Car2Gone: Vancouver's new car share era begins with Evo hoping to fill the gap

Say goodbye to the blue hoods, overly sensitive brakes and weird stuff left behind by strangers in the trunk. 

After nearly a decade in Vancouver, Car2Go will officially leave the market Sunday, following the gradual removal of its 1,500 vehicles, three months after the company announced it was ending its North American operations.

At a time when ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft are establishing themselves, city officials are aware that Vancouver's claim as the "car-sharing capital of North America" could be in jeopardy. 

"There's some pretty big changes happening in [our] transportation market," said Chris Darwent, the city's acting parking manager, in a presentation to council on Tuesday. 

Darwent explained to council why staff wanted to give Evo a 35 per cent discount on parking fees. Since September, the city had been collecting them from Evo at full cost, in exchange for drivers being able to drop off cars at parking metres for free.

In the end, the recommendation passed unanimously, with councillors saying it was important to continue incentivizing car sharing in a city where 34 per cent of adults are car sharing members.  

"I think it's a model that structured ... in a certain way that it realizes there's enough revenue to make sure the City of Vancouver isn't losing money on those spaces," said Coun. Melissa De Genova.

"I'd like us to stay the car sharing capital."

Evo growing its fleet

While there remain multiple companies that operate "two-way" car sharing (where a car has to be dropped off at the same place it was picked up), Evo will become Vancouver's only one-way car sharing company as of Sunday. 

Both Evo and Car2Go operated around 1,500 vehicles at the end of last year, meaning the number of options available for people will also be cut in half. 

But that won't be the case for long — Evo has already committed to adding 250 vehicles over the next two months and promises to add more to its fleet of black Toyota Priuses if the expected demand is there. 

However, that doesn't necessarily mean an expansion of its home zone, currently restricted to Vancouver, New Westminster, North Vancouver City and parking lots at places like Grouse Mountain and universities. 

"Potentially there are options to expand, but we find it's important for us to fill the need and demand that exist in the current market that we have. So that'll be our first focus," said Tai Silvey, a vice-president at BCAA who leads Evo's operations.  

Silvey said Evo will also be looking at taking over Car2Go spots in parking lots where they don't currently have a presence. 

About that app...

But for Evo to fill the gap left behind by Car2Go, they'll face one big problem.

"We have trouble sometimes," admitted Silvey, saying that as more people have used Evo, the original technology they used for their app has become more buggy. 

It's a big reason why Evo is overhauling its app this weekend, with the app scheduled to be down for 12 hours between midnight and noon on Sunday. 

Time will tell if the overhaul successfully converts car share users who were leery of using Evo before — or makes people nostalgic for the era when smart cars could be seen parked just about everywhere throughout Vancouver.

"Car sharing is a complex and expensive business proposition," said Silvey.

"But we're committed."