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AFTER six years and millions of dollars, Japan's Honda Motor is putting the brakes on its high-tech car-sharing scheme here.
It is the second car-sharing scheme to fold since local transport giant ComfortDelGro Corp pulled the plug on its 2,500-member CitySpeed plan last July.
Honda ICVS (for Intelligent Community Vehicle System), a fully-owned subsidiary of Honda Motor, also has 2,500 members. It has written to them to inform them that the car-sharing scheme using 100 petrol-electric Honda Civic Hybrids would be discontinued at the end of March.
Honda started the multi-port car-sharing programme in March 2002. It was the first of its kind to allow users to drive its cars without any reservations and without any pre-determined time of return. Users could drop the cars off at any of its 21 'ports' or designated parking locations.
Honda ICVS managing director Toshio Iwamoto said the company decided to call it quits because it became difficult to maintain service standards as membership grew.
'We are very sorry to our members as well as to the people of Singapore,'' Mr Iwamoto said.
Honda, however, may restart a similar programme somewhere else, due to increasing environmental awareness and concerns about traffic conditions, he said.
Its programme in Singapore has been profitable, according to declaration to the Accounting & Corporate Regulatory Authority. Last year, it made $109,146 after tax, versus $278,826 in 2006 and $125,911 in 2005.
There are two more car-sharing programmes in Singapore. One is run by pioneer NTUC Income and the other by Popular Rent-A-Car.
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