To be completely frank, what caught our attention in Volkswagen’s latest press release (and probably yours in this post) on the new pilot car-sharing program called Quicar, wasn’t the news itself but the special livery of the 2012 Beetle shown in the promotional set of photos. Nevertheless, since we already told you the headline here’s the rest of the story on Volkswagen’s new car sharing concept that will take place in the German city of Hanover (or Hannover).
Due to be set in motion this fall, the project will see Europe’s largest automaker providing a fleet of cars that will be used in a sharing scheme with customers booking the vehicles in advance through the Internet, a special app or a call center up to five minutes before the car is needed. A chip card or a chip fixed to the driver’s license unlocks the car, which can be driven after the customer enters a PIN number using the integrated touch screen.
When Quicar launches, there will be some 50 pick-up and drop-off locations all over the city of Hannover, but VW said this number could reach 100 in the medium term.
Volkswagen said it will start off with 200 Golf BlueMotion vehicles equipped with a 1.6 TDI diesel engine that returns an average fuel consumption of 3.8lt/100km (equal to 61.9 mpg US), corresponding to CO2 emissions of 99 g/km. The 2012 Beetle seen in the pictures along with some variants of the Caddy will be added to VW’s car sharing fleet shortly after the launch of the program.
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