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Car-sharing business Car2Go is withdrawing from the UK from, as the service, owned by Daimler, failed to attract enough users to make it viable. It seems the British public prefers car ownership to car sharing.

Car2Go has been operating in London since December 2012 and launched in Birmingham last year. The plan was to have a network of 'free floating' spaces across the capital where customers could collect and drop off cars. However, the task of co-ordinating 32 different authorities across various boroughs proved to be more difficult than the company imagined.

Fewer than 10,000 people subscribed to the service, which meant the level of daily bookings was lower than necessary to make the business sustainable. According to the company: 'The unique challenges we encountered were more significant than expected'.

Anything else?

Despite the lack of success in the UK Car2Go has 750,000 registered users around the world and is present in 25 cities. The service has 110,000 customers in Rome and Milan; in Germany 70,000 people have signed up and cars can be hired in seven cities including Berlin and Hamburg.

John Lambert - 31 May 2014