[Photo from hamburg-travel.com]

They are white and blue and are available to use at various Hamburg street corners: The StadtAuto scheme has been established in Hamburg since April 2011. The 500 smartcars - similar to the city bikes - can be rented for short distances throughout Hamburg.

More than 5,000 customers registered with the car sharing service after just a few weeks - a third use the cars once a week; almost one in ten even use the car every day. The operating company is car2go Hamburg GmbH, a joint venture between the Daimler subsidiary car2go GmbH and Europcar Autovermietung GmbH. In addition to Hamburg, there are already car share schemes in Ulm, Austin (Texas, USA) and Vancouver (Canada).

The Hamburg rental area currently covers 65 square kilometres within the "Ring 2" including the residential areas around the Alster such as Eppendorf, Winterhude, Uhlenhorst and Rotherbaum as well as the central districts including St. Pauli, Neustadt and Sternschanze and parts of Eimsbüttel and Altona.

After a one-off registration, the vehicles can be rented spontaneously at any time, used as long as needed and simply parked in any open parking space within the rental area. There are no fixed rental and return stations. The rental car costs 29 cents per minute with a maximum of 12.90 euros per hour. The fuel is free, as is parking in car parks with tickets or parking meters. If you need a car you can find one on the spur of the moment at any street corner using the car2go finder for smartphones, on thecar2go Hamburg website or at the terminal in the car2go shop and in selected Europcar locations.

Registration is required before first use when the driver's licence data, desired method of payment and some personal information must be provided. The car can also later be opened with the car2go seal on the driver's licence. Then simply enter your personal PIN, check the vehicle's condition, remove the keys and go. If the vehicle ever runs out of fuel while driving, refuelling is on the house at all Shell gas stations.