Quote:
Originally Posted by Aroundtheworld
Car2Go is pulling out because they see the writing is on the wall. Except in special circumstances, when would someone use car share where they have to drive and park when they know they can just take an Uber and a Lyft. The only reason why they did well for so long here was because our politicians and the taxi lobby kept rideshare out for so long.
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I don't think they're pulling out of Vancouver because Uber and Lyft are setting up. It's a broader problem - until the fall they were operating in Denver, Austin, Portland, Calgary, Chicago, Montreal, New York, Seattle, Washington D.C. as well as Vancouver - and I'm guessing they all had rideshare. Unlike Uber and Lyft they had a business model that was based on making a return on their capital. It's hard to do that in markets that rely on offering a heavily subsidized (loss making) service in the hope of getting an operational monopoly. Existing rideshare operations aren't sustainable at the prices they charge, but the operators have been able to raise billions to cover their losses. The car share operators weren't willing to operate on that basis.
With Zipcar, Modo and Evo continuing to operate in Vancouver, it's not like car share is disappearing - just one of the businesses (and the one that was facing greatest change anyway, with no more Smart cars in the fleet in future).
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