Chongqing leads way in transportation innovation

The mountain city of Chongqing has become the first city in Asia to welcome the debut of car2go, Daimler AG’s car-sharing rental service, on April 15. The company has gained more than 100,000 local app-users during its four-month operation.

The service came to Chongqing with 400 blue-and-white smart fortwo vehicles, and another 200 cars are expected to join the service soon. All car2go vehicles can be rented using the smartphone app, and all vehicles are automatically turned off once the rental is completed.

The app has been used successfully 115,000 times in the past four months, and coverage extends through the downtown area to Chongqing North Railway Station, Jiangbei Airport, and Liangjiang Happiness Square; according to Rainer Becker, the chief executive officer of car2go China.

For the Chinese market the company is known as Ji Xing car2go, "ji xing" meaning “ready to go with” or “immediately hit the road” in Chinese.

The company provides a groundbreaking transportation service, focusing on providing smarter, greener, more innovative and sustainable transport solutions for modern urban cities. About 12,500 car2go vehicles are currently operating in 29 locations and are used by more than a million members in North America and Europe.

Car2go has chosen to base itself in an industrial area of Chongqing. The location is home to a large number of businesses, and has China’s highest rate of growth, at 11 percent of GDP in 2015.