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Car2go carsharing service will debut in Rome in mid-March

When in Rome, folks can start using Daimler's Car2go car-sharing service. The Mercedes-Benz parent says its car-sharing fleet of Smart Fortwo two-seaters will be available in the Italian capital starting mid-March. Upon the debut, about 300 cars will be available, with another 200 added by April. Lessons in Italian driving gestures will not be included. Still, the service appears to have been well-received in Italy, as Car2go made its Italian debut in Milan just this past August. The Rome service, which is technically a joint-venture between Car2go and Europcar, covers about 40 square miles and costs 29 euro cents (about 40 cents US) per minute. The company says it will provide the city's first car-sharing service in which the vehicle can be picked up and dropped off at different locations. With Rome on board, Car2go is available in 26 global cities, including London, Berlin, Vienna and Munich. Car2go has a fleet of 10,500 vehicles (including 1,200 Smart Fortwo ED electric vehicles) and services more than 600,000 customers worldwide. Car2go debuted in Ulm, Germany in 2008 and started US service in Austin, Texas in the fall of 2009. The service became available in Montreal last October. Check out Car2go's press release on its Rome chapter below. car2go starts in Rome Launch in mid-March with initially 300 out of a total of 500 smart fortwos in a business area of around 100 square kilometers Possibility of access to traffic-calmed downtown With Rome, car2go is now present in 26 European and North American cities Ciao Roma! car2go launches in Rome: car2go, the pioneer and market leader in the field of short-duration A to B car rental, is launching its service in the Italian capital in mid-March with 300 smart fortwos. car2go, the pioneer and market leader in the field of short-duration A to B car rental, is launching its service in the Italian capital in mid-March with 300 smart fortwos. An increase to 500 vehicles is already scheduled for April 2014. Following the great success in Milan, Rome is car2go's second city on the Italian market. Rome is the fifth European capital to benefit from flexible car-sharing with car2go. "Rome is the city of the smart and the perfect place for the compact two-seater. With car2go, we are bringing the success story of flexible car-sharing to Rome," comments Thomas Beermann, Managing Director of car2go Europe GmbH, enthusiastically on the new launch.

New Smart ForTwo ED charges faster and goes quicker

Two years after the reveal of the redesigned ForTwo, Smart has unveiled its electrified sibling in European guise. The ForTwo Electric Drive (ED) will once again be available here in coupe and convertible variants, and it does offer some improvements over the previous one. Smart also introduced an electric ForFour for the first time as well, but like its gasoline counterpart, it won't come here. The biggest improvement the new ForTwo ED has over its predecessor, besides the better looks and chassis, is a much faster charging time. The car now uses a system that allows for a full charge from a 240 volt household charger in just two and a half hours. The previous model took roughly six hours to do the same thing. The car itself is a smidge faster as well. The rear-mounted motor now produces 80 horsepower and 118 lb-ft of torque compared with the 74 horsepower and 96 lb-ft of the outgoing car. On paper, it is ever so slightly quicker with a claimed 0-60 time of 11.4 seconds for the coupe, which is one tenth quicker than the old coupe. The top speed is also up by 3 mph. View 12 Photos As for the all-important matter of range, Smart gave a rating of 99 miles on the European test cycle. Compared with the previous version's approximately 90 mile range, it has a 10-percent improvement. On the US test cycle, the old ForTwo ED has a range of 76 miles. So we can expect a range of about 83 miles assuming the 10-percent increase carries over to our test cycle. The new ForTwo ED also brings along other features from its predecessors. Once again, it will be available with exclusive Electric Green safety cell and mirror cap accents. Take note, however, that the Brabus appearance parts on the cabriolet pictured here are only available in Europe. The car will also be compatible with the Smart Control app. Not all of the features for the app have been finalized for the US yet, but, in its current iteration, it allows owners to find places to charge, monitor charging and adjust charging and climate control settings from a computer or phone. The climate control features allow the driver to set a departure time and temperature, and the car will adjust the cabin while plugged in instead of using precious battery power. The charging settings offer the option to let the car adjust charging based on peak usage, which could lead to a longer charge, but one that doesn't cost as much. One thing we don't know about the ForTwo ED is price, which Smart did not reveal.

Recharge Wrap-up: Smart Silvretta E-Car Rally, Uber's autonomous Teslas

Daimler took part in the 2015 Silvretta E-Car Rally with seven electrified cars from Mercedes-Benz and Smart. It is the automakers' sixth year competing in the competition in the mountains of Austria's Montafon region. Mercedes fielded two B-Class Electric Drives, an SLS AMG Electric Drive, C350e, S500e and GLE500e 4Matic alongside a Smart Brabus Fortwo Electric Drive Cabriolet. The Silvretta Rally sees some 150 vintage cars and 30 electric vehicles take part in the event, which took place from July 2 through 5 this year. Read more in the press release from Daimler below. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick says that he'd want to buy all of Tesla's autonomous vehicles if they were available in 2020. Venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson relayed Kalanick's comments from the Top 10 Tech Trends dinner in June. Jurvetson also praises self-driving cars, saying, "I believe they are already safer than my parents, and I would trust my kids with them. And they're just going to get better." Jurvetson also believes that taxi services will prosper from the use of autonomous cars in the future. Read more at Hybrid Cars. A Michigan legislator has introduced a bill that would count burning industrial solids — such as tires and plastics — toward the state's renewable energy mandate. Aric Nesbitt's bill would "remove unnecessary burdens on the appropriate use of solid waste as a clean energy source" in order to meet the state's requirement that 10 percent of energy come from renewable sources. Critics argue that these materials are not truly renewable, and that burning them causes pollution and emits greenhouse gases. The proposed bill would also repeal a law requiring utilities to work toward reducing energy use by one percent per year. Read more at Treehugger. Will the cars National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) builds in China bear the Saab name? While NEVS is the newest parent company to Saab after being acquired in bankruptcy from Spyker, there's no confirmation that the electric vehicles it builds at its Tianjin plant will be sold as Saabs. Swedish defense firm Saab AB, which held the rights to the Saab name, withheld permission to use it after NEVS declared bankruptcy last year. "The exact models and brands are not finalized yet," says a NEVS spokesman. The company says it is spending $200 million to build the new factory in China, with an expected annual capacity of 200,000 vehicles. Read more at Automotive News Europe.