Daimler has announced that it will expand its car2go program to Austin, Texas in the fall of 2009. This will be the first domestic location for the unique car rental program. The program’s initial launch was October 24, 2008 in Ulm, Germany. At the time of the launch, 50 smart fortwos were available.

Due to the success of the car2go program, the Ulm fleet will be expanded to 200 smart fortwo cdi vehicles available for short-term rentals around the clock. As with most innovating things I report about, this was initially limited to a non-US location. Thankfully, Daimler will be branching out and Austin, Texas is on the list.

“As in the first phase of the German pilot project, car2go will begin in Austin with a defined group of users, for example city employees. It is then planned to make car2go accessible to the public in Austin in a second step.

Other factors predestining Austin to be the first international car2go city are the city’s size and its up-to-date economic structure. Among other things it is the location of the fourth largest university in the USA. Beginning in autumn 2009 a fleet expected to number 200 smart fortwo mhd vehicles with automatic start/stop function will be put into operation there.” Source: Daimler

Let’s hope that the results are positive and we see more car2go cities on Daimler’s radar.

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