OREANDA-NEWS. Starting next month, Park24 Co., Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corporation will expand the scope and scale of their joint car sharing service trial in central Tokyo. In addition to continuing to use the Toyota i-Road, the service will now also make use of the COMS, a super-compact electric vehicle produced by Toyota Auto Body. A number of new locations have been added throughout central Tokyo, and the service's vehicle management system has been overhauled with several user-friendly updates. This phase of the trial is planned to run from October 20 through to the end of March 2016.

This new trial will make use of findings from the previous joint trial conducted from April to September of this year. As before, the service will incorporate elements of Toyota's low-carbon transport system, Ha:mo1, and vehicles can be reserved through Park24's Times Car Plus service, which allows members to use share cars at any time of day or night. Together with the wider range of vehicles and pick-up and drop-off stations, this phase will focus on improving user-friendliness by addressing specific issues, such as procedures for boarding the vehicles. The goal is to assess the service's ease of use with a view to meeting a wide variety of customer needs. This includes use for business, direct transportation to destinations such as commercial facilities, and integration with public transportation networks.