After trial run, Zipcar expanding EV market
Zipcar, the car-sharing company based in Boston, is delving deeper into the electric vehicle market after a successful local pilot program.
Under an initiative announced in December, Zipcar plans to double its EV fleet in 2024, with at least one-quarter available in economically disadvantaged communities. The expansion will span 10 cities, including Boston, Chicago, New York, and Denver.
The company, owned by Avis, has been expanding its EV fleet since a pilot program started in Boston in 2022 with 10 electric vehicles. It added more vehicles in more cities in 2023 and currently has about 300 EVs nationwide.
According to the company’s surveys, only about one in 10 customers has ever driven an electric vehicle. So a top priority for the program was addressing drivers’ questions and concerns about charging, Justin Holmes, vice president of policy and marketing, said.
Each ZipcarEV includes cards for popular charging networks, in case a customer needs to recharge on a longer road trip. It’s similar to gapowered cars that have a debit card available to pay for gas refills.
“What we found is that the best-case scenario is when a member doesn’t have to worry about charging really at all,” Holmes said.
To address the challenge, Zipcar has sought out designated parking spots with chargers (every Zipcar has a specific parking spot where customers pick up and drop off the vehicle). When that isn’t possible, Zipcar staff take EVs to nearby charging stations for a fill-up before a customer picks up a vehicle.
Each Zipcar EV also includes cards for popular charging networks, in case a customer needs to recharge on a longer road trip. That’s similar to the company’s gas-powered cars, which have a special debit card tucked in the sun visor to pay for gas refills.
Zipcar hopes to avoid some of the horror stories that have beset EV programs at traditional car rental companies. Hertz and others ran into problems when they stuck customers with electric cars unexpectedly. That can’t happen at Zipcar, where customers choose to rent a specific, individual car, electric or gas-powered.
Zipcar also designed an online guide with a series of how-to videos for its EV customers, covering topics like driving dynamics and charging.
College student and Zipcar customer Madeline Mueller had never driven an EV before she tried one from the car-sharing service in November. Going electric was just as easy to rent and drive as a gas-powered car, she said. Living in Somerville, she doesn’t need to own a car right now, but “this experience has me strongly considering electric vehicles if I do move somewhere I require a car,” she said.
Winning over future EV drivers could be an added benefit of Zipcar’s program, said Ingrid Malmgren, policy director at nonprofit EV advocacy group Plug In America.
“Particularly with something like Zipcar, where you may use the same vehicle multiple times, it seems like a great introduction to an electric vehicle,” Malmgren said.