2009 Smart Fortwo Passion on 2040-cars

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Car2go brings incentives to charging in San Diego

Plugging in a vehicle to get power makes sense when that vehicle is owned by one person or family and – like most of the cars on the planet – sits still for most of the day. But when you're trying to share an EV, or a few hundred of them, charging time becomes doubly important. You need those electrons to move but every minute spent charging is time the car can't be shared. So, in San Diego, the all-electric Car2go program is changing how it gets more juice into its battery-powered Smart cars. While Car2go users have always been able to park at a charging station and plug in, Car2go has needed to use a fleet team to move the cars around and make sure they're charged up. To encourage users to leave the cars in a new downtown "Incentive Zone" (where, we presume, the fleet team will have an easier time recharging the cars), they can get free drive time just for parking the car in the right area. If the drive is over 10 minutes, they'll get a 10-minute credit. Since the Smart EDs can take up to six hours to charge, parking them in a central are should simplify things. The new policy started yesterday and the free minutes will last until the end of the year.

Should Smart bring the Forfour to the USA?

With sales not improving much even with the new Fortwo, should Smart bring the other car it sells around the world? It's called the Forfour because, well, it's for four people. Smart has said it would cannibalize the Fortwo's sales, but sales are money and the automaker should be happy if it can sell more cars and have a real presence in the market. Many people say the only reason they don't buy the Fortwo is the lack of a backseat or because with the price range of the tiny car you can get something bigger. Those issues are resolved with the Forfour. Besides, the USA market is showing some willingness to accept small hatchbacks if they offer good value for the money or are fun to drive that's the reason Fiat came back to the USA with the 500, Chevrolet sells the Spark and Sonic, Ford offers the Fiesta, Toyota imports the Yaris, the Honda Fits is in its third generation, that's why Hyundai keep selling the Accent and Kia the Rio, and Nissan brought the Versa Note, even Mitsubishi sells in decent numbers the dull looking Mirage. The Smart Forfour would be a nice addition to the segment. And an interesting one too as it would be the only one with the engine located in the back, that's right, in the back, below the cargo area. Power is provided by the same engine that moves the Fortwo: 0.9L turbo 3 cylinder with 89 HP, the transmission can be a 5 speed manual or a 6 speed double clutch automatic. Now let's think for a minute: manual, RWD and rear-engined...sounds like fun. While the Fortwo is a niche car bought only for the enthusiasts, ads companies or Car2Go, the Forfour belongs to a real segment with plenty of competition that don't offer the funky style and other features the Smart does. So, the question is: should Smart bring the Forfour to the USA? Let us know in the comments below. Image Credit: Alfonso Rascon smart smart forfour open road

BMW negotiates Daimler alliance, buys out car-service partner Sixt

Sixt sells its stake in DriveNow car-sharing to BMW BMW in talks with Daimler to combine car-sharing Combining car-sharing business to aid robotaxi plans FRANKFURT — Germany's BMW has bought out partner Sixt from their joint venture DriveNow, paving the way for a broader car-sharing and driverless taxi alliance with Daimler to compete against Uber and Lyft. Car rental company Sixt said on Monday it would generate an extraordinary pre-tax profit of about 200 million euros ($248 million) in 2018 from the sale of the DriveNow stake to BMW for 209 million euros. "With DriveNow as a wholly-owned subsidiary, we have all options for continued strategic development of our services," said Peter Schwarzenbauer, BMW's board member for Digital Business Innovation. "Our experience with mobility services supports our development of future autonomous, electrified and connected fleets," he said, adding that BMW aims to have 100 million customers for "premium mobility services" by 2025. The Sixt deal comes as BMW moves closer to a deal to combine its car-sharing services with Daimler's Car2Go, a person familiar with the discussions told Reuters last week. The German carmakers want to build a joint business that includes car sharing, ride-hailing, electric vehicle charging, and digital parking services, a senior executive at one of the companies said on Monday. Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler and BMW declined comment on the status of potential talks on their car-sharing business. "This is speculation, we do not comment," BMW said. The senior executive, who declined to be named because the plan is not public, said: "This will create an ecosystem which can also be used for managing robotaxi (driverless taxi) fleets." BMW would contribute its ParkNow and ChargeNow businesses to the common company, the executive said, adding that there were still differences of opinion over the valuation of Car2Go. The market for ride-hailing services currently makes up around 33 percent of the global taxi market, and could grow eightfold to $285 billion by 2030, once autonomous robotaxis are in operation, Goldman Sachs said in a recent research note. BMW and Daimler are now working on developing autonomous cars, vehicles which could enable them to up-end the market for taxi and ride-hailing services.