Hello car-sharing fans,
It’s been a while since I sent an update, so here’s a brief summary of what’s been happening in the last few months.
We’ve had 3 car-sharing groups live in Oxford for at least a couple of months. We’ve got another 10 or so live or launching in the next few weeks. So far we’ve learned that people are particularly keen to drive EVs, and also that one car in a small local loop can work really well: you actually don’t need to set up a multi-car neighbourhood loop, you can just list your car and share it with a small group of local streets. More details on ShareOurCars.com.
We’re excited to be working with Blenheim to launch a loop in Woodstock. Blenheim will make their cars (all EVs) available at the weekend, and hopefully other locals will add their cars too. This is the first time we’ll have a business sharing their fleet.
Car-sharing overall continues to grow in Oxford. I spoke to Co-Wheels and they’ve started to put in another 25 cars across the city, including 6 EVs which is brilliant. We see the two solutions as complementary – basically, the more car-sharing the better, and with the loops launched so far, many people use both Co-Wheels and Hiyacar.
Beyond Oxford, we’ve had a lot of interest across Oxfordshire and also across the UK from people looking to start their own car-sharing closed loop groups. I spoke at CoMoUk’s monthly meeting, and learned about other models which are working well. I’m also very excited about a test we’re doing with Hiyacar on ‘Lease to share’ for EVs. The idea is to make leasing an EV more affordable by sharing it when you’re not using it, thereby giving more people access to EVs and hopefully further reducing car ownership. We’re doing two cars in Oxford, one in West Sussex, and one in Folkestone so if you live nearby do borrow one for a few hours, or even a week. I’ll be on a panel at Fully Charged Live in Farnham on May 1st discussing this further.
In other car-sharing news, there was recently debate in parliament on the topic, with the Minister for Transport highlighting that a transport decarbonisation toolkit will be published soon. This is great news – there are loads of different types of car-sharing, and all are good.
Finally, I was very excited to win a Climate Change Hero Award from the High Sheriff of Oxfordshire last month.
Cheers and thanks for reading. I’m always available to answer questions so just drop me a line anytime.
Emily Kerr.
PS. If you’re thinking of listing your car as part of one of the loops – or on public Hiyacar – now is a great time to do it as people are starting to need cars for more short journeys (e.g. to help with spring cleaning, to go to the garden centre) and more day trips. It’s also the Easter holidays shortly. Car-sharing helps save people money, and reduces emissions, so come and get involved!