Europcar is teaming up with Nissan to offer electric vehicles for hire. Low emission rental vehicles are nothing new for Europcar (or many other rental agencies, for that matter); models such as the Toyota Prius have been part of its 225,000 strong fleet for years. However, it seems to be the first time that a rental company and car manufacturer are jointly offering a design that’s not just low emission, but no emission.

After introducing electric versions of existing models, Nissan plans to develop entirely new models that will be made available through Europcar. The company hopes to offer a wide range of zero-emission vehicles at all the usual rental locations like airports, train stations and local kiosks by the end of 2010. Besides helping Europcar stand apart from other rental companies and providing Nissan with a guaranteed market for a large number of electric vehicles, the alliance will give consumers the opportunity to try out an unfamiliar product in a real-world setting. (Related: Europcar lists CO2 emissions on customer invoices.)

Website: www.europcar.com
Contact: www.europcar.com/EBE/module/render/Contact-Us

Spotted by: Raymond Kollau

Showing customers the environmental impact of driving, French car rental company Europcar now lists CO2 emissions for its rental cars. The information can be found both on the company’s website, and on customer invoices, allowing conscientious drivers to take emissions into account when choosing a rental car, as well as reminding them after the fact. Customers are also offered the chance to offset their emissions via a collaboration with Climate Care. Instead of planting trees, Climate Care assists with the development of renewable fuel sources and more efficient systems—arguably a more effective way of tackling carbon emissions than planting trees.

Europcar’s CO2 information is currently available to customers in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, with Australia to follow soon. An easy improvement would be to add a quick guide to help users put those emission numbers into context. As consumers become more aware of their impact on the environment, they’ll increasingly demand information that will help them make better choices. More on that from our sister-site trendwatching.com—check out their thoughts on eco intel.

Website: www.europcar.com/CO2-Emissions
Contact: www.europcar.com/EBE/module/render/Contact-Us

Spotted by: Raymond Kollau

If ever there's been a company we've enjoyed watching evolve over time, it's fast-moving Zipcar, whose frequent innovations since we first covered it back in 2003 have warranted fresh coverage on our pages on numerous occasions. The latest? Just announced on Monday, Zipcar now has its very own iPhone application.

Created through a partnership between Apple and Zipcar, the new application will allow users of Zipcar's car-sharing service to use their iPhones to find, reserve and unlock vehicles. Specifically, the application puts the iPhone's GPS to work in locating the closest Zipcars, indicating them with coloured pushpins on a map; users can then use it to reserve the vehicle they want. Once they're close to their vehicle, the technology will even beep the horn of the reserved Zipcar and unlock it. A video on CNET from the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, where the technology was announced, demonstrates the application in action. The software will be available as a free download from the Apple App Store later this summer, Zipcar says. (Back in 2007, Zipcar launched a less fully-featured application for GPS-enabled cellphones that helps members pinpoint the nearest available car.)

More than 25 percent of Zipcar members say their "life is on their iPhone," according to Zipcar CTO Luke Schneider, so tapping the brand clearly makes good sense from a practical perspective. In addition, however, it's also a prime example of what our sister site would call a brand butler offering—something extended by a familiar name, that helps to make consumers' lives easier and more enjoyable. How can *your* brand "drive" customers to new heights of satisfaction...? ;-)

Website: www.zipcar.com/iphone
Contact: info@zipcar.com

Spotted by: Ruben Feith

Out of South Africa comes Great Guide: a GPS-triggered audio tour that hooks up to car radios. The system was designed for visitors to South Africa, and provides informative and entertaining sightseeing commentary for ZAR 99 per day. Customers order the service on the company's website, picking it up along with their hire car at the airport. Driving past points of interest, the system automatically broadcasts interesting stories and facts, ranging from historic and geographic info to current affairs and pop culture trivia.

Information turns to recommendations thanks to the Great Advice feature, which offers shopping and dining tips, while the My Itinerary option lets tourists input their travel plans online before they take off. Between points of commentary users can choose from a selection of music. Great Guide can be accessed mainly in the Western Cape and Mpumalanga regions, with conventional GPS functionality on offer in the rest of the country. The service is currently available in English only, with French following soon and everything from Arabic to Zulu is said to be on the cards.

Similar services are popping up in other parts of the world, too. With its potential to infiltrate every niche, and the opportunities it presents savvy marketers and content providers, it’s a concept we’re following with interest. More on maps becoming the new interface? Check out trendwatching.com’s notes about mapmania. (Related: Ad-supported navigation — Sightseeing guided by GPS.)

Website: www.greatguide.co.za
Contact: info@greatguide.co.za

Spotted by: Bridget McNulty

In tough economic times consumers appreciate more than ever the ability to try before they buy, as we've noted on many occasions before. Similar to the initiative from Renault that we covered not long ago, rental giant Hertz is now giving consumers the ability to do an extended test drive before they buy a car.

Hertz bills its Rent2Buy program as a "virtual showroom" featuring a variety of high-quality rental cars—most still under original factory warranty, with between 25,000 and 40,000 miles. Consumers can search the company's inventory by year, make, model, ZIP code or state. If they find one they're interested in, they can rent it for three days to try it out; they sign up online, and are notified where to pick it up. After putting the car through its paces during that 3-day trial, consumers can return it to Hertz if they don't want to keep it, simply paying the applicable rental charges. If they do want to buy it, however, there's no need to bring it back—they simply log onto My Hertz and click "Purchase Car." From there, they email or fax the completed Bill of Sale document back to Hertz, which will then contact them to finalize the transaction, including payment and title transfer.

By offering extended try-before-you-buy along with an all-online, haggling-free sales process, Hertz eliminates in one fell swoop two of the points that typically cause consumers pain when buying a car. Which, of course, increases the odds that they will. Need further convincing? Check out the tryvertising section of trendwatching.com’s Generation G briefing for more.

Website: rent2buy.hertzcarsales.com

Spotted by: Raymond Kollau

After noticing that many customers dropping off cars for service chose to use their own bicycle rather than their courtesy loaner car, Clive Brook, a Volvo dealership in Yorkshire, came up with the idea of offering bicycles instead of cars. The scheme started in April 2009 with two mountain bikes, complete with safety gear.

The initiative has advantages for both parties. Bicycles are cheaper for the dealership to buy, service and insure, and customers get that little nudge that might convince them to travel by bicycle more often. And within its community, there are green points to be gained by the dealership.

Is it new for automotive businesses to promote alternative transportation? Not on a global scale: loaner bikes are fairly common in bicycle-savvy countries like the Netherlands and Denmark. But now that bicycles are gaining popularity for day-to-day transportation in other parts of the world, opportunities abound for companies that add two-wheeled options to their offerings. In this particular example, it seems like an easy and relatively cheap win for Volvo to offer its dealerships a few eye-catching, Volvo-branded bicycles that communicate and enhance brand identity. (Related: Tuned-in garage for hybrid vehicles.)

Website: www.clivebrook.co.uk
Contact: cbrook@clivebrook.co.uk

Spotted by: Susanna Haynie

Carsharing and carpooling are gaining ground across the world, mainly through the efforts of non-profit organisations and for-profit startups like Zipcar and Zimride. An unexpected new member of the movement is Galp Energia, Portugal’s largest oil and gas company.

In March 2009, Galp Energia launched Galpshare, a carpooling platform where commuters can create a profile, specify their daily route and find others heading the same way. Users can also list their musical preferences and interests (politics, sport, business, etc.), helping them find people they’d enjoy sharing a ride with.

Galpshare was created by Galp Energia as a way to promote energy efficiency, helping consumers to save money and decrease their carbon footprint. Which isn’t as counterproductive for a gas company as it may seem; most petrochemical behemoths are actively branching out into renewable energy sources and sustainable energy consumption. Galpshare’s launch was widely promoted to commuters through an ad campaign, and the service is available throughout Portugal. Big brands looking to reap the rewards of eco-bounty: have you already figured out how to help your customers be green(er)? (Related: Rewarding consumers who drive less.)

Website: www.energiapositiva.pt

There are few things more exciting to us here at Springwise than seeing good ideas come together, and that's exactly what we had occasion to spot earlier this month. Zipcar—the car-sharing innovator we've covered on numerous occasions already—just announced a partnership with Zimride—also no stranger to our pages—to bring an integrated ride-sharing system to college and university campuses.

Debuting a few weeks ago at Stanford University, the integrated service combines Zipcar's car-sharing program with Zimride's Facebook-based carpool matching system to make it easier for college students, faculty and staff to seek, offer and share rides. Zipcar already operates car-sharing programs at more than 120 US colleges and universities. To share a ride, members reserving a car can now automatically post the date, time and destination of their trip to the Zimride campus community online. Zimride's route-matching algorithm takes over from there, finding and notifying users looking for such a ride. Zimride members, meanwhile, can now find a local Zipcar to share through a customized campus Zimride website or Facebook application, making it possible for them to carpool even if they don't own a car. Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith explains: "We chose to partner with Zimride because their innovative and scalable platform is a great foundation for building a national network of rides. Zipcar fills the car ownership gap for the Zimride model, since people most likely to ride-share are those that are least likely to own a car." The two companies aim to roll out the integrated service to many more campuses in the coming months.

Every Zipcar takes 15 to 20 privately owned vehicles off the road, while Zimride has enabled 20 percent carpool adoption and savings of more than 500,000 lbs of CO2 and USD 200,000 in vehicle operating costs, the companies say. Add to that the fact that there are some 13 million faculty, staff and students on more than 2,500 parking-strapped campuses nationwide, according to the US Department of Education, and the potential impact becomes clear. How long before something like this comes to large companies, urban areas and the rest of the congested world...?

Websites: www.zipcar.com — www.zimride.com
Contacts: universities@zipcar.com — info@zimride.com

If contests can be used to fill a job or promote a region of the world, why couldn't they launch a car? That's apparently the thinking at Nissan Canada, which recently kicked off a competition to select 50 people to win a free 2009 Nissan Cube.

Indeed, Nissan Canada's hypercube contest is a unique social media campaign to promote the company's new Cube vehicle, which launches in May. Rather than embark on yet another mass-media advertising campaign, Nissan and Capital C—its creative partner in the effort—have chosen to tap the creativity of Canadian consumers. Specifically, back in March they invited up to 1,000 Canadian musicians, DJs, dancers, programmers, designers, bloggers, podcasters, poets, writers, storytellers and artists—"anyone who considers themselves creative, hip, interesting or unique"—to explain via survey and Twitter why they should be selected to audition for one of the winning 50 spots. From that initial group the top-scoring 500 individuals were selected to audition via Facebook, Twitter and the hypercube site using photos, videos, illustrations or other media to demonstrate how they personify the Cube brand. (Current examples can be found here.) Due to wrap up in mid-May, auditions will be evaluated by a panel of independent judges based on uniqueness, creativity, personality, enthusiasm, survey responses and peer voting. Consumers can register to vote on the hypercube site, and the 50 winners of the brand-new Cube will be announced in mid-June.

Although not a contest, Ford's Fiesta Movement is similar in its attempt to leverage the power of social media by selecting a group of frontrunners. In Ford's words: "Over 4,000 people applied to test drive the Ford Fiesta on the American road long before its launch here. But only 100 were chosen to be the Agents of the Fiesta Movement. [...] Our 100 agents are spending six months behind the wheel of their own Fiesta, sharing their experiences, and completing monthly missions to show you what experiencing the Ford Fiesta is all about, way in advance of the U.S. launch in 2010."

With advertising clutter and consumer skepticism at the heights they are, it's no wonder clever marketers are turning to alternative methods to break through the din. The contests will continue to come fast and furious, we expect—why not try one out for your net-savvy brand? (Related: Scion drives into Second Life.)

Website: www.hypercube.ca
Contact: joncube@hypercube.ca

Spotted by: Stas Zlobinski

Proponents of free and open source software are already familiar with the benefits of a collaborative, sharing approach to design, and now the automotive world is getting a taste of its own thanks to a Netherlands-based effort known as c,mm,n.

Sustainable mobility is at the heart of the motivation behind c,mm,n (reportedly pronounced "common"), an initiative from Stichting Natuur en Milieu (Dutch Society for Nature and Environment) along with the technical universities of Delft, Twente and Eindhoven. Aiming to provide a model for cars in the year 2020, the first collaboratively designed prototype car was debuted recently at Amsterdam's AutoRAI 2009 car show. Boasting zero emissions, the hydrogen-powered vehicle features a lightweight (and therefore fuel-saving) thermoplastic exterior and an interior including soy-based memory foam and other recyclable materials. What its developers call a "river display," meanwhile, is said to function like an iPhone with access to a variety of information including route-planning, carpooling and efficiency-maximizing systems. The vehicle is also optimised to minimize depreciation and repairs. Materials in the body, for example, last only three years; after that, the car is designed to be taken back to the factory and rebuilt. Most paradigm-busting of all, however, is that the car's blueprints are publicly available under an open source license, so its design can be used and modified by others as long as any derived works are shared with the public as well. More than 800 people are currently involved in c,mm,n through the site's "c, mm, nity" and developer's wiki. A video on YouTube (text in Dutch) provides a computer simulation of the c,mm,n in action.

Given Generation C(ontent)'s penchant for contributing content and having a say in matters large and small, it's no surprise open source software is gaining ground. Will the same concept have "wheels" in the automotive world? Only time will tell. In the meantime, one to watch—and get involved in! (Related: Converting standard Corollas into electric cars — Open source approach to textbook publishing.)

Website: www.cmmn.org
Contact: sijas@cmmn.org

Spotted by: Paul Coppes