To scale, ZEV partners with organizations like Estelita’s and the supermarket Town and Country Markets as well as entities like the city of Port Townsend. Through their membership, a community group can buy memberships for their neighbors. Then group members pay $8 an hour, with no other fees.
To collect enough user fees to be self-sustaining, ZEV still has a long way to go: It will need a total of 135 and 145 EVs that are in use 50 percent of the time.
Affordable car shares increase transportation access and lower living costs. But initiatives scale slowly and have to match their growth to people’s excitement.
Míocar founder Gloria Huerta says that for their 2019 launch, 100 people signed up overnight for their single vehicle. Now, with 45 cars in nine locations in California (expected to double next year), Míocar is one of the most sustainable car-share nonprofits.
The barrier is low: A $20 membership fee and an orientation grants a few hours of driving credit. Huerta hasn’t raised the $4 per hour and $35 a day launching rate.
Jennifer Flores always felt it was unfair that EVs were unaffordable. “People of low income commute everyday to work. Rich people don’t have to,” she says. “A lot of us cannot afford gas prices.”
Last February, Flores junked her 2001 Honda Civic after she couldn’t afford a $1,000 repair. Míocar helps her get groceries — especially bigger items like dog food or sales.
This past summer, she completed a community health worker certificate at a nearby university. Saturday classes started at 9 a.m., but on weekends, the bus service didn’t start until 9:30 a.m. Using Míocar, she got to class on time and without worrying about gas prices. The certificate led to a job planting trees in her community.
But although the nonprofit has 700 members, only 75 use the cars monthly.
Míocar rewards social media posts and filling out surveys after each drive with driving credit. One member filled out 500 surveys, driving her children to school, doctor’s appointments and getting groceries in the process.
“We don’t want to be transactional,” Huerta says. “We want to make sure that if someone is taking the time to fill up a survey and also providing feedback, we’re incentivizing them.”
The nonprofit works with UC Davis to analyze and include the results into its grant proposals. Huerta says they’re funded through 2028.
Huerta points to the community’s attentiveness as another buy-in sign. “If they see a flat tire in one of the vehicles, they’ll call us,” she says. “Car share allows the community to feel like they are part of something.”
A car share can’t always follow a community’s needs. Sometimes, electrical panels are not up to the standards. Installing a charger requires expensive underground digging, says Huerta.
And the nonprofit model isn’t a silver bullet. Boston-based Good2GO, a partner of Huerta’s, shut down in August due to high costs and funding shortages.
Huerta says Míocar managed to keep cars after funding ran out for specific locations. “At the end of the day,” she says, “these vehicles were purchased to stay in the community.”
Nighel Cobb and his wife have lived on Bainbridge Island, Washington for a year. He learned about ZEV from walking by one of its cars parked at City Hall, which is near his house. After an accident left them with one car, Cobb, who works from home, considered buying an EV. But with his wife’s military relocation likely, he wasn’t sure about infrastructure at their next location.
For five months, Cobb had medical appointments and used a car five times a week. Now his usage is more occasional. Having access to the EV network has been especially useful when he takes the ferry to Seattle. With car wait times increasing on ferries, Cobb can board the ferry by foot and easily rent a car on the other side.
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