Zipcar Vehicle-Sharing Service to Expand

Scott Griffith, CEO of Zipcar, outside the company's office in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, March 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds) (Josh Reynolds - AP)

Zipcar members can reserve a vehicle online or over the phone. At the arranged time, the driver enters the vehicle by swiping a coded card over a windshield reader. Keys to start the car are stored inside. When finished, the driver returns the car to the pickup site, typically a private spot in a lot or garage.

Zipcar covers maintenance, insurance and gasoline expenses. Members refill tanks using Zipcar gas cards and are asked to leave at least a quarter-tank.

With 2,500 vehicles, the privately held company is now in San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, Minneapolis, and Ann Arbor, Mich., after starting out in Boston, New York and Washington. It's also available on about 30 U.S. college campuses.

Late last year, Zipcar moved into London, an entry point for eventual expansion elsewhere in Europe _ a continent where it will face challenges, said Thilo Koslowski, an auto industry analyst with Gartner Inc.

"People there are used to public transit," he said. "The value proposition of car-sharing has to be extremely high to succeed against the transportation options they already have."

Zipcar plans to move into four new metropolitan markets this year, likely three in North America and one in Europe, Griffith said. The company hopes to eventually move into Asia.

Griffith figures Zipcar's goals are within reach given its success in a few neighborhoods where it has achieved membership rates of 10 percent or more among adults residents. Those areas include Boston's Back Bay and Beacon Hill, Washington D.C.'s Dupont Circle and New York's Brooklyn borough.

Only about half of adults in such dense neighborhoods typically own cars.

"It looks to me like there's still a lot more room to grow," Griffith said.