As the car-sharing market in Japan rapidly expands, major automakers have been pressing down on the accelerator to get a share of the business. Against a backdrop of consumers shifting away from "possessing" their own vehicle to "sharing" one, the automaker business model centered on vehicle production and sales has reached a turning point. In an underground parking lot in Tokyo's Shinjuku area, three Nissan Motor Co. vehicles used in the automaker's car-sharing service are lined up together. By completing a membership registration in advance and reserving a vehicle through a smartphone, a car can be borrowed for fees that start from 200 yen for 15 minutes. "I like driving but maintaining a

Peer-to-peer car-sharing services might soon face the same regulation as traditional car rental companies. According to The Wall Street Journal, startups Turo and Getaround, which allow car owners to rent out their private cars via apps, are embroiled in a battle with car rental giants, such as Enterprise Rent-A-Car-Holdingsand Hertz Global Holdings. Some cities and states are also getting involved. This month, for example, Maryland passed a bill that requires car-sharing companies to comply with regulations similar to rules for car rental companies, including paying sales tax. And last month in Illinois, an amendment to a bill about voiding damage waivers for car rentals changed the definit

Along with electric vehicle charging infrastructure, Volkswagen’s settlement with the EPA and CARB over the Dieselgate scandal also included investing in a ‘Green City’ initiative. In Sacramento this week, VW’s Electrify America is now launching the project which includes electric car sharing programs, zero-emissions shuttle bus routes and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg commented on the announcement: Our partnership with Electrify America is a key piece of the City of Sacramento’s effort to become a national center for testing and development of alternative and autonomous vehicle technologies. And just as importantly, the new shuttles and car ser

Uber recently turned a very important corner, a development that I see as being just about as big as the company’s founding itself. The company now seems very serious about creating a smart, multi-modal mobility “platform” that will ultimately enable millions of people to trade-out of car ownership for good. The company’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, has unveiled Uber’s new strategy, including the acquisition of a leading bike-share company and new partnerships that will better link millions of users to public transit and nearby carsharing services. This will all lead to your Uber app becoming a robust, multi-mobility “aggregator” that will ultimately offer seamless mobility to anywhere you need

Peer-to-peer startups are disrupting yet another industry: car-rental services. Turo is a San Francisco-based firm that lets car owners rent them out to strangers and is already beating established companies such as Enterprise, Avis, and Hertz. These incumbents are so scared that they spent over $1.4 million in 2017 alone on lobbying for bills to restrict the operation of car-sharing startups or to impose the same laws and taxes applied to car-rental companies. However, Turo’s path to success shows that innovation in the industry was long overdue. Dubbed the "Airbnb for cars," Turo boasts 230,000 vehicles listed on its app from several cities of the United States, Canada, and the United King