Starting tomorrow (1st January 2025), Modo members will have to pay a little more to drive an ICE car rather than an EV.
Under changes to Modo’s “Innovation Fee”, announced by new CEO Sandra Philips at the beginning of this month, gas-powered or hybrid cars will incur a fee of $3 per trip, while the fee for electric vehicles will be $1 per trip.
The innovation fee has been $1.50 for trips up to now, irrespective of how the vehicle is powered.
Philips, who became CEO of the Vancouver car-sharing co-operative in October, says the change is “to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable fleet.”
“For an average Modo trip that’s less than a 4% increase,” says Philips (below), “And for any trips in an EV, you’ll actually see a decrease of 2.6%.”
“We hope this encourages more of you to try out one of our EVs, because we are introducing sixty new electric vehicles. This means one in five vehicles will be electric,” she adds.
I’m sure it will encourage people to switch, especially for shorter trips. That’s if Modo members have an EV option nearby, although many will not: the fleet is still largely gas or hybrid based.
Philips says they hope Modo members will provide feedback on where EVs can be placed to best serve the co-op.
Costs rising
Modo’s move to a two-tier Innovation Fee comes on top of the increases in its fee structure on 1st April 2024, under previous CEO Patrick Nangle.
Nangle said the changes were to “simplify the pricing structure, addressing…its complexity and confusion.”
The hourly rate went up by $1 per hour for all vehicle and member types ($4 to $5 for Daily Drives).
The kilometre rate changed to $0.35 p/km. Previously it was $0.40 p/km for the first 25km and then $0.28 thereafter.
The Day Tripper rate went up by $10 to $100 for Modo Plus members using Daily Drive cars, but you now get 500km in 24 hours whereas before it was only 250km before the regular kilometre rate kicked in.
The other change was to the fuel surcharge, which means, Nangle said, it should disappear “unless fuel prices see an extraordinary surge”.