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Car2go shuts down in the UK

Until now, the trajectory of the Car2go carsharing service has been growth, growth, growth. But the expansion has hit a snag in jolly old England, where Daimler has announced it will shut down operations there. This means that the two Car2go UK locations, London and Birmingham, will no longer offer one-way, short-term car rentals as of tomorrow. Car2go is blaming "the UK's strong culture and tradition of private vehicle ownership" for the failure of the carsharing program in England. The company isn't giving up yet, and says it will "continue to observe the UK market for cultural changes towards the 'free-floating [carsharing] model'." UK Car2go members will still be able to use their moovel-accounts at Car2go projects in other European cities. The problem, a spokesman told Reuters, is that Car2go never registered over 10,000 users in the UK. Globally, there are over 750,000 Car2go users. Car2go started offering trips in the UK in the fall of 2012, when things were much more positive. The company said that it convinced the City of Birmingham to partner with it on a urban mobility pilot project thanks to Car2go's "unique features and many years of global experience in the sector of urban mobility." WITHDRAWAL FROM UK MARKET car2go, the pioneer of "free-floating" car sharing, will be withdrawing from the UK with effect from 30 May 2014. We've listened closely to customer feedback and taking the UK's strong culture and tradition of private vehicle ownership into account, we have decided to withdraw from the UK market place. car2go launched in Birmingham in 2013 and has been operating in three London boroughs since December 2012. The unique challenges we encountered were more significant than expected. As the world's largest free-floating carsharing provider, we will continue to observe the UK market for cultural changes towards the "free-floating model". car2go will continue to be a worldwide success story as we operate in a total of 25 cities around the World with more than 700,000 customers. With a moovel-account and a validated driving licence you will be still able to use car2go in all other 12 European car2go cities. === CLOSURE OF CAR2GO BIRMINGHAM AND WITHDRAWAL FROM UK MARKET car2go, the pioneer of "free-floating" car sharing, will be withdrawing from Birmingham with effect from 30 May 2014.

Car2go NA's new CEO says carsharing service will upgrade tech

Since its first car was shared in the US in 2009, Car2go has seen tremendous growth and a steadily increasing number of users. Car2go is the largest carsharing company in the world today, and the company's North American division just got a new president and CEO: former marketing and sales manager Paul DeLong (pictured, above right). DeLong announced his new position in a letter to Car2go users and said that the company is working on some "key service upgrades" for the ways that the cars connect to Car2go's servers and will soon be using "local mobile providers and 3G networks, resulting in a faster connection when members begin and start their trip." The first city to get upgraded is Seattle. Announcing car2go's new CEO with some key service upgrades planned for you. Today, I have officially transitioned into a new role as the CEO and President of car2go North America. Joining car2go when it was first introduced in Austin in 2009 was the best decision that I've ever made, and as I kick off my first day as CEO today, I would like to share with you what we have in the pipeline for our valued members in the coming months, as well as my thoughts on car2go's bright future. • Our service is getting a speed upgrade. Currently, we are operating a massive switch to introduce technology that will allow us to use local mobile providers and 3G networks, resulting in a faster connection when members begin and start their trip. In fact, we are actively working on this in Seattle at this moment. • Accelerated development with new product features. The past two weeks, we have been working hard to migrate our IT systems to a high-performance cloud-based solution, which will accelerate the development of product updates for our services, and improve and scale our business in all of our cities worldwide. While the upgrades to the new and improved technology have been significant, we realize that they have not been easy. Some members may have been affected recently by disruptions to our service, but we would like to reassure you that all of these investments in our technology will make the car2go experience live up to your expectations. At car2go, we don't strive for just "OK," we strive to be a trusted partner that helps you get from Point A to Point B with ease.

Smart Fortwo Cabriolet coming to Frankfurt Motor Show

We kinda-sorta already knew this, but at an event this week in Portland, OR, Smart USA executives officially confirmed that the new Fortwo Cabriolet will bow at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month. The Fortwo and Forfour hardtop models have already been on sale in Europe for a few months, and the US-spec Fortwo hits dealerships at the end of September. The Brabus Fortwo will launch in the "middle of next year," according to Smart boss Dr. Annette Winkler. But for now, the full Brabus model will not come to the US. Instead, there will be a "Brabus Tailor Made" program that we'll be hearing more about soon. On the EV side, we know that a new Smart Electric Drive is in the works. Last we heard, it'll launch in early 2017, and Winkler's comments this week reconfirm that. The car will debut at the end of 2016, so US sales will likely commence early the following year. In the meantime, the current Smart ED will be sold alongside the brand-new model. We had a chance to sample the European-spec Smart Fortwo (and Forfour) earlier this year, and found it to be a vastly improved product overall. We'll have our full impressions of the US-spec car soon, so stay tuned.