Volkswagen announced a pilot launch of a car sharing program called Quicar in the city of Hannover. The idea behind the program is very simple:

• Residents of Hannover will get access to short-term rental vehicles
• There will be 50 locations in the city (up to 100 in the near future)
• Volkswagen will fork up VW Golf, VW Caddy and VS Beetle for the program

Are car sharing programs popular?

Europeans have embraced car sharing programs long before the crowd in the US. In fact, it is estimated that some time this year Europe will reach an estimated 77,000 shared vehicles across Europe.

Volkswagen is actually a bit late to the European party. Daimer already runs car2go in Hamburg, Germany and Peugeot already offers MU in Britain, France and Germany. And BMW recently announced a launch of DriveNow in Munich.

What are the US counterparts?

There are some car sharing companies operating in the US too. Although Volkswagen’s Quicar is not expected to launch in the US just yet. Some of the more popular names include:

• ZipCar
• Car2Go
• RelayRides
• i-go-cars
• CarShare
• U Car Share
• Connect by Hertz