We recently spotted an electric car video report from Aaron Rockett circulating the web. In the video, Rockett documents a fantastic electric car vending machine from Hangzhou, China, where Kandi Technologies Group opened their first automated EV CarShare garage in Hangzhou last year. The car-sharing project is based on the city’s successful bike share program – the largest of its kind in the world.[1]
The car share system works like this: the customer registers an account, then receives a card allowing them to order their car from the garage. After swiping the card, the vehicle is automatically delivered to the customer. Essentially, it’s an enormous vending machine for electric cars. Watch the video below to see it in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiEJPbxL2hI&w=750&h=422&rel=0]
Kandi Technology plans to build 750(!) more of the vending garages by 2018, which will hold a total of about 100,000 Kandi electric vehicles.
It’s a wonderfully creative and charming strategy for teaching people new car owning and car driving habits. I used to own part of a share car together with a four other people, and can easily see how this program can work. Why own an entire car when you only use it occasionally?
Kudos to Aaron Rockett for doing the hard work to bring us this story (and no glory should go to the Associated Press for pinching his story without credit).
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