Car2Go switches from electricity to petrol
Car2Go, the leading car sharing company in San Diego, has announced its intentions to replace its 400 strong electric vehicle fleet with petrol-powered cars next month, and blames the switch on a lack of charging stations. City and environmental leaders said on Wednesday that the decision by Car2Go should be a call to action. "It's a lesson to all of us that we have to work harder to build the infrastructure necessary to support electric vehicles and other transportation modes," City Councilman Todd Gloria said. San Diego has a well-documented plan to cut carbon emissions in half by 2035, and car sharing was set to play a major role in achieving that goal, so this announcement by Car2Go is indeed a real setback to the city.

San Diego’s leading car sharing company will soon replace its all-electric vehicle fleet with gas-powered cars due to a lack of charging stations, a symbolic setback for the emission-reduction aspirations of the city’s ballyhooed climate action plan.

Electric cars are key to the ambitious plan’s requirement to cut carbon emissions in half by 2035, and car sharing plays a major role because it can fill small gaps in commutes that feature mass transit or bicycling.

City and environmental leaders said on Wednesday that the decision by Car2Go should be a call to action.

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“It’s a lesson to all of us that we have to work harder to build the infrastructure necessary to support electric vehicles and other transportation modes,” City Councilman Todd Gloria said.

Nicole Capretz, the primary author of the city’s climate plan and the executive director of the Climate Action Campaign, said the Car2Go decision is a frustrating step in the wrong direction.

“It’s disappointing because we as a city are on a pathway to a 100 percent clean energy future and we can’t do it without converting our vehicles to electric,” she said.

Car2Go has about 400 vehicles, amid hundreds of thousands on San Diego roads. And the emission reductions goals in the city’s climate plan don’t rely specifically on car-sharing vehicles becoming electric instead of gas-powered, relying instead on many thousands of private vehicles becoming electric.

But alternative fuel advocates see the retrenchment as a setback.

“This is a step backward, so we have to regroup and figure out some new solutions,” Capretz said.

Officials said part of any solution will likely be a plan San Diego Gas & Electric finalized in late January to install 3,500 charging stations across the county over the next three years.

That won’t happen quickly enough for Car2Go to reconsider the switch, which starts May 1 and should be complete within a month.

The company made San Diego the only North American city with an all-electric fleet when it launched service here five years ago, but company officials say that’s no longer sustainable.

A federally subsidized nonprofit called Ecotality had promised to install 1,000 charging stations across the city back then, but only 400 of those stations are in place because the company declared bankruptcy in 2013.

“What we expected as far as charging infrastructure versus what we were delivered just hasn’t added up,” said Car2Go spokeswoman Dacyl Armendariz.

“We’re just not able to keep the cars charged, and people aren’t able to charge them on their own,” she said. “We’re still committed to electric vehicles — it works in some of our cities in Europe where they have more robust charging infrastructure. We just don’t have the infrastructure we need here to make it work now.”

Many of the company’s 40,000 San Diego members say they often worry their Car2Go will run out of charge before they finish their trip, Armendariz said.

A fully charged Smart Car running on electric can travel a maximum of 65 miles, while a fully fueled Smart Car running on gas can go 342 miles, she said.

In San Diego, an average of 20 percent of Car2Go’s fleet is unavailable at any given time because the cars are either being charged or because they don’t have enough electricity in them to be driven.

Josh Moskowitz, a Car2Go regional manager, said that dynamic will allow the company to replace the electric cars with a smaller number of gas-powered vehicles, although he said the exact number was still being decided.

The switch will attract new members, he said, because it will increase confidence they can reach their destination.

“I think we’ll attract quite a few people who were on the fence because of ‘range anxiety’ with the electric vehicles,” Moskowitz said.

Car2Go also plans to reduce its per-minute usage charges from 41 cents to 19 cents to attract new members, he said.

The cost of electricity is included in the Car2Go fee, but private electric car users must pay either a monthly fee or an hourly rate to charge up at several hundred stations located across the city on both public and private property.

Car2Go’s fleet and pricing changes come as San Diego’s second car sharing service, Zipcar, is about to begin local operations. And a third company, DriveNow, is expected to enter the San Diego market later this year.

Zipcar and DriveNow will offer gas-powered cars, although they might also offer some hybrids or electric cars based on consumer demand, said Natasha Collura, who oversees city contracts with car-sharing services and other corporate partners.

Councilman Gloria suggested the changes by Car2Go are related partly to the new competition. In addition, ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft have become competitors for Car2Go with people who’ve given up their car or who are focused on driving less.

“They need to remain competitive as more providers come online,” said Gloria, adding that he empathizes with Car2Go. “It’s without question that what they expected regarding charging stations and the reality are not the same.”

He said the city is better off with a Car2Go fleet of gas-powered cars — rather than having no Car2Go at all — noting that the gas-powered cars will be among the most fuel-efficient available.

“I certainly would like them to keep the all electric fleet. That was a feather in the city’s cap. But my preference is to have car share in our city,” Gloria said. “Our preference of course is to see greater adoption in the region of electric vehicles, and I think Car2Go would be willing in the future if the infrastructure catches up with their business model.”

Moskowitz confirmed that.

“We’re keeping the door open when it comes to an electric vehicle fleet,” he said.

The SDG&E pilot program could help make that happen relatively quickly. It calls for 3,500 charging stations at 350 sites with a focus on condominiums and apartments where residents don’t have the option of charging an electric car in their garage.

“This pilot program will provide us with a unique opportunity to support the increased adoption of zero-emission vehicles to reduce smog and other pollutants created by the transportation sector in California,” SDG&E chief development officer Jim Avery said in January.

Company officials say they’re optimistic the program will also boost energy efficiency by offering lower charging rates during times of day when electricity use is typically lower.