Evo Car Share

I like the Prius c cars, always very clean and great on gas. I like that they can fit all my stuff. My point to point car share of choice.

I lost an item, left it in the car. I could actually see it through the window bug my phone was dead and my card was at work. I called and they told me they’d retrieve item for me, but they didn’t and I never got it back. Really disappointed, they were very, very unhelpful.

I switched to Evo after car2go’s terrible decision to start collecting a $ 10 parking fee in Horseshoe Bay on Fri & Sat. So far, I absolutely love Evo! As much as the smart cars were fun to drive and easy to park, Evo’s Prius’ are much more comfortable, fit 5, and are still small enough to squeeze into tight spaces. They also don’t charge that annoying $ 1 on every trip, which makes them cheaper than car2go. I haven’t had any need to talk to customer service, but I imagine that if I have a problem, they won’t tell me to take the bus like car2go did.
The app is the only downside, but I won’t take a star away for that, as it’s still in the early stages, and I fully expect it’ll just get better. All the cars still start and end a trip with the card (unlike car2go’s smartphone only cars) and it’s actually way faster than car2go for the car to lock and unlock using the card.
And they also take VISA debit! (car2go doesn’t for some strange reason)

I’ve had pretty good experiences with Evo so far.
The only major incident I’ve had was when I received a missed call from them and they left a message. Turns out the person who used the Evo before me left their bag inside the car but I had already reserved the car at that time. I call them back, and apparently they overrode my reservation and unlocked the car for this person to grab their bag. While it wasn’t a major issue (and the did compensate me with free minutes) I’m not fond of the idea that they overrode my reservation and unlocked the car for this other person while the car was still reserved under my name. Also, this person parked the car on the rooftop parking of No Frills on Broadway, causing me to look everywhere and eventually having to call in and speak with customer service to help me find the car.
Rating Evo 4 stars as they are pretty good with everything else and pick up the phone promptly to assist, but it’s just select other users that may do things to make the experience not as pleasant.

On paper, this should have been a pretty good competitor against Car2Go. The cars are obviously much better than the smart cars used by Car2Go.
However, the issue might be the App, and the operations of the cars, along with so-​so customer service.
The App is really unreliable. It can take a few tries and a few minutes to book a car, and it could take a while to check out from a car. The car will often lose connection, or have a glitch saying that the cards in the glove compartment are missing (even when they are not) and not let you check out. I am going to stop using Evo because a 5 minute car ride turned into a 20 minute charge because the App would not let me check the car out. Next time, I’m just cabbing to avoid the hassle.
The parking situation is also not great. The App, again fails at this. The App cannot tell you how many spots are open anywhere. So you could be driving around from one spot to the other before you find an empty spot, and by that time, you have burnt enough money to have just taken a taxi and not drive around downtown to find parking. Maybe over time the company can improve, but for now, this is very so-​so, and a back-​up plan when I can’t get taxis.

I have my own car, but since I work downtown, I don’t usually drive & park there every day.
Evo is the 1^st car sharing service I’ve signed up for and actually use from time to time.
* The Cars
The Evo fleet consists of Toyota Prius Hybrid cars that are all outfitted with bike & ski racks. I like how the cars are 4-​door 5-​seaters with lots of room! (Also, they are all black. my fave colour, haha.)
The cars come with built-​in GPS navigation, but I still prefer using Google maps navigation on my iPhone — so I don’t waste time fiddling with the car’s GPS when I get into the car.
Because Evo is relatively new to Vancouver (they launched in March this year), all of the Evo cars I’ve driven so far seem to be in pretty good shape — not much wear and tear yet.
Availability wise, I’ve found it rather hard to find cars in the downtown core area (near Burrard Station) at night after office hours. Often, the nearest cars are easily 10+ blocks away. Like in the West End or something. So, even when I’ve wanted to, sometimes it doesn’t make sense walking 10 blocks out of my way just to grab an Evo car, when the skytrain station or bus stops are just round the corner.
Other than the lack of cars in downtown at night, I have found that car availability near my home isn’t too bad — Evo cars can usually be found within a couple of blocks’ walking distance.
One thing that I would really like to see is more dedicated Evo parking spots in popular areas downtown where parking is scarce. This would really encourage more people to use Evo as it’s a great incentive to end your trip downtown, hassle-​free.
* The mobile app:
The app is pretty handy and doubles up as your key. Searching for, reserving, unlocking/​locking cars can all be done using the app. There is also a nifty «Call Helpdesk» button that directly connects you to the Evo Helpdesk hotline.
What would be nice to have in the app is billing & usage info. Currently, you have to login to the actual website to see that info.
Overall, my experience with Evo car sharing has been pretty good so far!

Hot damn.
So far, I am nothing but pleased with this delightful service.
I always seem to find a car relatively close, but at this point I would walk to the moon to avoid a car2go, so maybe I have no concept of distance…
These cars can hold all your pals, and your bike should you fancy. The rack is a little awkward if you are not the incredible hulk though.
I am hoping with time they will extend their home area… can you hear me Evo? I love you but I sometimes have to travel farther than Nanaimo Street…

In my over zealous way of doing things I signed up for Evo, Zipcar and Modo. Evo is hands down the easiest to use — mobile app, no crazy parking restrictions as far as spaces and you aren’t constantly checking your watch to see if you are still within your time limit. So easy! With other services you get fined if you are a bit late returning the car, fined if you don’t fill up with gas and things just aren’t as friendly as with Evo. What can I say? Love them!

Pros:
Cars are new and can hold 5 people
Less expensive than car2go (provided they don’t add a per-​trip base fee like car2go)
Cons:
Smaller driving range than car2go
Customer service re: lost item was not that helpful.

* New carshare with promise *
I remember not too long ago (ok, 4 years ago) when Car2Go entered the Vancouver market and how they had a hard time explaining the one way car «rental» service to people who were only accustomed to traditional rental cars and the original car share services where you had to bring the car back to the same place you started to end the rental period. When they first launched there was a lot of difficultly locating available cars where and when you wanted them, and there were lots of technical glitches.
But I’ve been pretty happy with what Car2Go has evolved to over the years, and find it really a great alternative to taxis.
I am guessing that they have grown the market large enough that there is now room for a 2^nd company to compete with them. Enter Evo. Run by BCAA this service is pretty similar to Car2Go with a few tweaks:
— Instead of a smartcar Evo offers Priuses (is that the plural?) decked out with bike racks and room inside for more people. These are definitely a lot more comfortable inside and easier to drive, but harder to find sneaky little spots to drop them off.
— The driving zone is quite small compared to Car2Go (similar to the one Car2Go started with). I imagine if they succeed this will grow in time.
— The availability of cars is pretty sparse (similar to when Car2Go started).
— Their booking app for the phone was filled with technical glitches. It crashed pretty darned often the first 2 weeks. But they’ve now updated it and it seems to have stabilized — the last few rentals have gone really smoothly.
— Their booking app doesn’t have the radar function that Car2Go has — so if you don’t find a car you can’t request that it notifies you when one becomes available nearby. They really should add this feature to make the service easier to use like the Car2Go app does.
— Their booking app doesn’t let you see previous trips like Car2Go does. It is helpful to see how much you’ve been charged for a trip quickly and conveniently in the app.
— Their booking app does have one great advantage over Car2Go — it unlocks the car REALLY quickly. I mean almost instantly, when you click on «unlock car.» It also locks the car at the end of the rental really quickly too. Nice work on this — very convenient, particularly when it is raining!
— The maps in the car do not show their designated parking spaces — which can make it difficult to drop the car downtown unless you know exactly where they have spots. Similar to Car2Go you can of course park in any «resident only» spots on the street as well, but those are pretty much non-​existent in the downtown core. I hope they update their map software in the cars to include Evo-​only parking spots and overflow lots, etc. like Car2Go.
— The website doesn’t show trips until the next day usually. They should have it update right after the trip ends, like Car2Go, so you can figure out how much you’ve spent.
— Their pricing looks pretty much exactly the same as Car2Go — with the exception that they haven’t announced the per trip charge Car2Go is launching this summer. Not sure if they will add that too?
All of that said, they look pretty similar to how Car2Go was when they launched, so if the market bears them out we may have 2 equally convenient options for one way quick on-​demand rentals that cost much less than a taxi. So I think they show a lot of promise and hope they do well!
Now all we need is some aspiring app developer to launch a really useful app that combines data from Car2Go and Evo into a single map so we can book whatever is nearby without having to search both apps! Bonus points if they get the app ready to show Über cars nearby too and let you book them if you can’t find a Car2Go or Evo. Oh wait, Vancouver still doesn’t allow Über — now I’m really just dreaming!