Daimler prepares Car2Share at Beijing Fair
- By Chen Boyuan
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 16, 2016
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Chen Bing, director of business innovation at Daimler Great China, speaks about the development of Car2Share in China at a briefing session for UrbanTec Asia of the CIFTIS on Thursday. [Photo by Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn] |
German automobile-maker Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz and Smart, plans to promote its Car2Share car-sharing service at the upcoming China Beijing International Fair for Trade in Service (CIFTIS) to be held between May 28 and June 1.
Car2Share, as its name suggests, provides cars to share for office workers in centralized rental office buildings in major cities. It exclusively offers Smart Fortwo vehicles and features return-trip point-to-point rentals.
Car2Share charges its user by both minute and mile. For the Beijing market, the rent is 12 yuan (US$1.84) for each half an hour plus 0.8 yuan (US$0.12) for each kilometer. The price includes the fuel expense and insurance.
To raise its market recognition in Beijing, the company is offering a special flat rate for night time (6pm-9am) and weekends (6pm Friday-9am Monday), 98 yuan (US$15) and 388 yuan (US$59.4) respectively.
Available cars are accessible via a smartphone app or through the company's official account on messaging platform WeChat.
Daimler unveiled the service in China in 2014 with the aim of maximizing the utilization of vehicles so that the number of cars could be brought down. It started its China service in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in part because these cities suffer from most severe traffic congestion and air pollution due to the large number of cars.
Also, cities like Beijing and Shanghai both limit monthly auto sales and Beijing even bans around one-fifth of all cars from the streets on workdays. The introduction of Car2Share has met the demand of those who either are waiting to buy a car or whose cars are under the ban.
"Meeting the demand of as many as possible users with the smallest possible number of cars has been our pursuit," said MS. Chen Bing, director of business innovation at Daimler Great China, on Thursday at the briefing session for UrbanTec Asia of the CIFTIS.
She said that Daimler hopes to catch the attention of more industrial park managers so that Car2Share will take root in more places, allowing its fleet to expand beyond the current 100 Smart cars.
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