New Electric Car Share Service Coming To Downtown Sacramento

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A new option is now available in Sacramento for people who want to drive a car but not own one. You can download an app and find an electric vehicle to rent by the minute or hour.

The City of Sacramento worked with the company GIG Car Share to make it happen.

"The idea that people could rent a car like this for an hour at a time to run an errand... and park it at their place of destination...I don't think we could have imagined that," said Mayor Darrell Steinberg.

There are currently 80 electric GIG cars on the streets of Sacramento ready to rent. That will grow to 260 cars by the end of April.

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Drivers can use a smartphone app to find a car. It costs 40 cents per minute or $85 to keep the car for an entire day. Fuel, insurance, and parking are all included.

The city predicts that over time GIG cars will make it easier for everyone to find parking spaces because fewer drivers will park their own cars downtown.

Mayor Steinberg says this is just the beginning.

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"One advance leads to the next. We're testing autonomous vehicles. We've got the first AV shuttle at Sacramento State," Steinberg said. "Sacramento is willing and hungry for more of this kind of thing."

The GIG Car Share program was made possible by a $44 million grant Sacramento received from Electrify America, a company that owns an electric vehicle charging network.

You can learn more about the Car Share on their website.