(July 13, 2011) SAN DIEGO (PRNewswire) — car2go, a subsidiary of Daimler North America, announced today that San Diego will be the first North American city to have a 100-percent electric vehicle (EV) car-sharing program.

"We're proud that car2go has chosen to launch the first North American all-electric car-sharing service in San Diego," said San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. "car2go's launch here further supports our efforts to make San Diego the nation's electric vehicle capital."

The all-electric car2go program in San Diego is going to start operations before the end of 2011 with 300 smart fortwo electric drive vehicles.

"The launch of an all electric vehicle fleet marks a new era in car sharing in North America," said Nicholas Cole, President and CEO of car2go. "San Diego is a forward-thinking city determined to meet future transportation demands of its residents. Our goal is to complement the existing transportation infrastructure by providing an emission-free car-sharing service for short and spontaneous one-way trips."

All smart fortwo electric drive cars will be equipped with the latest car2go telematics technology, allowing fully automated, easy and convenient rental operations. As the world's first free-floating car-sharing service, car2go provides its members with the possibility to rent the cars spontaneously without having the burden to commit to a specific return time or location.

The car2go program is already successful in four cities with more than 40,000 members and 1,000 smart fortwo vehicles.

The smart fortwo electric drive is powered by a 30 kW electric propulsion system powered by lithium-ion batteries that can be recharged at designated EV charging stations. On a single charge, the car can travel up to 84 miles, officials say. Battery recharging time from 20 percent to 80 percent of battery full capacity is just three and a half hours.

Recharging a completely discharged battery takes no more than eight hours, which makes it possible to recharge overnight. Past experience shows that this is seldom necessary, as the daily stretch covered by car2go drivers in urban areas rarely exceeds 6 miles.