A two-year vehicle sharing pilot program utilizing 16 Chevy EN-V 2.0 electric concept cars was recently begun in the Chinese city of Shanghai via a partnership between General Motors and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU).
The pilot program will see the electric vehicles (EVs) integrated with the multi-modal transportation system at SJTU’s Minhang campus — in other words, integrated with the shuttle buses, bikes, and cars in common use on the campus. The aim is apparently to meet “first mile, last mile transportation needs” (getting to and from the bus, etc).
Those eligible to participate in the program will be various faculty members and graduate students at SJTU — who will have to prepay a set membership fee, as a means of offsetting the costs associated with the use of the EN-V 2.0s.
Worth noting is that analysis of the pilot program will be conducted both by GM engineers and by SJTU staff and students — together collecting and analyzing the data from the vehicles’ operation and users’ input.
SJTU Vice President Dan Wu commented: “SJTU attaches great importance to our cooperation with GM. Sharing vehicle data will support research at SJTU in related disciplines while promoting improvements in GM’s technology. Intelligent transportation, autonomous vehicles and electrification represent the key areas of our cooperation and the future as well.”
For some background here, the two-seat EN-V 2.0 possesses a range of approximately 40 km (25 miles) and a top speed of 30 kilometers/hour (~18.6 mph) — making the EV a good fit for just such a program and/or use.
Image Credit: GM