Owning a car…?

No, that’s enough!

That’s not how it started, but that’s how it sounded when the cup ran over.

For many years we lived in the countryside on Gotland and I worked in Visby. Two cars were a must to manage the family’s toddler life. Something that was never questioned. But many years have passed since then and we have moved to the mainland, as the rest of the world was called by our children when they were young.

Now we live in Helsingborg, a fairly large city where parking costs over 1 000 SEK/month. Already at the time of the move we had decided to sell a car. The need for 2 cars did not exist. They just posed problems with the parking fee, tax and insurance, new winter tires and storage of the winter tires all cost money. I also now had a permanent job instead of being self-employed and “consulting” around the country. There was no reason to have two cars.

So when it started to indicate that there was something wrong with the catalytic converter in my then 3 year old Audi Q5, I became, let’s call it concerned. I took the car to the workshop and got a prize, 15 000 SEK! The measure was raked and overflowing. I chewed the cost and picked up the car at the workshop, but had already started googling options.

The idea of sustainability had been around for a few years and had grown even stronger as we had grandchildren. I started thinking about all the options available.

I had been curious about this electric car but thought they are fairly new models. They are certainly well tested and so on, but all novelties also have some teething problems that have not yet been solved. It felt a bit risky to buy my own electric car.

Private leasing does not solve the problems of parking and tax, service maintenance and depreciation are also built into the price. Which is a cost that is not otherwise noticeable until you sell the car.

Car pooling then became a good option. We only needed a car sometimes, when we went to the country or to visit family, relatives and friends. Public transport in Skåne is relatively well developed, at least in comparison to Gotland.

I started googling car pools, which are available in most major cities and even in some other places.

At that time, in 2019, there were a few car pools that only had electric cars. There are many more now. In addition, the automotive industry is undergoing a major transformation in terms of sustainability. Toyota and Volvo, for example, have started to switch from selling cars to selling mobility services. It is based on the idea that most privately owned cars sit idle and unused for most of the day. If the use of the cars can be mediated as a service, selling mobility, then there is the possibility that the cars can be used by more people.
A link to Toyota’s service

I will write about the different types of car pools that exist now in later posts.

The sum of my own experience is that we all have different opportunities to take the step towards more sustainable car ownership or use. Of course, it depends on your finances, where you live, and your need for a car or mobility. I don’t think you should feel guilty about it. However, I do think that today and in the future you should consider when you have the opportunity to change your car ownership/use.

What experiences do I have now?

I have now been a member of an electric car pool for almost 4 years. And the experiences contain both + and -. In Helsingborg there are 3 different stations where we can pick up a car. The furthest station is 2.8 km away, but there are 2 other places where we can pick up cars. These are located at 0.9 km and 1.6 km comfortable walking or cycling distance respectively. Easy to cycle or walk. A total of 8 cars are available for hire at these stations. All currently of the brand Nissan Leaf 40 kWh.

The pool is Öresundskraft’s, which is the electricity company in this region, but it is run by a company called Move About and they have 16 locations in Sweden and more in Norway according to their website www.moveabout.se The number of pools is steadily increasing. The fact that they are in more places in the country was an important factor in our decision to join that pool. It provides the opportunity to via their app. be able to book a car in all the places where they are available. So we can take the train to that place and pick up a pre-booked car there. They also supplement the pools in some places with electric bikes, which are also available for hire.

To become a customer, you pay a monthly membership fee. For us in Helsingborg who have Öresundskraft as electricity supplier, it costs 49 kr/month otherwise 99 kr/month, then there is a cost when you rent the car of course.

The price varies slightly depending on the type of cars the pool has and how long you rent. Below is a table of prices according to the website(www.moveabout.se) 28 March 2022.

As there are no major fuel costs, the price is competitive. Refuelling with electricity is not a big cost, especially when compared to petrol or diesel. If you are renting for a short time, a few hours or half a day, the price is lower or at the same level as a petrol-powered small car. So in most cases, being a member of an electric car pool is financially beneficial.

If you are driving a longer distance, for the cars in our pool, the stated distance is up to 27 miles, so if you are driving longer than that, you need to set aside time to stop and charge the car.

We have a daughter in Gothenburg, a distance of 20 miles from Helsingborg, so we need a good charge once we arrive in Gothenburg. But if we drive in the dark half of the year with cold, dark and snow or rain, the car drains its batteries much faster. The range will no longer be 27 miles but significantly shorter. We have therefore had to recharge on the way home, sometimes several times.

In short, I can say that the electric car is price competitive with other rental cars and in comparison to owning a car. But it requires a bit more planning, you have to book in time especially at major weekends and other times when you can expect demand to be high.

A second negative point is that it may take a little more time to travel longer distances that are beyond the car’s range. And the range quoted is a maximum range unless other energy guzzlers such as heaters, lights and windscreen wipers are needed. This is generally true for electric cars, but perhaps mostly because we have a need to drive longer distances than the cars in “our” pool have as a maximum.

On the positive side is the high comfort of an electric car. It runs quietly and responds quickly to acceleration. The noise is mostly lower than in a petrol car, although the difference is not that big.

The prize must also be included in the positive part of the evaluation. Perhaps the biggest advantage especially in comparison with a car of your own. In a car of your own, you lock up capital and have a depreciation in value in addition to all the various operating costs, such as tyres, insurance, taxes, etc. Such costs are significantly lower in the electric car pool as the collective shares these costs, all users of the service pay these operating costs.

Another plus is not having to risk the childhood flaws of the relatively new technology in the electric car. This risk is shared between all the members who use the cars in the pool and the company that made the investment.

Finally, the biggest benefit is the environmental impact. After all, you are not contributing to any direct greenhouse gas emissions provided that the electricity you use comes from clean sources. In addition, there is a smaller contribution to the consumption of materials because the materials used in the car are shared between several users. The car and its parts are therefore used more resource-efficiently than if you owned the car yourself.