US-based car-share giant Zipcar Inc. has launched its first ever Electric Vehicle Pod, featuring an all-electric Citroen C1 and a Plug-In Toyota Prius. The vehicles, among the most efficient and technologically advanced on the road today, can be hired by the hour for a fraction of the cost of owning one.

The company figures that EVs are ideally suited for early, large-scale use in Zipcar’s car sharing platform since the average Zipcar trip lasts just under four hours and less than 25 miles, well within the range of a typical EV.

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Last year, 300 folks across North America turned in their car keys for a month as part of the 2008 Zipcar Low-Car Diet. And, in addition to cutting congestion, they also walked 85% more, biked 136% more and decreased their miles driven by 71%. Pretty impressive, eh? Starting July 15, a new crop of participants from all Zipcar cities worldwide* will begin the 2009 Low-Car Diet: one full month of living without a primary car.

Zipcar will be selecting 30 participants in each Zipcar metro to take part in the 2009 Low-Car Diet. Zipcar and its partners are committed to providing all participants with the necessary tools for creating transportation nirvana, including:

• Bike rentals
• Transit passes
• Complimentary meals at participating restaurants
• Discounts at local retailers
• And, of course, a 1-year Zipcar membership with some driving credit to get started

There will be a number of applicants for only 30 spaces, and Zipcar would like to make sure they’re the best. If you think you’d like to try an unconventional diet just fill out this short survey.

*Zipcar cities include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, London, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington, DC.

Photo Courtesy tvol via Flickr under Creative Commons license.

Disclaimer: Gas2.0 parent company Virgance is participating in the Low-Car Diet.

These two are as they say peas in a pod, technology enhanced life(style) enhancements, for a demographic that I imagine likes that they get to both have what they want, when they want it, and do good by the planet at the same time.

Impressing your friends in the bargain is a fine dessert.

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Car sharing programs are popping up all over the place. Introduced first in Europe, car sharing is now growing in the United States with over 200 car share programs operating in over 600 cities.

If you’re not familiar with car sharing, these programs allow two or more people to need only one car through a well-organized sharing service. Each shared vehicle results in 6 to 23 cars not being owned and evidence shows that once someone joins a car share program, they cut their vehicle miles traveled up to 80 percent.

Zipcar is the current US leader in car sharing, boasting over 260,000 members — individuals who live car-free in a city, couples who share one car, university students and staff, and corporate fleet and travel managers.

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Director of Design Continuum, Mark Bates opened the event with a presentation of the design firm’s overall footprint. He estimated that they’ve added about 500 million parts to the world during their 25 years of practice. These parts are anything from screws to Intel processors to cellophane package display windows- anything included in the overall manifestation and presentation of a product. Considering these facts coming from a design consultancy that tends to take a conscious, all encompassing design analysis approach to everything they work on, it makes me wonder about the impact of the companies designing toys for McDonalds.

He sent us with the message of- think of design in terms of aiding the efficiency and health of our earth and future. To begin to understand the perceptions of “sustainability” and “green” to the average consumer, Design Continuum has launched an internal study project called Color Blind. They are obtaining comments from everyday consumers about products and life to hopefully design from both sides- sustainability and the consumer.

The day long conference was broken down into hour-long presentations during which Q&A was included. “Their approach was a model other conferences could learn from - one day, comfortably paced, intimately sized, focused on one topic, inviting speakers with different views, and …free,” says Joe Gebbia.

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