Hamburg targets electric car-sharing

In the city of Hamburg, Germany, the car-sharing companies Miles, Share Now, Sixt and WeShare have agreed to increase the share of electric vehicles in their fleets to at least 80 per cent by the turn of the year 2023/24.

The agreement includes a strategic partnership between the four companies, the City of Hamburg and the city’s public transport provider Hamburger Hochbahn. While the fleet operators aim for the aforementioned quota of electric cars, the City and Hamburger Hochbahn have agreed to create the necessary framework conditions regarding parking and charging infrastructure.

One such measure is that electric cars will be allowed to park at charging points in Hamburg for up to three hours instead of two on the condition they charge during this time. The City administration also wants to introduce a simplified handling procedure for car-sharing cars that are parked incorrectly.

In terms of charging infrastructure, the City of Hamburg has also agreed to provide 600 charging points in public spaces. The City has agreed that if the number of charging points actually installed falls short of the targeted amount, the quota of electric cars for the car-sharing companies will be reduced accordingly. This means that, for example, if the city only builds 450 charging points instead of the agreed 600 by 1 January 2024, the quota of electric cars will be reduced by five percentage points.

The public transport provider Hamburger Hochbahn is supporting the project by installing an additional 100 AC charging points at so-called HVV Switch Points by the end of 2023. These charging points are to be located near regular public transport services with alternative mobility services such as car-sharing, scooters or rental bikes. There are currently 90 of these mobility nodes in Hamburg, and their number is expected to climb to over 200 by 2024. While only some of these HVV Switch Points currently provide charging infrastructure, almost all of them should be getting charging points by 2024.

This year, Hochbahn will open a large HVV Switch Point at Hamburg Airport that will have over 120 charging points. These charging points will be exclusively available and free of charge for partners of the HVV Switch programme. The partners, in this case, are the on-demand services of WeShare, Moia, Sixt Share, Miles and the micromobility vehicles from Tier. Customers can book and pay for their services via the cross-provider app HVV Switch that was introduced in 2020.

Anjes Tjarks, Hamburg’s Senator for Transport pointed out that the City will be locally emission-free in Hamburg by 2030 with buses and trains as well as “taking big steps towards e-mobility with taxis.” She underlined the importance of the strategic partnership with Hochbahn and car-sharing providers. “An electric vehicle quota of 80 per cent in just 15 months is a very ambitious goal that we will resolutely tackle in collaboration with the companies.”

Although WeShare is already on the road in Hamburg with an all-electric fleet, Tobias Friedrich, Chief Commercial Officer of WeShare, emphasises that: “In order to make the more costly operation of an electric fleet economically sustainable compared to a combustion engine fleet, positive political framework conditions are needed. Hamburg has been setting a good example in this respect for a long time in comparison with the rest of Germany and is creating the conditions for rapid electrification by means of sensible incentives.”

hamburg.de (in German)