PhillyCarShare was a non-profit

car-sharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...

organization in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

established in 2002. The service was acquired by Enterprise in 2011, and was renamed Enterprise CarShare in 2014. PhillyCarShare has cars available for use 24 hours per day throughout the city of Philadelphia and the region. The goals of the company are to reduce the number of cars on the road, promote the use of gas-saving automobiles, reduce pollution, promote a car-free lifestyle and save its members money. In 2007, PCS estimated that it had removed the need for more than 15,000 cars in Philadelphia, saved one million gallons of gas though the use of hybrids and reduced driving; saved each of its members $4,000 and reduced pollution by eliminating 16 million driven miles.

Community impact

Its partnership vehicle-sharing program with the City of Philadelphia was named one of 18 national finalists for the ''Innovations in American Government Awards'', which are overseen by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

John F. Kennedy School of Government The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

. This program allowed city workers to utilize car-sharing vehicles, and allowed the city to reduce its fleet of underutilized city-owned vehicles by 330 cars. The fleet reduction is estimated to have saved the City of Philadelphia $8 million. The City of

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

joined PhillyCarShare in 2007. With the partnership between the City of Philadelphia and PhillyCarShare, the City became the first "government worldwide to share cars with local residents in a major fleet reduction effort." In October 2007, PhillyCarShare announced that its membership had reached 30,000. At the time of acquisition by Enterprise in 2011, it was reported that there was a membership of 13,000.

Fleet

The PhillyCarShare fleet includes over two dozen makes and models. Nearly half the fleet is made up of hybrid vehicles, including the

Toyota Prius The is a Compact car, compact/small family car, small family liftback (supermini/subcompact sedan (car), sedan until 2003) produced by Toyota. The Prius has a Hybrid vehicle drivetrain, hybrid drivetrain, combined with an internal combustion ...

Honda Civic Hybrid The is a series of automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1972. , the Civic is positioned between the Honda Fit/City and Honda Accord in Honda's global passenger car line-up. The first-generation Civic was introduced in July 1972 as a two-do ...

, and Camry Hybrid. Other cars include the

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Mazda3 The (known as the in China and Japan (first three generations), a combination of "accelerate" and "excellent") is a compact car manufactured by Mazda, available as a 5-door hatchback and 4-door sedan across all generations. It was first in ...

Audi A4 The Audi A4 is a line of luxury compact executive cars produced from 1994 to 2025 by the German car manufacturer Audi, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. The A4 has been built in five generations and is based on the Volkswagen Group B platfor ...

Volvo S40 The Volvo S40 is a series of subcompact executive cars marketed and produced by the Swedish manufacturer Volvo Cars from 1995 to 2012, offered as a more mainstream alternative to the compact executive Volvo 850 and later the Volvo S60 to com ...

Ford Focus The Ford Focus is a compact car (C-segment in Europe) manufactured by Ford Motor Company from 1998 until 2025. It was created under Alexander Trotman's Ford 2000 plan, which aimed to globalize model development and sell one compact vehicle worl ...

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Dodge Caravan The Dodge Caravan is a series of minivans manufactured by Chrysler from the 1984 through 2020 model years. The Dodge version of the Chrysler minivans, was marketed as both a passenger van and a cargo van (the only version of the model line offe ...

Honda Fit The Honda Fit ( Japanese: ホンダ・フィット, Hepburn: ''Honda Fitto'') or Honda Jazz is a small car manufactured and marketed by Honda since 2001 over four generations. It has a five-door hatchback body style and is considered a super ...

Scion xA The Scion xA is a five-door subcompact hatchback marketed in the US from 2004-2006 — as an export model of the Japanese domestic market Toyota Ist. Based on the first generation Toyota Vitz hatchback, the xA shared a platform with the To ...

Scion xB The Scion xB is a five-door compact hatchback that was produced by Scion (automobile), Scion, a former marque of Toyota. Produced from the 2004 to 2015 model years, it was one of the two launch models of the Scion marque, alongside the Scion xA. ...

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Subaru Impreza The is a compact car that has been manufactured by the Japanese automaker Subaru since 1992. It was introduced as a replacement for the Leone, with the predecessor's EA series engines replaced by the new EJ series. It is now in its sixth g ...

Toyota Yaris The is a supermini/subcompact car sold by Toyota since 1999, replacing the Starlet and Tercel. Up to 2019, Toyota had used the Yaris nameplate on export versions of various Japanese-market models, with some markets receiving the same vehicl ...

Acura TL The Acura TL is a car that was manufactured by Acura, the luxury division of Honda. It was introduced in 1995 to replace the Acura Vigor and was badge engineering, badged for the Japanese-market from 1996 to 2000 as the Honda Inspire and from 1996 ...

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and

Toyota Sienna The Toyota Sienna is a minivan manufactured and marketed by Toyota primarily for the North American market. It is named for the Italian city of Siena, in the region of Tuscany. It replaced the first generation Toyota Previa, Previa van in 1997 ...

. In July 2008, PhillyCarShare told its members that Toyota has cancelled most of their 2008 hybrid order due to high demand for hybrids from the retail segment, causing a temporary reduction in the number of hybrids in their fleet.

Marketing

PhillyCarShare introduced their ''Key to the City'' program in 2007 bringing discounts to Philadelphia area retailers. All members have a keytag which they can show at participating retailers to enjoy exclusive discounts. Discounts include local eateries, shops and cultural institutions. In 2006, PhillyCarShare began issuing a "music to drive by" CD entitled ''"Philly Sound Clash."'' Copies of the CD are placed in all of the vehicles, and members are encouraged to take home as many copies as they desire. The CD features local Philadelphia artists in a battle of the bands type contest, 2007's winner was Philadelphia Slick.

References

External links

* {{Vehicle rental brands Carsharing Transportation in Philadelphia Defunct companies based in Pennsylvania Non-profit organizations based in Pennsylvania Organizations established in 2002 Organizations disestablished in 2014 Transport companies established in 2002 Transport companies disestablished in 2014 Defunct non-profit organizations based in the United States Enterprise Holdings