Car-sharing gets Singapore launch

Car sharing in Singapore may well use Honda's gas-powered car

By Alex Frew McMillan
CNN writer

HONG KONG, China -- Honda Motor Co. is introducing an experimental car-sharing program to Singapore next month.

Car sharing aims to offer city dwellers a cost-effective method to share cars. Honda has already debuted car-sharing with an experimental program in California.

The cost and amount of use fall somewhere between renting and leasing a car.

Honda, Japan's No. 2 automaker, will provide the backing, a total of $2.2 million, or Singapore $4 million. It will own 100 percent of the subsidiary, called the Honda Intelligent Community Vehicle System.

The program will be a partnership with Singapore's government. Singapore's Economic Development Board is providing advice on implementing the plan.

Car sharing is a new concept that started in Europe and is slowly catching on in U.S. cities.

Members of car-sharing companies or plans reserve a central pool of cars, which they pick up and drop at specific locations.

They can then, for a fee, organize the use of a car for short trips, if they need to go shopping, move furniture, or pick up a friend from the airport.

Singaporean officials were encouraged to look into car sharing after seeing experimental efforts in California.

The University of California-Davis and the University of California-Riverside both cooperated on small car-sharing programs with Honda.

At UC-Davis, Honda provided 12 Civic cars powered by compressed natural gas that drivers could pick up at two spots. The UC-Riverside program involved 15 electric-powered Hondas at three locations.

The developer of the experimental programs was trying to build them into spin-off companies.

For-profit companies such as Zipcar, in Boston, Massachusetts, are trying to take the car-sharing concept mainstream. Its 650 members use just under 40 Volkswagen Beetles and station wagons.

Most of the details of how car-sharing will work in Singapore have yet to be set. But Honda expects the program to start in April. It is now recruiting staff and participants.

A Honda spokeswoman said the company expects to use either the natural-gas powered Civic, called the Civic CNG, or the electric-powered car, called the Honda EV-Plus. It hasn't decided how many cars it will provide or how many members it will recruit.

Tokyo-based Honda, whose sales lag only Toyota among Japanese car companies, will import the cars from the United States. Its U.S. subsidiary has been a front-runner in developing alternative-energy vehicles.

U.S. regulators have pressured car companies to produce alternative engines. Honda has said it will debut a mass-market low emission engine this year.

On Monday Honda also confirmed it would cease production of three-door Civics at its Suzuka plant.

It blamed lackluster demand in Japan and said all production of the model would switch to its plant at Swindon, in the United Kingdom.

Car sharing's time comes -- July 19, 2000
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