Japanese City Sakai Launches Electric Vehicle Sharing Program

The city of Sakai in Osaka Prefecture announced on January 18, 2012, the start of an electric vehicle (EV) car-sharing program as a way to promote the use of the low-pollution cars. Sakai is aiming to help its citizens experience the benefits of EVs, such as their energy savings, power of acceleration, and quiet operation. The EV-sharing program is to run for 50 months -- from February 1, 2012, to March 31, 2016 -- the first time in Japan that such a long period has been designated for an official EV-sharing scheme.

The main feature of this experiment is that instead of using the city-owned cars, Times 24, a private car-sharing company, is providing five experimental EVs: three are available (one with a child seat) to both city staff and citizens, while the other two are for use by city staff on weekdays and citizens on weekends.

The city says the project would result in a minimum annual reduction of five tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

EV Car Sharing and Rental Car Home-Delivery Services Offered at Newly Built Condominium (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/031422.html
Car-Sharing System Membership Soaring (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/030354.html

Posted: 20128/04/013 06:00:15 AM