Shared mobility as we all know has come a long way over the past decades.
From conventional public transit buses toremote-controllede-scooters, the space has forever been evolving to cover all aspects of transportation.
Mobilizing people (individuals) over shorter distances has been the focus of micromobility (viz.
Bikes, scooters).
Factors such as parking and zonal (e.g.
city-center) restrictions seem to impact the decision to leave ones car behind more.
There clearly is a gap that exists between micromobility and carsharing.
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Decades later bikesharing was introduced which was quickly followed by shared scooters, and since then the term micromobility.
However, cities grow increasingly concerned and worried over the operating models of these services.
Microcars can play a critical role in this space, but before that, what are microcars?
Additionally, they take up less road and parking space.
These vehicles have had a history.
What has made them rebound?
And most can share the road with other vehicles (not needing additional infrastructure viz., special lanes).
Read:
Have such microcars been used in carsharing yet?
How do/did they fare?
Short answer: Yes and fairly successful.
It was a member-favorite as long as the operations were available in cities across Europe and North America.
The tiny car made great sense for short-to-mid length urban trips with promising utilization levels.
In many cities, Car2Go could provide great value for money compared to Uber/Lyft rates.
Groupe Renault is one of the pioneers in launching a production model, street-legal electric microcar in recent times.
The Twizy, was tested for carsharing and car rental business models and launched in afew countries.
France being one of them.
Once again, one of the selling points for this service was affordability i.e.
Group company Nissan, followed a small-scale implementation of Twizy-basedcarshare in Japanin 2017.
Much recently, CitroensAmi was inducted into Free2Moves fleet in France.
Out of the above three, Car2Gos Smart ForTwo was the most successful.
That way range anxiety for EVs will no longer be a barrier.
Microcars on average have between 80~200 km range batteries.
Not surprisingly, lower-income communities had higher commuting distances.
Heres where shared mobility can make a difference and complement public transit.
While micromobility may plug the last mile connectivity, microcars through car-sharing can bridge the medium distance commute.
Why do we need another new mode in shared mobility?
As micromobility is expanding its user (demographic) base, it still remains broadly between 18~39 years.
The main difference between these modes being the cost of operations and hence the rental rates.
Microcars in shared mobility can solve this.
Electric car-sharing is all the more out of reach for low-income communities.
Microcars have the potential to overcome that.
The sheer pleasure of driving an EV still remains which will be quite attractive to many.
Changing commuting patterns and behavior is key to the success of a shared mobility service.
Lower asset costs of microcars directly benefit carsharing operations.
As EVs, these cars require nearly zero-maintenance.
Smaller batteries mean a shorter range (~150km) which also means faster charging times.
Carsharing with microcars is being tested for diverse use cases including one asa complement to other shared mobility modes.
The EU classifies these vehicles as quadricycles (depending on the weight, engine power, and speed).
Safety
As per the size of these vehicles, they tend to save on insurance costs for the operator.
These microcars are different from your conventional cars.
Manufacturing and service support
One of the major success factors for shared fleet vehicles is reliability.
While all microcar manufacturers might ensure quality products, testing reliability is critical.
Not to mention, after-sales support will play an important role too.
In conclusion
The world of shared mobility has been evolving.
Todays technology has helped make this possible and more convenient than ever before.
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