Claiming a world first, Norwegian company Move About recently launched a pay-as-you-go electric car sharing service to the general public in Norway’s capital Oslo.
Anyone with a membership can book electric cars on their website, pick their car up at one of their pickup locations in the Oslo region and zip merrily along to the gentle hum of the electric engine.
Their current fleet of vehicles is 13 electric cars – all Think City cars – spread across three pickup sites. Both the number of available cars and pickup sites will be ramped up over the next 12 to 18 months, with 75 cars to serve Oslo’s population of 600.000 being the target.
Pickup sites will be placed close to infrastructure junctions for other modes of transport, like trains, subway and city bike racks.
With the Think City having a range of 180 kilometers (111.8 miles) on a full charge, the service obviously isn’t an attempt to cover everyone’s full transport needs, but it’s a perfect offer for anyone with occasional, short trip needs.
Membership and rental prices are quite reasonable – the monthly membership fee is 100 Norwegian kroner (currently USD $15.5), and a full weekend’s use is 800 kroner (USD $124), with no extra distance charges and insurance included.
This might not seem very reasonably priced to you, but considering that typical Norwegian prices for a regular car full weekend rental will quickly amount to 2000 kroner – with extra charges for long-distance driving and fuel cost – it’s really quite acceptable.
The only other proper car sharing service in the Oslo area (Bilkollektivet) charges a one time fee of 6000 and a yearly fee of 590 kroner for membership, and 792 kroner for a weekend’s use (insurance and fuel not included).
This post was tagged with: car sharing, cars, city cars, electric car, electric cars, infrastructure, modes of transport, vehicles