Car2Go, an hourly rental car company that provides easy access to vehicles for travelers in various different cities across the world, just isn’t cutting it anymore. The company is ceasing operations in five big North American hubs—and it’s phasing out pretty damn quickly.
Austin, Calgary, Denver, and Portland will see the removal of all Car2Go operations by October 31st, and Chicago will cease operations by December 31, a Car2Go press release has announced. That will leave only five other big North American hubs available for Car2Go rental: Montreal, Vancouver, New York City, Seattle, and Washington.
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Car2Go is best known for its use of Smart cars as its small and dependable transportation options. Anyone with the app can pick up a car from one of a city’s several Car2Go stations for an affordable price.
Basically, this all comes down to a drastic change in the transportation industry since Car2Go’s launch in 2009. That ten-year period has seen the rise of ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft, electric scooters, dockless bikeshares, and other so-called mobility solutions descending on cities across America. Car2Go notes that this influx of options has caused a pretty volatile transportation market. From the post:
We had to face the reality that despite our efforts, we underestimated the investment and resources that are truly necessary to make our service successful in these complex transportation markets amid a quickly-changing mobility landscape.
The remaining cities in the North American Car2Go market will thus see an influx of funding and attention. While it’s impossible to make any accurate predictions about the transportation market, it’s believed that those five cities will provide the most success for free-floating carsharing.
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