car2go

"Viva la revolucion!"

Mercedes-Benz may not seem like the kind of company that would promote the social use of its vehicles, but at CES today, it was doing just that.

During the company's CES press conference, Daimler's chairman of the board of management, Dieter Zetsche, laid out a vision for car sharing that may be intimately tied to Mercedes cars in the future.

That's because future Mercedes cars will have a telematics app called CarTogether that can help drivers find people with whom to share rides. This is not quite the same thing, of course, … Read more

Car-sharing service Car2Go is open for business in San Diego. Starting today, prospective members can sign up to join the service and receive 30 minutes of free drive time in one of the electric Smart ForTwos in the fleet.

The Daimler-owned transportation startup is seeding San Diego with a fleet of all-electric two seaters that members can rent by the minute. Rates start at $0.35 per minute and are $12.99 per hour with a $65.99 maximum per day. Members can travel up to 150-miles per day in a rental. After that, it's 45 cents per mile. … Read more

Daimler subsidiary Car2Go is expanding its car-sharing business to San Diego, but it's taking the green concept one step further by making its vehicle fleet all-electric.

Car2go currently operates in Austin, Texas with a fleet of 300 two-seater gas-powered Smart ForTwos, which are produced by parent company Daimler. Members can rent the vehicles by the day, hour, or minute, and unlike ZipCar, they don't have to specify a time by which they will return the vehicles. To rent a car, participants locate an available vehicle using the Web site or mobile app. When they're finished using the … Read more

Timed almost perfectly to avoid the swarms of tourists that will descend upon the city for the weeklong SXSW, Daimler's car-sharing program Car2Go will expand its service area and add more cars to its fleet in downtown Austin.

Car2Go is a lot like ZipCar with the difference that its rental fleet consists entirely of Smart ForTwos that you can rent by the minute. Another differentiating perk is that you don't have to return vehicles to the same location where you picked them up--you can drop off a rental in any valid and publicly accessible parking space. But starting … Read more

Toyota starts a hybrid price war, new Camaro won't get a 4-cylinder or convertible, Twitter on OnStar and Opera browser on F-150's, plus a ride in the X5 xDrive35d.

• Prius vs. Insight price war

• EV start-up wants to merge with GM

• Nissan's electric car

• Mazda doesn't buy into all this hybrid stuff

• OnStar to support Twitter in dash?

It's impulse shopping meets car rental. Car2go, a car-sharing concept from Daimler, will launch in Austin, Texas, in fall 2009. The service will enable members to use their mobile phones to locate and rent one of a fleet of 200 cars near them without advance reservation.

The business model is similar to other car-sharing programs (such as Zipcar) in the U.S. with a few exceptions. The company's entire fleet of rental vehicles consists of Daimler's fuel-sipping, two-seater smart Fortwos. Registered members can rent the cars via their mobile phones and unlock the car with their membership … Read more