One year after the Evo Car Share program hit the streets with 80 cars in Victoria, the company has announced an expansion program that will add another 45 electric vehicles to its fleet in the city.
The company, which is backed by the B.C. Automobile Association, said it has thousands of members in Victoria — membership is free with a BCAA membership.
“Things have gone really well in Victoria,” said Evo director Amitis Khorsandi. “We’ve been really pleased. A year ago, the idea of booking a hybrid car on an app and picking it up and dropping it off anywhere was pretty new and a foreign concept for many Victorians. But we’ve seen thousands of members having joined Evo and each of our cars are being taken on multiple trips a day.”
Evo chose to focus on Victoria with outlets at Camosun College and the University of Victoria rather than the entire region when it moved here last summer.
Its smartphone application gives members access to a shared fleet of low-emission hybrid vehicles.
Members, who pay $35 for a one-time registration fee, or free with BCAA, pay for the time they use the cars — 45 cents per minute, $16.99 per hour and $99.99 per day — and can pick up and drop off the cars anywhere as long as it is within what the company calls the 20-square kilometre downtown home zone.
The fees cover the cost of gas, insurance and parking.
Members reserve a car using a phone app by tapping its location on a map of the city and they have 30 minutes to get to the car. The doors open using the app and there’s a button to start the engine.
This week’s expansion will fill in a few gaps to what Evo calls its home zone.
When it first launched it had satellite zones at Camosun and UVic and the zone was bordered to the west by Harriet Road and Foul Bay Road to the east, the waterfront to the south and Tolmie Avenue and North Dairy Road to the north.
Now the service has extended its Foul Bay border to Camosun College at Lansdowne Road and runs to McKenzie Avenue between Cedar Hill Road and Shelbourne Street.
“It’s not a ginormous expansion, but with it we’re creating a continuous geographic home zone,” said Khorsandi. “It just creates more continuity and more availability, especially for residents living near those universities.”
The cars are meant to be used to get around Victoria, but they can be used to explore the Island or the mainland.
Members leave credit cards on file and will be charged for retrieval.
aduffy@timescolonist.com
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