Car sharing provider WeShare launches in Hamburg

26 February 2021

350 E-Volkswagen cars to hit roads in Hamburg - inclusion in HVV Switch app later

The WeShare car-sharing service launched Thursday (February 25, 2021) in Hamburg bringing the mobility transition a step closer. The fleet will initially consist of 350 "ID.3" e-cars. Around 800 WeShare e-cars will take to roads across Hamburg from April, the providers said. E-cars account for some 4 per cent of vehicles in Hamburg – the highest in any German state, the NDR broadcaster reported recently. The number of battery or hybrid cars had risen by 64 per cent in just a year by January 2021.

100-square kilometre business area

WeShare is the first all-electric car-sharing service in Hamburg, which is gearing up to host the ITS World Congress in October 2021. Philipp Reth, CEO of WeShare, commented: "Many new innovative mobility concepts were first put on the road here due to the innovation-friendly political and social environment and have successfully shaped Hamburg's mobility landscape." The initial aim is to reach almost half of Hamburg's population with the service. The business area will extend from Osdorf in the west to Billstedt in the east and from Fuhlsbüttel in the north to the Elbe in the south. In WeShare has entered into partnerships with the Volkswagen subsidiary MOIA and the Schwarz Group (Lidl, Kaufland) to charge the vehicles.

Inclusion in "HVV Switch" app

WeShare will be included in the "HVV Switch" app similar to its rival car sharing providers including ShareNow, Sixt Share, Miles Mobility, Cambio) later. The app should simplify access to new-mobility offers. Anjes Tjarks, Senator for Transport, pointed out: "We want to expand the HVV into a mobility network with HVV Switch and give residents a central digital mobility platform. The goal is to make the various mobility services available simply, conveniently and comfortably through digitalisation and to provide a powerful alternative to owning a car." WeShare's launch in Hamburg had been postponed several times due to the pandemic. WeShare launched in Berlin in summer 2019 and has over 100,000 registered customers in the capital.

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