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.

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.

Renault is planning a modified version of the City K-ZE small electric car offered at competitive prices in China for the European market. However, the price for Europe is still unclear, as is the brand under which the K-ZE will be sold in Europe.

Vulog is a technology platform that backs many of today’s car-sharing offers. With its global presence, Vulog is running a series of mobility talks, and CEO Gregory Ducongé and Nora Manthey sat down at the London session, where the CEO shared his insights into urban co-mobility.

The electric car startup Canoo (formerly Evelozcity) from Los Angeles has presented its first vehicle model of the same name. The spacious electric vehicle offers space for seven people and is to be offered exclusively by subscription from 2021 – initially in Los Angeles.

The British Labour party, currently in opposition, is taking a stand on electric mobility for the new elections that are likely to take place soon in the wake of Brexit chaos. In the event of an election victory, Labour wants to massively promote the purchase of electric cars with a series of measures.

The City of Munich and the BMW Group are expanding their cooperation in the field of e-mobility. On the basis of this partnership, the car sharing provider Share Now is expanding its Munich electric fleet from 85 at present to 200 BMW i3 by the end of 2019.

The Norwegian utility Stakraft has acquired the electric vehicle charging company E-Wald GmbH. The acquisition is to strengthens Statkraft’s position in the German and European charging market and follows similar deals made earlier this year.

Kia wants to achieve the European CO2 emission targets with a strategy focusing on battery-electric cars. In an interview Emilio Herrera, Chief Operating Officer of Kia Europe, gave interesting insights into the plan, including “emergency” options.

Nissan and its China partner Dongfeng are currently in talks with Didi Chuxing to establish a joint venture with Didi’s ride-hailing and car sharing services. The Japanese and Chinese car makers should supply Didi with electric vehicles.

Volkswagen’s WeShare e-car sharing service was launched in Berlin today. The brand is now offering an entirely electric fleet with 1,500 e-Golf vehicles, all of which are powered by green electricity and more are to join.

According to sales manager Jürgen Stackmann, VW has now passed the mark of 20,000 pre-orders for the ID.3. Starting in 2020, the ID.3 will also be included in the electric car sharing service fleets at We Share.

In Solihull, England, vandals struck an electric car-sharing venture by the E-Car Club. Due to “exceptional levels of damage” made to the 18 Renault ZOE hatchbacks available, they had to be taken off the roads and the car sharing initiative suspended.

A fleet of 10 new electric vehicles are now available for short term rental in Bristol. Using funding from the EU project REPLICATE, ten Renault Zoe were brought to the city, available from nine locations across the city.

GM’s Maven is terminating its electric car-sharing service in eight major US cities, including New York and Chigaco. GM says the move is to concentrate on the remaining nine markets across North America.