I parked my dirty old Honda at the grocery store around 2 p.m. last Thursday and drove away in a shiny electric Chevy Volt just 30 minutes later. I didn’t steal the car. I borrowed it from ZEV co-op, a car-sharing cooperative bringing electric vehicles to underserved communities in Western Washington.
ZEV, an acronym for zero emissions vehicle, was founded in 2021 and is one of the few car-sharing companies left in the Pacific Northwest. Last month, AAA announced it was pulling the plug on Gig Car Share in Seattle, joining others including BMW ReachNow, Lime and Car2Go that shut down after struggling financially.
But what ZEV is attempting goes beyond the typical car-share business model. The company’s mission is to make sustainable transit more accessible to all. The team is negotiating partnerships with local nonprofits and government entities, adding vehicles one by one to its fleet, now totaling 11. The goal is to reach 250 cars by the end of 2027.
“I know it sounds a little nutty,” said founder Greg Dronkert, describing his vision for ZEV. “But you’ve got to provoke the ecosystem and try these things.”
I like the idea of car sharing but had never tried it — or driven a fully electric car — before I borrowed the Volt. So I took Dronkert’s advice and signed up. I joined as a visitor, but ZEV also offers co-op memberships in a model akin to REI, as well as group co-op memberships.
Individual co-op members pay $500 to join and get reduced hourly rates and perks, including advance reservations, year-end dividends, and a vote on company decisions. Organizations that join can offer membership benefits to people in their network, and have a dedicated ZEV vehicle in their parking lots. Current participants include Town and Country Markets, the City of Port Townsend, a Seattle-based nonprofit called Estelita’s Library and several affordable housing providers.
The day after I submitted my application, it was approved, and I received an invitation to schedule a brief mandatory virtual orientation.
Currently, ZEV has three cars in Seattle located in the Ballard, West Seattle and downtown neighborhoods. It’s launching an additional site in NewHolly and three more in the neighboring cities of Des Moines, Shoreline and Lake City, and the Seattle neighborhood of NewHolly.
I reserved the Volt in Ballard an hour before my drive. When I got to the car, I clicked a button on the ZEV app to unlock it. Inside the driver’s side door, I found laminated instructions for each stage of my journey.
After checking that the Volt was unplugged and the battery was charged up, I was off. I ran a few errands, listened to some ’80s music, and blasted the AC. The near-silent purr of the engine took me a second to get used to, and the gear shift was different, but otherwise, the EV drove just like any other car — granted it’s much zippier than mine.
When I returned, I parked in the dedicated ZEV stall and checked the list for my next move. Inside the glove box, I found a contactless card for charging the car. I waved it in front of the charging kiosk to unlock the juice, but nothing happened.
After reviewing two short YouTube videos, I called ZEV’s customer service. ZEV offers 24/7 phone support from a real person.
The charger, operated by a third party, was offline. The ZEV representative told me to leave the car unplugged, reassuring me I would not be penalized.
The trip took less than an hour and cost $8, thanks to an introductory pricing special. By the end of the year, the cost will go up to $16 an hour for individual customers like me, $8 for members and $5 for income-qualified users. ZEV also offers flat rates for multi-day trips.
Aside from the charging mix-up, my trip went smoothly. I liked driving the Volt and appreciated ZEV’s attention to detail, including sanitizing wipes and a phone charger with three types of plugs.
ZEV’s approach is hands-on, which makes it unique and labor-intensive. Dronkert admitted that scaling something so “high touch” will be difficult. But that could wind up being its secret to success.
Take Estelita’s Library, for example. The social justice organization is based in Seattle’s Central District and supports a diverse local population, including many lower-income residents. Estelita’s was an early member of ZEV and has an electric disability-compliant sprinter van outside its space on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Estelita’s is home base for the van, but it’s available to the public. As a registered driver, I could borrow it after a brief orientation on using the wheelchair lift.
Estelita’s co-founder Edwin Lindo said members of his community have a “high level of distrust” toward some types of tech. Even subsidized EV charging stations can be viewed as signs of gentrification, he added. ZEV wants to reach these drivers by introducing EVs through a trusted source like Estelita’s.
Estelita’s membership covers 50 people who use the vehicle at a reduced co-op rate of $8 per hour. Lindo said people have borrowed the van to take elderly grandparents to the doctor, go camping at Snoqualmie Pass, and move between houses. They don’t pay for gas or electricity, and ZEV insures every driver.
Washington state is a leader in addressing climate change and is pushing hard for EV adoption. But cars are expensive and electric cars even more so. This month, the Department of Commerce launched a program providing instant rebates to low-income drivers, enabling some people to lease an EV for roughly $100 a month.
Even with rebates, owning or leasing an EV is still out of reach for many people. The inspiration for ZEV came from a 2018 report by Puget Sound Clean Air Agency that named transportation the No. 1 cause of pollution in the Seattle area. Vehicle exhaust poses health risks and impacts quality of life, and those most impacted are people in low-income communities and communities of color, according to the report.
The agency suggested electric car-sharing as a solution but lacked a way to expand access to the existing for-profit services, said Dronkert. So he launched ZEV and applied for funding from Washington’s Zero-Emissions Access Program (ZAP), run by the state’s Department of Transportation. The company has received two ZAP grants and funds from the U.S. Department of Energy via Forth, a Portland-based mobility company that uses the ZEV platform for its Seattle-based vehicles.
ZEV still relies heavily on public funds, and it’s unclear whether the venture can survive on its own. There are still other Seattle-area car-share companies, including Zipcar and peer-to-peer car rental options Turo and Getaround. Zipcar rentals start at $11 an hour, license verification takes minutes and there are more than 150 cars available in the Seattle area. Getaround rates are more variable, but in the same ballpark. Both offer hourly and day rates.
Dronkert estimates ZEV needs a fleet of 150 cars in use 50% of the time to become self-sustaining. He’s negotiating several partnerships with revenue-generating potential.
This is a critical time for the company. Before ZEV can scale, it needs a footprint large enough to support growth, said Dronkert, the former president and CEO of HMS Ferries, Inc. and a former director with the Alaska state ferry system.
But he’s determined to make it work. “It’s not easy,” said Dronkert. “I’ve got myself a tiger by the tail with this project.”
https://ift.tt/xafRwlq August 19, 2024 at 02:36PM GeekWire
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