In a matter of months, there will be more electric car rentals in Madrid available for urban and peri-urban travel. Volkswagen will compete with Daimler, PSA, BMW and Renault for the Madrid market, among other European cities. WeShare right now only operates in Berlin.
Just as Daimler has car2go, PSA has Emov and Renault has Zity, Volkswagen has its own electric car rental service: "Weshare". It began its journey in Berlin back in June.
WeShare began operating in the city of Berlin with a fleet of 1,500 Volkswagen e-Golf, a model at the end of its commercial life that has exceeded 100,000 units sold. It is a very popular model in Germany both in its electric version and in any other. In fact, it is the best selling European compact.
Shortly after, in November, the availability of the servicewas also announced in Hamburg in spring of this year, 2020, with another 1,000 cars, a fleet composed of e-Golf and e-Up! Today the extension of the service to several European countries has been announced, among which ours will also be, and throughout the year.
Before the end of 2020, Volkswagen will distribute a total of 8,400 electric cars in the following cities: Madrid, Paris, Milan, Munich, Prague (Skoda only) and Budapest (Skoda only). Right now only the 1,500 e-Golf in Berlin is operational.
For the Spanish market, Volkswagen will distribute compact e-Golf and urban e-Up! We do not know how much it will cost, in Berlin e-Golf is rented for 19 euro cents per minute.
As the end of the year approaches, the new VW ID.3, the natural successor of e-Golf, will also be incorporated into the fleet.
Hopefully, the mode of use is exactly the same as Car2go, Emov, or Zity. Through mobile application "WeShare", users open the car remotely and just have to worry about reaching their destination and parking in a regulatory manner. Volkswagen may offer, like the competition, to be able to reserve the car for an entire day or do so only for minutes.
Volkswagen WeShare has 50,000 registered users in Berlin, of which slightly less than 75% have actually used the service and the rest are waiting to need it at some point. The 1,500 cars have moved an average of four to five times a day.
In Berlin, the e-Golf fleet accumulates more than 3 million kilometers in the last six months, which is not much, about 2,000 kilometers per car. As the urban area of Berlin is very large, it reflects that cars have barely been used. Volkswagen claims that its service has a "high" number of active users in relation to the competition.
e-Golf: Power consumption, kWh / 100 km: combined 14.1 with 17-inch wheels – 13.2 16-inch; combined CO₂ emissions, g/km: 0; efficiency class: A+
e-up!: Power consumption, kWh/100 km: 11.7 (combined); CO₂ emissions,
combined, g/km: 0; efficiency class: A+
In Spain, Volkswagen has reached an agreement with the Schwarz Group to have charging points in Lidl and Kaufland supermarkets: 140 charging points distributed in 70 stores.
Update 2023: Great news! MILES Mobility has acquired Volkswagen WeShare, and they're planning to integrate the car sharing service into their own portfolio. This means you'll have even more options for getting around in a convenient and eco-friendly way. Stay tuned for updates on when the integration will take place!
More than a week ago, a terrible event in which a 49-year-old woman lost her life after being run over by an autonomous test car by the Uber company in Tempe, Arizona, triggered discussions about autonomous driving . Both Uber and Toyota… Continue reading
Five years ago, Edwin Van Ruimbeke, an engineer from France, successfully raised funds for his ornithopter, a remote-controlled model capable of flying, flapping its wings, just like a real bird. Now he, inspired by the study of flying insects, he presents… Continue reading
According to the German Handelsblatt publication, the new Volkswagen small-class electric cars will be produced at the plant in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. This is the same factory where VW Up, Skoda Citigo and SEAT Mii are currently… Continue reading
Jyroball used the Indiegogo platform to launch its innovative product, the self-balancing Jyroweel unicycle in the form of a ball weighing 9 kg and with a diameter of only 25 cm. On the functional side, the Jyroball product is fairly standard… Continue reading
