Daimler’s car2go car sharing unit is to quit the UK. It has been present in Britain with Daimler smart brand cars available for hourly rent in London and Birmingham but will be absent from both cities from 30 May.
The company said it has listened closely to customer feedback and “taking the UK’s strong culture and tradition of private vehicle ownership into account, we have decided to withdraw from the UK market place”.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Car2go had planned to create a network of free floating parking spaces across London where customers could pick up and drop off cars. However, it has complained about London’s regulatory complexity (it had to deal with individual London boroughs rather than a unitary authority) and it failed to create enough of them or to develop the business to the point where it was viable.
The car2go service started in London in December 2012 and Birmingham was added as the second UK city in May of last year.
Car2go is currently operating in six countries with more than 600,000 registered members.
