Plymouth’s car club on hold after Co Cars collapse
Connect Plymouth has announced its car club is on hold after Co Cars Limited went into administration and officially ceased trading today.
Plymouth City Council awarded a contract to Co Cars last year[1], so it could run a fleet of electric car club vehicles across the city. It launched in our city in March - and dozens of people had signed up to the eco-friendly car sharing service.
Co Cars and Co Bikes first started in Exeter and expanded across the South West, offering short-term car and bike hire service. But sadly the business has been unable to cover costs and says it has been "severely affected" by the pandemic, cost of living crisis, high fuel prices and vandalism to bikes.
Plymouth users have now been notified the Plymouth car club isn't currently running and other options are being looked at.
A spokesperson for Connect Plymouth said: "Unfortunately Co Cars Limited has gone into administration and on July 14, 2023 ceased operation of its car club vehicles within Plymouth. Options for the provision of a car club are being considered."
Co Cars business was first founded in 2005 with just one car but most recently was offering a fleet of 50 electric and low-emission shared cars and over 200 electric bikes. It is reported to have had a combined membership of over 10,000 people across the region, proving popular with people looking for convenient, low emission ways to get around. The scheme is also heavily used by people working in the gig economy, mainly delivery drivers for delivery apps such as Deliveroo and Just Eat.
In October last year, the company announced that Nic Eversett would be taking over as managing director[2] from Mark Hodgson who went on a sabbatical and was due to return to the business this year as a senior consultant.
Yesterday (July 13), Nic has said in a statement that Co Cars and Co Bikes will cease operation from tomorrow, July 14. He says the business has suffered from a turbulent few years, including the suspension of services during the pandemic, changes in travel habits and increased costs which has meant they have spent recent months fighting for additional funding but to no avail.
He also says that vandalism of bikes and supply chain issues have made it "impossible" to keep enough of the fleet on the roads. In February, they were forced to take a Co Bike station out of use in Cranbrook due to "thoughtless acts of vandalism".[3]
You can read the full statement from Nic here[4].
References
- ^ last year (www.plymouthherald.co.uk)
- ^ Nic Eversett would be taking over as managing director (www.business-live.co.uk)
- ^ take a Co Bike station out of use in Cranbrook due to "thoughtless acts of vandalism". (www.devonlive.com)
- ^ here (www.devonlive.com)