“The future of transportation will be a blend of things like Zipcar, public transportation, and private car ownership. Not only do I not fear that, but I think it’s a great opportunity for us to participate in the changing nature of car ownership.”
— Bill Ford, Ford’s executive chairman, in the “The Best New Idea in Business,”Coins2Day’s cover story about Zipcar. Writer Paul Keegan tells how the nine-year-old car-sharing service has grown to 325,000 members and revenues of $130 million. Those numbers have caught the attention of Hertz and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which have jumped to copy its model.
Automakers want in the game too. Of all the companies talking with Zipcar about partnerships–Toyota, Nissan, Honda, BMW –Ford has been the quickest to embrace this evolution in transportation. “Zipcar is the perfect application for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids because you leave them at a certain location to be charged and then take them out again,” says Ford. –Jessica Shambora