Getaround grows as City CarShare runs out of gas

San Francisco peer-to-peer car sharing company Getaround is adding another 200 vehicles to its arsenal of rental vehicles, giving the company just over 2,000 vehicles for Bay Area residents to rent hourly or daily in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland.

Getaround, which allows members to find and rent other people’s personal vehicles for hourly or daily fees, acquired the vehicles from car-sharing pioneer City CarShare in a partnership announced by both companies on Thursday.

City CarShare started in 2001 using a model that allowed paid members to use and drop-off the company’s hybrid vehicles at designated parking spots throughout the Bay Area at daily and hourly rates. City CarShare will maintain ownership of its fleet of hybrid vehicles, but Getaround will list the vehicles for rental under its platform and company banner, according to Getaround officials.

Current members of City CarShare will be able to migrate over to Getaround and still have access to City CarShare’s hybrid vehicles in the same current parking locations throughout the Bay Area.

With the addition of City CarShare users, Getaround will now have over 200,000 users, according to the company.

CEO Lawrence Mulligan of Carma, a technology company that merged with City CarShare in 2015, said in a statement that the partnership with Getaround is a good fit for the company:

“Not only does Getaround share our mission and community values, but it also brings amazing new benefits for our members. Joining up with Getaround is a great local solution to what we believe is a growing national need for access to shared cars.”

Sam Zaid, CEO and Founder of Getaround, said in a statement that the increasingly popularity of car sharing is evidence that people are thinking differently about car ownership.

Zaid added:

“We look forward to welcoming City CarShare’s users to our growing Getaround community and providing the same reliable and affordable mobility solution they have grown to love over the last 15 years.”

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.