are in discussions with a number of additional cities who — like us — want to deliver the many economic and environmental benefits of one-way carsharing to their residents and visitors."

In January, car2go started offering Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Since then, car2go currently offers larger four-door, five passenger Mercedes-Benz vehicles in eight of the service’s 11 North American locations. According to the company, it plans to bring Mercedes-Benz vehicles to additional North American locations and will eventually have a North American fleet made up predominantly of Mercedes-Benz CLA and GLA vehicles.

"In July 2016, we released results of our three-year study examining the impact of one-way carsharing across five North American cities,” said Susan Shaheen, co-director of the University of California Berkeley's Transportation Sustainability Research Center. “Across the cities, we found that one-way carsharing services, like car2go, were responsible for removing up to 11 other vehicles from urban streets while also reducing carbon emissions on net. It's encouraging to see that car2go's membership not only continues to rise, but that car2go's members are opting to choose carsharing more frequently when they travel."

Among car2go's locations, New York, Toronto, and Vancouver have experienced the fastest year-over-year membership growth in the first half of this 2017. Vancouver tops all North American car2go membership with over 135,000 local members. In the U.S., Seattle leads with more than 95,000 members.