Evie Carshare

I am so incredibly thankful that during this period of searching and buying a new EV, I can use the Evie service whenever I need to fill the gap! There was a learning curve at first between membership options and hub based versus free float, but as long as you view the ride cost calculator it helps you predict the most cost efficient choice for you. I would recommend making this feature more prominent and easier to access within the app, as you have to click a few buttons until you reach it. Where my home base is just a block outside of the accepted EV area, so I hope they continue to expand their working areas! Further in South Minneapolis and across Northeast. Calling the help line is easy and usually effective but there have been times I couldn’t get help right away or answers in navigating unfamiliar car models. Thankfully there are only a handful to get familiar with! It’s also been fun driving the different models and getting more comfortable with the variety of options that are out there. Overall a positive experience!

I love carsharing, it’s a great idea in theory. I have used car2go, hourcar, and now Evie, as we are a single car household and would like to keep it that way. However, the reason I and many people need access to a car is not to go within 4 miles of their house, it’s to be able to access places bikes and public transportation do not access. For that reason, the home area of Evie feels redundant. I can bus all those places. I can bike. I can walk. But it’s getting to an appointment in Fridley that’s hard- and yes I know there’s hourcar for that, but it’s not convenient to bring the car back to the parking spot. For example- every Thursday I have to get my kid from school, from my place of work- both outside of the home area (but in south Minneapolis!!), then drive him to my parents in northeast Minneapolis- also outside the home area. We stay there until my partner is done with work. This is not a trip hour car is convenient for- and it’s impossible with evie, and it’s extremely inconvenient with public transportation and not something I’m willing to bike as it would add up to a lot of miles pulling a trailer. Anyway- I know my story is personal, and it’s just one experience- but I know many people who don’t even attempt carsharing for similar reasons to what I have listed. I had the same issue with car2go. Please consider expanding the home area- at least to cover all of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, not just parts of it. And please begin working with suburbs where there is a need for access to shared transportation since public options are lacking, and roads are less friendly to pedestrians and bikers.

Evie is obviously 5 star operation but its app is a 3 star at most. - First load of vehicle map takes a long time - No status indicator what the map is doing, lots of dead time - Is there a live update of the vehicles? Doesnt seem like it I have to close and reopen app to discover newly taken or available cars. No refresh button - Some days the API is slowwww and there is no caching of vehicles so everytime you open the app it takes forever to see vehicles - Vehicle positions may be guestimated due to faulty GPS - No indicator if vehicles are plugged in and charging, helpful to decide which vehicle to pick at a charging station - Sometimes icons overlap so I wont see two vehicles next to each other - Really slow delays talking to car, pausing, unlocking, etc probably Wifi issue or technical thing with the onboard system - Extremely slow delay of ending trip, bluetooth will quickly lock car but the actual end trip indicator continues to spin which makes me worried I need to wait until its complete, wish there was a final trip ended screen or a notification on the phone like Lyft does - Hourcar interface whole nother bag of worms.