Ekar brings e-car-share service to Abu Dhabi

Ekar has joined forces with renewable energy company Masdar to launch an electric vehicle (EV) car-sharing service in Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City.
November 14, 2019 Read time: 1 min

Yousef Baselaib, Masdar’s executive director of sustainable real estate, says: “The launch of this new service expands upon our existing portfolio of sustainable mobility solutions, which includes the personal rapid transit system and the 8379 Navya Autonom Shuttle.”

In July, Navya received approval from the Japanese government to operate autonomous vehicles (AVs) on open roads.

Ekar says drivers can use its app to rent a 8534 Tesla Model S or Model X for 64 fils (14p) per minute. Users can collect and return vehicles at a charging station in the city.

Vilhelm Hedberg, CEO of Ekar Middle East, says: “The carbon emissions footprint of an EV is half that of a fossil fuel-powered vehicle when the lifecycles of the vehicles are compared, and most electric cars in the market can be integrated with our car-share technology.”  

Ekar uses instant reservations and smart-access technology to provide a network of vehicles for rent in the United Arab Emirates. The service is available to people who have been driving for at least six months and visitors who submit a copy of their passport, visa page and foreign driver’s licence.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Zipcar founder: ‘Car-dominant city has reached its zenith’
    May 23, 2018
    Zipcar co-founder Robin Chase has called on urban authorities to embrace multimodal transport in a bid to improve mobility.“The value of a car-dominant city has reached its zenith,” she says in an interview with ITS International. “The city regulatory and physical infrastructure has been built on a personal car-dominant infrastructure. We have spent the last 100 years making car travel in cities the most convenient and cheapest way to the exclusion of everything else.” That creates problems, she
    Read More
  • FastGo to bring ride-hailing service to Indonesia and Myanmar
    October 11, 2018
    Vietnamese ride-hailing company FastGo intends to expand its service to Indonesia and Myanmar by the end of the year. In a report from Việt Nam News, Nguyễn Hữu Tuất, FastGo’s CEO, says the company expects to occupy a 30% market share in Indonesia and take second place after Grab in Myanmar. The company aims to raise US$50 million in a new round of funding to help accelerate regional expansion, Tuất adds. According to Tuất: “We chose Myanmar and Indonesia as we have relevant strategies for them in place.
    Read More
  • AVs could have ‘huge value’ in inner cities
    June 13, 2019
    Autonomous vehicles (AVs) could have value as the mainstay of inner city transport networks in future. “It’s pure speculation, but we are likely to see more segregated road networks,” said Chris Hayhurst, European consulting manager at MathWorks. For example, level 5 (completely driverless) AVs could simply be used to pick up and drop off people in the centre of a town. “In an inner city where there are no conventional cars at all it could have huge value,” he added. Hayhurst spoke to ITS Internat
    Read More
  • Ofo ‘scales back’ bike sharing operations in US
    July 24, 2018
    Chinese bike sharing company Ofo is scaling back its US operations and has laid off employees from multiple departments. The move, according to a report by Quartz, will allow the company to refocus on markets in a bid to become profitable. The start-up plans to continue operating in US cities such as Seattle, San Diego and New York. According to Quartz, the company is also leaving Australia and Israel and reducing operations in the UK. The company operates yellow bicycles which riders can rent thro
    Read More

Highlighted Content