'WeShare' is the New Electric Car Sharing Service from Volkswagen

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【Summary】Volkswagen released the first details of its upcoming “WeShare” car-sharing service. The business model will be quite similar to that of the General Motors’ Maven or the Car2go service launched by rival Daimler, but will only include electric cars.

Manish Kharinta Jul 01, 2019 5:00 AM PT

'WeShare' is the New Electric Car Sharing Service from Volkswagen

The WeShare service will include a fleet of Volkswagen e-Golfs.

Last year, German automaker Volkswagen announced that it was launching a car sharing service featuring an all-electric fleet. Staying true to its promise, the company released details of its upcoming "WeShare" car-sharing service.

The business model will be quite similar to that of the General Motors' Maven or the Car2go service launched by rival Daimler, but will only include electric cars.

For now, the WeShare service is launching in Berlin with an on-demand rental fleet of 1,500 Volkswagen e-Golf electric cars. Volkswagen confirmed that it plans on adding another 500 electric cars to the WeShare fleet by early next year.

Volkswagen also plans on introducing its WeShare service in Prague by 2020 in collaboration with its Czech subsidiary Skoda.

The company also disclosed that it intends on incorporating the compact "e-Up!" electric city car into the WeShare fleet, which will be followed by Volkswagen's upcoming ID.3 EV once it makes its global debut.

Volkswagen aims on introducing the ID.3 EV by the middle of 2020. The launch of the ID.3 e will mark the introduction of the company's ID lineup, comprised of all new electric vehicles featuring the company's next-generation EV platform and vehicle design.

The WeShare service offers a free-floating arrangement, allowing customers to pick up their rental car from the nearest available public parking spot. As part of the WeShare service, Volkswagen will recharge the EVs as needed.

Volkswagen plans on taking advantage of Berlin's current public charging network to recharge its fleet and will later introduce a program that incentivizes volunteers to charge up their vehicles as needed.

Volkswagen reasons that the growing number of car-sharing service users will be a key factor behind the success of its WeShare program.

In an official press release, the company notes that the total number of car-sharing service users in Berlin has grown from 180,000 in 2010 to 2.46 million in early 2019.

Volkswagen also owns an all-electric right sharing network called MOIA, which operates exclusively in the German cities of Hanover and Hamburg.