Automakers have cautiously been exploring car sharing. The inherent conflict is that if more people share cars, fewer people will buy cars. But at CES this week Daimler said it plans to expand its car-sharing service Car2Go to 12 more cities this year. Read More »
Cleantech
Zipcar turned its first quarter profit in a decade recently. Zipcar’s CEO, Scott Griffith, answers questions about the future of the company and the $10B global car sharing market. Read More »
Car sharing company Zipcar says it plans to offer cargo vans — Zipvan — in a pilot project in San Francisco in response to customers showing an interest in renting large Zipcars by the hour for moving stuff around cities. Read More »
The third quarter’s numbers are out from the Green IT section of GigaOM’s research subscription service GigaOM Pro. Solar is struggling, while IT-based systems like car sharing are soaring. Dig into the details with us. Read More »
Two peer-to-peer car sharing startups have launched in the Bay Area in recent months (there’s at least five here now), and there’s four peer-to-peer car sharing companies in France. Here’s my cheat sheet of a dozen companies offering websites to facilitate car sharing among neighbors. Read More »
Auto giant GM is making its first move into car sharing by partnering with San Francisco-based peer-to-peer car sharing startup RelayRides, using its communications system OnStar. RelayRides also says it is in advanced discussions with GM about an investment. Read More »
Zipcar co-founder and former CEO Robin Chase gives her insights into the importance of branding and her experience creating the car sharing company Zipcar. Read More »
The relationship between car sharing companies and automotive manufacturers bears scrutiny, says GigaOM Pro analyst Adam Lesser in his weekly column. Read More »
Neighbor-to-neighbor car sharing startup Getaround has raised a seed round of funding of $3.4 million. Investors in the round include TechCrunch creator Michael Arrington‘s Crunchfund, Redpoint Ventures, General Catalyst, and a group of angel investors. Read More »
While many of you know this to be anecdotally true, here’s an official study on the trend: According to the University of California Transportation Center, car sharing leads to the reduction of personal vehicles owned. Read More »
Tech stocks took a beating on Monday morning, the first day of trading after Standard & Poor downgraded the credit ratings of credit agencies. At the same time, greentech stocks — from solar to biofuels to smart grid — fell alongside the weak macro economic news. Read More »
With all the attention (not all of it good) that collaborative consumption companies like Airbnb have been getting lately, we’ve been mulling over some tips for entrepreneurs looking to either start one of these companies now, or hoping to make one of these companies succeed. Read More »