Wellington car-sharing service Mevo moves up a gear

Mevo Founders Erik Zydervelt (left) and Finn Lawrence. Photo / supplied

Two Wellington entrepreneurs are hoping to give Uber a run for its money, thanks to a collaboration with Wellington Council.

Car-sharing company Mevo has negotiated a "Home Zone" with Wellington City Council, meaning those using the share cars can pick up and drop off their Audi e-trons anywhere around the CBD and airport.

They'd previously been confined to a few set parks around the city, with the cars needing to return "back to base".

Mevo co-founder and CEO Erik Zydervelt said they were excited to make the switch, as around the world it had proved to drastically increase the numbers of people using the service.

"Free-floating, you can use that more like an Uber, or a taxi, or even like your own car," he said.

"There are about 1500 cities around the world that have a car-sharing service, and about 50 of them have made this pivot.

"Every time they do, they see a rapid uptick [in users], simply because it's so much more convenient.

"Vancouver had some car-sharing happening, but switched to free-floating, and now they have over 5000 car-share vehicles.

"But as far as we know, we're the first to do it in Australasia."

He said they deliberately chose Wellington as the pilot city for Mevo, because it was compact and the locals were used to trying out new technologies.

Co-founder and head of product at Mevo Finn Lawrence said cars were the second biggest purchase for most people, after their home.

Yet their research showed most private cars were only used four per cent of the time they were available.

"It's not only good for the environment, it saves space from roading and parking buildings, and it saves people a load of money as well.

"This idea means they can use a car-share in a really similar way to how they'd use their own car.

"You can park it wherever you like, but with the added benefit of not having to pay for it at the meter, because someone else is pretty shortly going to come along and take the car somewhere else."

Mevo user Robert Whitefield, 24, said the change would make it easier to use the service more frequently.

He'd been using Mevo for about a year, and said when he crunched the numbers he worked out nine months of car-sharing saved him more than $3000.

"I heard about it about a year ago, thought I would give it a try, and have been using it ever since.

"This might sound really boring but I'm thinking about retirement and investing and so that money goes into shares, different investments, and of course a little bit of fun.

"I like it, it's easier, I just don't think people will have cars in the future."

The deal with Wellington City Council includes a "cost neutral solution" for the use of council car parks.

Mayor Justin Lester said Mevo's changes were important for the city's growing car sharing industry.

"With more and more people living in the CBD and the trend away from car ownership, car sharing initiatives are increasingly important."

A 2017 study by Europe's Transport and Environment Federation found that every one car-sharing vehicle took the place of five-to-15 private vehicles.