Quote:
Originally Posted by calgarygeologist
I really feel that if a business like this is going to succeed it has to be backed by a car manufacturer. I just don't see how a private enterprise can make money considering the high overhead cost of vehicle purchases/leasing, vehicle maintenance, insurance, fuel costs, parking, etc. At least with an automaker involved you could reduce the vehicle and maintenance costs significantly.
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Yeah, not many of these shared-transport ideas seem to particularly viable financially over the long-term, so they tend to need some sort of subsidy. Car2Go itself was a quasi-marketing play by Daimler to promote their SMART cars (which weren't doing too well in North America and this probably gave the cars some justification). I don't think it's a coincidence that once SMART exited the NA market, Car2Go soon followed.