Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Streetsblog.net

Is This Battery-Powered Subcompact the Future of Car Sharing?

11:22 AM EST on November 18, 2010

Car sharing is growing in popularity, saving "car-lite" people the expense of vehicle ownership and taking cars off the road. As an additional benefit, some car sharing services have been making the transition to low-emissions vehicles.

false

Some of the top minds at MIT have been pouring their talents into developing a greener model for car sharing. They have returned with The City Car: a battery-powered subcompact that seats two, weighs less than 1,000 pounds and uses four engines to capture the kinetic energy from braking.

Chikodi Chima at Network blog Sharable.net hails the new model as a paradigm shift in car sharing vehicles:

Car sharing programs such as Zipcar, City CarShare and I-Go are all incorporating high efficiency vehicles like the Toyota Prius hybrid into their growing roster of cars, but these vehicles are still stuck in a 20th century mindset that views a car as an instrument for personal mobility.

Even the most efficient car, as imagined today, is not designed with city drivers in mind. If they were, they would be built like the City Car, which represents true paradigm shift in car sharing vehicles. Clocking in at less than 1,000 pounds, the City Car is a battery-electric two-seater designed to travel the equivalent of 150 to 200 miles on the equivalent of a single gallon of gasoline. Rather than being built over a power train, the City Car has four independently-controlled engines that are digitally controlled and can harness energy from regenerative breaking. However, the real breakthrough of the City Car is its ability to “fold” itself to fit into tight parking spaces.

In the tight confines of a city like New York, or any downtown area, where delivery trucks, passenger vehicles, bikers and pedestrians are all jockeying for the same space, when fully folded, as many as four City Cars--only five feet in length--could fit in the same area as a single parking bay for one of today’s internal combustion cars.

The City Car has some impressive green credentials and a small spacial footprint for a motor vehicle. But how well suited is it for carrying items like groceries or hardware -- a common impetus for car sharing trips? Is The City Car the vehicle car sharing users have been waiting for, or is it better engineered to replace trips that the car lite crowd could easily make biking or walking?

Elsewhere on the Network: M-Bike.org examines the historic under-representation of African Americans in cycling and a group that is seeking to change that pattern. Biking in L.A. reports that an analysis of rulings in jury trials involving injured cyclists shows a clear bias toward the driver. And Urban Indy demonstrates how a range of national "pedestrianization" strategies could be applied in Indianapolis.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

The Price Is Right for Tuesday’s Headlines

If congestion pricing works in New York City, City Lab predicts that other U.S. cities will quickly follow suit.

November 28, 2023

Top NJ Lawmaker Proposes Major Reforms to Fight Temporary License Plate Fraud

The new legislation follows a seven-month Streetsblog investigation that found widespread fraud involving temp tags, with car dealers abusing weak state regulations and selling paper plates illegally to drivers using them to evade accountability on the road.

November 28, 2023

DOT’s New Emissions Rule is a Big Deal, Even if It Doesn’t Punish States for Polluting

No states will face penalties for building needless toxic road projects — but they also won't be able to hide those impacts from the public.

November 27, 2023

Monday’s Headlines Need Less Oil

E-bikes are a great alternative for short trips, and they're actually saving more fossil fuels that electric cars.

November 27, 2023

Highway Boondoggles 2023: This Bridge is a Bridge Too Far

Presented by local transportation authorities as a simple bridge replacement, an expensive, oversized highway expansion threatens to worsen congestion in Vancouver and Portland

November 27, 2023
See all posts