Zipcar Adds Electric and Plug-in Vehicles

The car-sharing service Zipcar has announced that it will add an electric vehicle pod in Westminster in the U.K., which will include an all-electric Citroen c1 and a plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius.

Electric cars seem especially suited to Zipcar customers. The company says that 95% of Zipcar trips are under four hours and less than 25 miles, which is well-suited for electric vehicles with a short range. The company sees large-scale use of EVs and plug-ins as ideal for its platform.

Zipcar was the first car-sharing service to offer hybrids back in 2003 and had its first EV — an electrified Toyota RAV4 — by 2004. Since then, Zipcar has added almost 1,000 hybrids and introduced FastFleet in Washington, D.C., which lets government employees use shared fleets.

Because fuel costs are the most dominant and unpredictable variable in Zipcar’s business, it stands to reason that it will look to increase the number of electric cars it uses in the coming years.