Driving As Easy As Using A Mobile Phone

2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 09:36

The idea of a city car is nothing new. When Nicolas Hayek spun the idea of a Swatch car in the 1980s, he had a completely new traffic concept for overcrowded city centers in mind. Mercedes is reviving this idea with the “car2go” smart project.

From Stefan Grundhoff

City centers are bursting at the seams, cars are becoming more and more expensive and parking spaces have long been in short supply. It seems only a matter of time before other cities will force their way to a city toll. Nevertheless, for many drivers, public transport or car sharing agencies are no alternative to their own vehicle. With the “car2go” project, Mercedes wants to reinvent the car at least a little and, by the way, bring the tiny Smart onto the streets. The concept shows great similarities to the Hayek ideas with the Swatch car more than 15 years ago. The test run is now starting in Ulm. The former smart idea is now becoming the mobility concept that has been planned for many years. A test run lasting several months should show whether the customer applauds or gives the two-seaters the cold shoulder.

Completely new territory

The Smart has been on the market for ten years. Even if the sales figures go up with the second generation and even the USA has now jumped on the smart automobile train - the implementation of the former idea of the Swatch car is far from being a success. Mercedes-Benz has pumped billions into the project since the mid-1990s - so far with modest success.

In the future, however, Mercedes wants to enter the car sharing and rental car business with the Smart Fortwo and thus break completely new territory. A large number of white and blue Smarts should be available for general use in large cities. Just get in and drive off is the motto. The costs should be comparable to those of using a mobile phone.

Get in and drive off

“The driver just holds his specially coded driver's license in front of a sensor, gets in and drives off,” explains project manager Robert Henrich the simple car2go principle, “he can drive as long and as far as he wants and then simply parks the car again. The total price per rental period is invoiced. Refueling, insurance and cleaning are already included in the fee. “We make driving as easy as using a mobile phone,” says Henrich happily. One minute of “Car2Go” should cost around 19 cents. The rates per hour (9.90 euros) or per day (just under 50 euros) are below those of most rental car discounters.

The inhibition threshold for renting should be kept as low as possible so that citizens of a city can participate as well as tourists or business people. Potential customers can find out where the nearest car2go-Smart is parked in the area at any time on the Internet or by mobile phone. There are no special rental or delivery stations. Therefore, after the rental, the car can be hired again at any location in the corresponding city area. Payment is made through a monthly invoice. "We make sure that our cars can be found all over town on the roadside, in parking garages or on specially designated parking spaces," says Robert Henrich.

Open and close with a driver's license

Once you have arrived at the car, you have to hold your driver's license with a coding sticker against a recipient on the windshield and the doors are locked. Then you just have to take the key out of the glove compartment, insert it and enter your personal code, just like you would with a mobile phone. Then it can go. If the key is taken out of the vehicle after it has been parked and locked from the outside, the car shows any interested parties that it is occupied. It is only free to rent again when you put the key in the glove compartment and lock it with your coding license.

The car sharing center receives a signal about the duration of the rental and the location of the car and determines the usage fee. If the fuel is tight on the way, there is also a fuel card in the glove compartment magic box. Otherwise, the Car2Go service teams ensure that the cars are refueled and cleaned.

Model test in Ulm

The model test for the car2go mobility concept will start in Ulm at the end of October. Here, around 500 employees of the Daimler Group are to put the car2go idea through its paces in everyday life. If there are no problems, the starting fleet will be increased from 50 Smarts to 200 and expanded to include all interested residents of Ulm. Other large cities at home and abroad have already expressed great interest in the Smart project.

The idea that a small two-seater is often enough in crowded city centers is not new. With a Nafa city car in the 1970s, Mercedes looked just as realistically into the future of the automobile as the BCC, Mocar or Swatch projects. With the Swatch car, Hayek wanted to integrate a two-seater city vehicle into a complete traffic concept. In contrast to the Hayek idea, the Smart vehicles used in Ulm are not electric or hybrid vehicles, but normal Fortwo. “Saying goodbye to status thinking was an ingredient in Swatch's recipe for success, and we had this idea for the Smart even back then, unfortunately a few years too early,” says Smart inventor Hayek. However, he is not entirely satisfied with the current solution: «After all, we have relied on electric cars from day one,and now the project is only running again - hopefully only for the time being - with conventional combustion engines,”complains the Swiss.

Electric city cars are a long time coming

«Of course, our car2go project is ideally suited for the use of new drive concepts, such as B. the electric drive. As part of the pilot project in Ulm, we decided on the smart fortwo cdi - because it is the one with the lowest consumption of all vehicles available today. This is how we implement the idea of car2go: easy, flexible and inexpensive to be mobile in the city with environmentally friendly vehicles.”

So the idea of the electric city car will be a long time coming. But the first step towards an alternative mobility concept seems to have been taken. Nikolas Hayek also appreciates this. Even if he has long been left out since 1998. “Then the Smart will finally be where we saw it from the start: on every street corner. Bravo Zetsche - mieux vaut tard que jamais! » - translated as "better late than never!"