A couple months ago, my boyfriend and I made a conscious decision not to renew the insurance on our car. Like many others in the city, we decided to ditch our car because of the costs associated with something we barely needed. Public transit takes us almost everywhere we need to go and most destinations are a close cab ride or even walk away. But then there are occasions when you're in a time crunch or plan on heading a bit further out of the city that make having a car pretty convenient. So where's the middle ground?
Created by BCAA, Evo is the newest pick-up and drop-off car share addition to the city. After being stuck in the rain and not wanting to cab, my boyfriend used the mobile app to find an Evo near Chinatown and dropped it off a block from our apartment near the Vancouver Public Library to get set for our weekend of adventures. The car share has a full fleet of Toyota Prius C hybrid four-door cars with room for five people AND has roof racks for your skis and bikes. We had the opportunity to test one out for the weekend and up first on our checklist was a long overdue trip to Swedish wonderland, IKEA.
For $0.41 a minute trips are very affordable and having that extra car storage space is a huge plus. Booking an Evo was a breeze on their mobile app and their map showed plenty of cars in the area in designated spots. We realized we had forgotten our key card but thankfully the app has the ability to unlock the car doors! We were immediately impressed by the space and the interior while taking in the "new car smell".
As we made our way to IKEA, I took in all the screens and readings about the fuel efficiency of the car. I'm not going to pretend like I know anything about cars, but this fascinated me as well as how smooth the car rode. Also, one of the first things we noticed was that bluetooth and an auxiliary input are available to play your own music. This was a really big deal for us in order to make our ride as enjoyable as possible.
We worked our way through the maze of furniture, bypassing hoards of children having tantrums and multiple couples arguing, all a part of the classic IKEA experience. We topped off our trip with their signature 75 cent hot dogs and went off to load the car with our findings.
Evo is a fresh addition to the car shares available in the city. I'm glad to see its focus on sustainability and that every member has a choice to donate their $2 ICBC car share to either Sole Food Farms or Tree Canada.
Vancouver is Awesome readers get free Evo Car Share registration + 30 minutes of free driving. Just use promo code EVO2EVO, but join soon because the offer expires April 30th!
[SPONSORED POST]
