24 Aug 2019

Electric car sharing scheme Yoogo eyes Auckland after slow Christchurch growth

8:40 am on 24 August 2019

An electric car sharing scheme that started in Christchurch over a year ago has not grown as fast as initially hoped.

Yoogo Share was opened to corporate clients last year and just went public.

Yoogo Share was opened to corporate clients last year and just went public. Photo: Supplied

Yoogo started with 100 electric cars in the city which were mostly leased by large businesses and the Christchurch City Council.

It helped the council take 55 combustion vehicles out of its fleet.

However Yoogo's Kirsten Corson said public take-up of the scheme required a higher number of apartment dwellers without cars than the city currently had.

She said Yoogo would now look to expand in Auckland as well.

"Our business works on a 24 hour utilisation. So in a city where you've got people living within the CBD, which is where the majority of our cars are, that's obviously really favourable for us."

Ms Corson said it would be good to see more city councils support electric cars in the way Christchurch had.