Volkswagen will launch its WeShare offer with 800 electric cars in Hamburg next week after having to postpone the launch due to the pandemic several times. Initially, WeShare will distribute 400 ID.3 before reaching the final fleet size of 800 vehicles in April.

The New Zealand government has just approved funding for 22 new low-emission transport projects across the country. The projects in the latest round of government co-funding include a bike and car share scheme, EV charging stations as well as hydrogen and battery-electric trucks.

Kia has once again updated its strategic plan ‘Plan S’ and extended it to the year 2030. The plan includes expanding future mobility services, and new targets for sales of electrified vehicles, which includes both electric cars as well as purpose-built vehicles (PBV) in the commercial and sharing sectors.

Renault CEO Luca de Meo has presented his new strategy dubbed “Renaulution”. The Italian de Meo wants to give the French automaker a new business principle putting value above volume. Ten new electric models are to be launched by 2025.

About a year ago, Hyundai introduced an e-car sharing service for Spain under the VIVe label. Following the success of the pilot project in the village of Campisábalos, Hyundai is now rolling out the service nationwide.

The VW group and the Greek government have agreed to establish a “pioneering mobility system” on the Mediterranean island of Astypalea. To this end, the island’s current transport system is to be converted to electric vehicles and regenerative energies.

BMW and Daimler are now selling parts of their mobility-as-a-service businesses. Mobimeo, the German national rail service Deutsche Bahn subsidiary, is taking over parts of the B2B and B2G side of things, while Uber is apparently very interested in taking over the ride-hailing and micromobility-sharing service FreeNow.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is presenting a small vehicle called the Safe Light Regional Vehicle (SLRV), which combines lightweight construction with a fuel cell drive. As the name suggests, the futuristic two-seater is also intended to be particularly safe.

In the USA, AAA Car Subscription now offers 55 Volkswagen e-Golf electric vehicles for short-term subscription in the Sacramento area. The offer is part of  Electrify America’s Green City initiative.

After the Danish electric car-sharing provider GreenMobility expanded to Sweden in June, the launch in Finland is to follow this year: In the fourth quarter, GreenMobility plans to start with a fleet of 200 electric cars in Helsinki.

After the end of the e-car-sharing BlueIndy in Indianapolis, drone pictures now show the sad end of the perfectly good electric cars: They are being scrapped.

The Polish company Triggo has developed an electric light vehicle for large cities that can retract in width from 148 to 86 centimetres if necessary thanks to a variable chassis. Triggo is initially targeting the vehicle-sharing market with the 1+1-seater.

Renault is pondering to make 300 rental Zoe available free of charge for medical personnel in France in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. The electric cars could be taken from the standing fleet of the Zity car-sharing service.

Car-sharing in Europe is going electric as city regulators increasingly inhibit polluting vehicles and an ever-increasing range of electric car models becomes available. We analyse the industry developments.

The Hungarian provider GreenGo is starting an electric car-sharing service in Prague. The fleet will initially comprise of 100 VW e-Up and is to be doubled within three months. GreenGo is also active in Budapest, where the fleet was expanded last year from 45 to 300 electric cars.

Renault and Ferrovial will bring their electric car-sharing Zity, which was launched in Madrid in 2017, to Paris in March. The launch on the Seine will take place with 500 Renault Zoe, which should replace Renault’s previous Moov’in fleet. In the coming years, the electric car-sharing service is to be extended to other European cities.

The Danish electric car sharing provider GreenMobility plans to start operations in Vienna with 400 electric vehicles in the second half of 2020. Against this background, GreenMobility has signed a letter of intent with the Austrian Automobile, Motorcycle and Touring Club.

In the Netherlands, the car-sharing platform Amber and research organisation TNO are studying the optimal use of electric cars. By collecting battery data from the Amber fleet, the partners want to find out whether fleet managers can organise car-sharing in a way that extends battery life long-term.

WeShare, the car-sharing service from Volkswagen and Škoda, will expand to seven more cities in Germany and other European countries in 2020. Following Prague and Hamburg in the spring, WeShare will also be launched in Paris, Madrid, Budapest, Munich and Milan in the course of the year.

The INCIT-EV project, now launched and funded by the EU Commission, is concerned with the development of innovative charging technologies for electric vehicles until the end of 2023. Under the leadership of Renault, a total of 33 partners from eight countries are participating in the project.

The British Channel Island Jersey now has its first electric car-sharing up and running. The service called EVie is starting with four vehicles and hopes to have 20 operating by the end of the year, expanding to 40 by the end of 2021.

Austria aims to decarbonise its transport sector. The coalition of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Greens want public authorities to exclusively purchase zero-emission vehicles as early as 2022 and otherwise focus on subsidies for the electrification of official fleets, taxis, rental cars, car-sharing, public transport as well as private cars.

Toyota has just named some new key points for the market launch of the second generation of its Mirai fuel cell model. The production of the second model generation will start in Japan this autumn.

Denmark’s all-electric car-sharing provider GreenMobility is expanding into Belgium with a new operating licence in Antwerp. The company wants to set up a joint venture with local partners, that is to run a fleet of up to 350 e-cars.

The “Zero Emissions Roadmap 2028 2.0” for the Los Angeles area has just been presented. It outlines the way the city aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution by 25% by the 2028 Olympic Games. E-mobility plays an essential role.

The three-year strategic mobility partnership between Volkswagen and the City of Hamburg concluded in August 2016 has been extended. The most important news within the framework of the extension is that the WeShare car-sharing service will expand to Hamburg from spring next year.

Seat has set up a new urban mobility solutions development department, as well as introducing an electric scooter and a new electric kick scooter. Seat car sharing in Madrid is also to be integrated into the new unit.

Hyundai has established a new venture named MoceanLab to provide mobility services in LA. Starting with a pilot carsharing, Mocean Carshare will deploy up to 20 Hyundai Ioniq PHEVs across the city of angels still this year before adding pure electric vehicles to the fleet.

Hyundai has introduced the allegedly first rural electric car-sharing service in Spain under the VIVe label. The service starts with a Kona Electric and Ioniq Electric in Campisábalos in the province of Guadalajara.

Rwanda is the first African country in which Volkswagen intends to try its hand at an electric mobility project. Together with Siemens, VW has launched a pilot project to test the feasibility of e-mobility approaches in the East African country.