Evie Carsharing Program

Evie Carshare is America’s first 100% renewably-powered, municipally-owned all-electric carshare service. Getting around the Twin Cities is now greener and easier with over 150 all-electric Evie vehicles. Evie is designed to help make transportation easier for the community without giving off harmful emissions.

Carsharing has been shown to reduce the amount of driving that carshare member households do, by allowing them to own fewer cars.  Carsharing is a great complement to transit, biking and walking, and a tool for reducing carbon emissions and other air pollution.  Carsharing also improves mobility options, particularly for no-car and 1-car households.

There are a variety of carshare membership plans, including the Access Plus plan that is available for area residents who self-identify as low income.  The program was created in consultation with the communities being served, including direct partnership with 10 community-based organizations during project planning, as well as focus groups of residents of the areas being served.

The Evie Carshare program supports the City of Saint Paul's Climate Action and Resilience Plan by reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT), as well as reducing emissions output by supporting the Electric Vehicles (EV) at charging stations powered by 100% renewable energy.

Carshare Benefits:

The assumptions below, established by the Federal Highway Administration' (FHWA) Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program Cost-Effectiveness Tables (2020), are used to support VMT reduction estimates of the Evie Carshare program.

The methodology is used as follows:

• VMT are calculated on a per-vehicle basis at 15 users per vehicle
• Take the average value of VMT estimates cited by the FHWA (3,500 miles)

Using this process, each carshare vehicle put into service reduces 52,500 VMT in Single Occupancy Vehicles (SOVs) annually, or 144 VMT per day. It is understood that reducing VMT reduces emissions, but the FHWA methodology assumes the use of Internal Combustion Engines (ICE); additional calculations need to be done to capture the benefit of substituting EVs powered by 100% renewable energy.

Electric Carshare Vehicle Benefits:

Based on internal data provided by project partner HOURCAR, it is estimated that each Evie vehicle will travel 18,834 miles annually, or 52 miles per day. These 52 miles per day create zero emissions, effectively reducing an additional 52 miles of VMT over ICE vehicles.

Total Reduction in VMT:

144 daily VMT (carshare reduction) + 52 daily VMT (EV reduction) = 196 VMT reduced per EV carshare vehicle per day.

Projecting for the lifetime of the project, it is estimated that 170 shared electric vehicles will eliminate roughly 85 million VMT over the 7-year project period! (196 VMT*365 days per year*7 years*170 vehicles)

By reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) in Single Occupancy Vehicles (SOV) and replacing Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle trips with Electric Vehicle (EV), the project will significantly reduce harmful criteria pollutants, including Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrous Oxides (NO_x), and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC).

It's important to note that the service area of the Evie Carshare program geographically covers areas of Saint Paul, and Minneapolis, MN. The aforementioned VMT reduction takes place across both cities. The program assumes that 50% of the VMT reduction will fall within the service area in Saint Paul.

Performance Indicators (Updated 4/4/2025):

The project team is excited to share the chart below showing Average Trip Count per Vehicle per Day. As the program grows, the goal is to average around 3 trips/vehicle/day.