Car Share in Seattle#

Between 2012 and 2024, Seattle hosted six different free-floating car-sharing operators. At its peak in 2016-2017, three ran simultaneously with more than 1,750 vehicles on city streets, and over 100,000 residents held memberships. By early 2025, every free-floating service had left. This guide covers what happened, why it failed, and what remains.

What is car sharing?#

Car sharing lets members rent vehicles by the minute or hour, typically through a smartphone app. There are three main models:

Free-floating (one-way)#

Users pick up a car anywhere within a defined service area and drop it off anywhere else in that zone. No reservation required. This was the dominant model in Seattle from 2012 to 2024, operated by car2go, ReachNow, LimePod, and Gig Car Share.

Station-based (round-trip)#

Users reserve a car parked at a designated spot and must return it to the same spot. Zipcar has operated this model in Seattle since 2007.

Peer-to-peer#

Individual car owners list their vehicles for rent. Turo (since 2012) and Getaround (2018-2025) used this model in Seattle.

Operators: a complete history#

Flexcar (2000-2007)#

Flexcar was Seattle’s first car-sharing company and one of the first for-profit car-sharing operations in the United States. It launched in January 2000 on Capitol Hill with 4 cars and 100 members through a public-private partnership with the City of Seattle and King County Metro. By 2003, Flexcar had signed up 12,000 people. In October 2007, Flexcar merged with Zipcar; the combined company kept the Zipcar name. (SeattlePI)

Zipcar (2007-present)#

Zipcar inherited Flexcar’s Seattle operations in the 2007 merger. It operates a station-based round-trip model with designated parking spots. Avis Budget Group acquired Zipcar for $500 million in 2013. As of 2026, Zipcar remains the only traditional car-sharing company still operating in Seattle. (Zipcar Seattle)

car2go / Share Now (2012-2020)#

car2go was the service that defined Seattle’s car-sharing era. In December 2012, Seattle City Council approved a free-floating car-share pilot, and car2go launched with 330 Smart Fortwo vehicles. (The Urbanist)

Key milestones:

• 2013: 59,000 registered members by end of first full year
• March 2015: Fleet grew to 750 vehicles; membership topped 63,000, the largest in the U.S. (Sightline Institute)
• 2016: 77,000 active members (SDOT Blog)
• January 2017: Began replacing Smart Fortwos with Mercedes-Benz CLA sedans and GLA crossovers, raising per-minute pricing from $0.41 to $0.49 (The Urbanist)
• October 2017: Announced full transition to Mercedes-only fleet; membership exceeded 100,000 (Seattle Times)
• 2019: Rebranded to Share Now after BMW-Daimler joint venture merged car2go and DriveNow
• November 2019: Share Now announced exit from all North American markets (Seattle Times)
• February 29, 2020: Last day of service. At shutdown: 720 vehicles, 148,309 members, 4.7 million cumulative trips

ReachNow (2016-2019)#

ReachNow was BMW’s answer to car2go. It launched in April 2016 with 370 BMW and MINI vehicles. The fleet grew to over 520 vehicles including BMW 3 Series, BMW i3, and MINI Cooper models. (SDOT Blog)

In March 2018, BMW and Daimler announced a merger of their mobility services. On July 17, 2019, ReachNow abruptly shut down in Seattle and Portland with only hours of notice to SDOT and employees. Up to 1,000 BMWs were left parked on city streets. (GeekWire)

LimePod (2018-2019)#

LimePod was Lime’s car-sharing pilot — the only market where the scooter and bike company tried cars. It launched in November 2018 with a fleet of Fiat 500 vehicles under an SDOT pilot program. Over roughly 13 months, 18,000 users took 200,000 trips.

In September 2019, Lime announced it would not renew the pilot, citing inability to find a partner for an electric vehicle fleet. Analysts believed the real issue was financial: cars are far more expensive to deploy and maintain than bikes or scooters. (GeekWire)

Gig Car Share (2020-2024)#

Gig Car Share, backed by AAA through its A3 Ventures subsidiary, was the last free-floating service to try Seattle. It launched on June 30, 2020, with 250 Toyota Prius hybrids — entering the market just four months after Share Now’s exit and in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. (The Urbanist)

In December 2020, Gig expanded its home area from 13 to 23 square miles and added 120 vehicles. (The Urbanist)

In July 2024, Gig announced it was shutting down, citing “decreased demand” and “rising operational costs.” Service ended in December 2024. With Gig’s closure, Seattle lost its last free-floating car-sharing service. (GeekWire | Seattle Bike Blog)

Peer-to-peer: Turo and Getaround#

Turo launched in Seattle in 2012 as a peer-to-peer platform where car owners list vehicles for rent. By 2022, it had roughly 101,000 active users in the Seattle area. Turo still operates. (Seattle Times)

Getaround launched in Seattle in May 2018 with keyless-unlock technology for hourly peer-to-peer rentals. The city granted Getaround designated parking spaces. Getaround ceased all U.S. operations in February 2025.

ZEV co-op (2021-present)#

ZEV co-op is a nonprofit cooperative offering electric car-sharing focused on underserved communities. Founded in 2021, it operates roughly 11 vehicles across the Seattle area, with placements at Seattle Housing Authority communities including Lake City Court, NewHolly, and High Point. Pricing ranges from $16/hour standard to $5/hour for income-qualified users. ZEV aims to reach 250 cars by the end of 2027. (Seattle Housing Authority | ZEV co-op)

Why free-floating car sharing failed#

Every for-profit free-floating car-sharing company that entered Seattle eventually left. The reasons fall into structural, economic, and Seattle-specific categories.

The economics never worked#

The core problem was cost. Colin Murphy of the Shared-Use Mobility Center summarized it: “The short answer is that the costs didn’t work out. Free-floating just adds a layer of labor costs on top of a very low-margin business.” (Next City)

Operating costs included vehicle purchase or lease payments, insurance, maintenance, fuel, parking permits, and — critically — rebalancing: physically moving idle cars from low-demand areas to high-demand ones. Share Now reported that roughly 1 in 5 vehicles required manual relocation. These costs could not be covered at prices competitive with private car ownership or ride-hailing.

Ride-hailing competition#

Uber and Lyft offered a more convenient alternative. With ride-hailing, the car comes to you; with car sharing, you walk to wherever the nearest car happens to be parked. For most trips, the convenience gap outweighed the cost difference.

The luxury vehicle mistake#

car2go’s 2017 decision to replace its affordable Smart Fortwo fleet with Mercedes-Benz vehicles raised per-minute rates by 20% and increased maintenance costs. The UW Sustainable Transportation Lab warned at the time that the switch would disproportionately affect lower-income users and undermine the service’s value proposition. (UW Sustainable Transportation Lab)

ReachNow launched with BMWs from the start, and car2go’s competitive response was to go upmarket rather than double down on affordability. Neither company survived.

Corporate decisions, not local failures#

Both car2go/Share Now and ReachNow were shut down as consequences of the BMW-Daimler joint venture restructuring, which decided to focus on European markets. Share Now cited the “volatile state of the global mobility landscape” and insufficient EV charging infrastructure in North America. ReachNow’s shutdown was so abrupt that SDOT had only hours of notice. (Streetsblog USA)

These were global corporate decisions, not responses to Seattle-specific conditions — though the underlying economics made North American markets less attractive than European ones.

The pandemic disrupted demand patterns#

Gig Car Share launched during COVID-19 and never achieved the membership density that car2go had at its peak. Post-pandemic remote work reduced commuting demand, and the service never reached critical mass.

High car ownership in the U.S.#

In European cities where free-floating car sharing thrives, the marginal cost of car ownership is high (expensive parking, fuel taxes, congestion charges). In Seattle, parking is relatively cheap outside downtown, and driving costs are subsidized. The marginal cost of using a car you already own is always lower than per-minute rental pricing.

The Vancouver contrast#

Vancouver’s Evo carshare has thrived while Seattle’s operators failed. An analysis in The Urbanist attributed this to Vancouver having stronger transit connections between neighborhoods, lower car ownership rates, and a transportation ecosystem more supportive of car-lite lifestyles. Car sharing works best as a complement to robust transit — not as a substitute for it. (The Urbanist)

How the city managed car sharing#

Permits and regulations#

In January 2015, Seattle City Council passed an ordinance formally expanding the free-floating car-share program, allowing up to 4 operators with 500 permits each, expandable to 750 with citywide coverage. SDOT was given authority to set fleet caps but chose not to impose them after finding minimal parking impact. (The Urbanist)

Free-floating permits allowed vehicles to:

• Park at any legal paid space without paying meters
• Ignore posted time limits
• Park in Restricted Parking Zones (RPZs)
• Stay in any single spot for up to 72 hours

Permit fees ranged from $1,200/year per on-street space in paid areas to $300 in unpaid areas. (seattle.gov)

Equity requirements#

Operators were required to make 10% of their fleet available in equity focus areas and document programs serving low-income households. In practice, vehicles still concentrated in dense, central neighborhoods while lower-income outer neighborhoods were underserved.

Parking impact#

SDOT’s 2016 analysis found that free-floating car-share vehicles occupied less than 5% of available paid parking spaces, and car2go vehicles occupied only 0.7% on average. Despite this, neighborhood resistance to perceived parking loss created political friction. (SDOT Blog)

Key statistics#

Timeline#

Current state (2026)#

The only car-sharing options remaining in Seattle are:

• Zipcar — station-based round-trip rentals (owned by Avis Budget Group)
• Turo — peer-to-peer vehicle listings from private owners
• ZEV co-op — nonprofit electric vehicle cooperative (~11 vehicles, focused on equity)

There are zero free-floating one-way car-sharing services in Seattle. The city went from a peak of 1,750+ free-floating vehicles across 3 operators in 2016-2017 to none by early 2025.

Data sources#

• SDOT car share program page: Car Sharing and Parking Regulations (seattle.gov)
• SDOT 2016 car share program update: Seattle Car Share Program Update (sdotblog.seattle.gov)
• UC Berkeley TSRC car2go impact study: Impacts of car2go on Vehicle Ownership, Modal Shift, Vehicle Miles Traveled, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions (escholarship.org)
• SDOT New Mobility Survey (2020): New Mobility Survey Research Final Report (PDF) (seattle.gov)

Related resources#

• Micro Mobility — E-scooters, bike share, and how they work in Seattle
• Mass Transit — Light rail, buses, and the transit network car sharing was meant to complement
• Transportation Glossary — Terms like “mode share,” “first/last mile,” and “VMT”

Last updated: February 2026