Nation’s Largest All-electric Car Fleet Rolls Out In Sacramento
Source: Sacramento Business Journal, Mark Anderson
Photo: Gig Car Share has made 260 electric cars available in Sacramento, now the nation’s largest all-electric car fleet. (Courtesy of Gig)
The car-sharing service Gig Car Share has made 260 electric cars available in Sacramento, now the nation’s largest all-electric car fleet.
Gig is deploying 260 electric Chevy Bolt cars with roof-mounted bike racks, which can be picked up and dropped off in a zone that includes downtown, part of East Sacramento to Tahoe Park and south to Land Park, Curtis Park and Oak Park.
The idea of Gig is to provide clean and convenient transportation to people in urban areas, without the hassles of ownership or parking.
Gig’s software calculates the lowest rates of use, based on a scale of 40 cents per minute, $15 per hour or $85 per day.
Users can park the Gig car in any residential-permitted neighborhood or in more-than-one-hour parking meters, without having to feed the meter.
“Gig Car Share is a unique transportation service because you only pay for the time you’re using the car, and Gig covers the insurance, parking and charging costs,” said Jason Haight, president of Gig, in a news release. “Our members love Gig because the service is as convenient as owning your own car, but they don’t need to worry about shopping for car insurance, registering their car or paying for smog checks.”
The company says that a study from the University of California Berkeley found that car-sharing services like Gig can remove between seven and 11 privately owned vehicles from the road per day.
Gig membership is free. In Sacramento, Gig is sponsored by AAA Northern California, and its members get a 10% discount. Gig was developed in AAA Northern California’s innovation lab A3Ventures in Berkeley. Launched in the Bay Area in April 2017, Gig started out with Toyota Prius cars with roof-mounted bike racks.
Users find Gig cars with an app that also allows them to unlock and start the cars. Trips must start and stop in a downtown zone, but the driver can drive the car anywhere in the country, the company said.
“Gig is thrilled to bring the largest all-electric car sharing service to Sacramento, a city that’s becoming recognized as a worldwide leader in zero-emission energy,” said Haight, in a news release. “We couldn’t have brought an all-electric service here without the critical investments by Electrify America and the City of Sacramento in next generation energy and transportation infrastructure. A new concept like one-way car sharing is only made possible by leaders committed to finding transportation solutions of today and tomorrow.”
Electrify America is a unit of Volkswagen AG that is investing $2 billion in zero-emission vehicle infrastructure and systems over the next 10 years. Electrify America was established as part of Volkswagen’s settlement with federal regulators over charges that the carmaker misrepresented its diesel emissions.