New car2go Mercedes CLA, courtesy photo

car2go, the largest flexible one-way carsharing service in North America, announced this week plans to offer Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Austin and other cities.

The company, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler North America Corp, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, announced that the majority of its 5,500 car fleet in North America will be comprised of Mercedes-Benz vehicles by the end of the year. The new fleet consists of car2go’s 2017 Mercedes-Benz CLA, a 4-door coupe and car2go’s 2017 Mercedes-Benz GLA, a sporty 5-door small SUV with added cargo capacity.

“At Mercedes-Benz we see the four key pillars for future mobility as connectivity, autonomous driving, carsharing, and electrification,” Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, said in a news release. “Today we take another step toward that future by adding the new Mercedes-Benz CLA and GLA to car2go’s North American fleet. car2go is already the most popular carsharing service in the world. Now it will be even more attractive to small groups of friends and families who want to conveniently travel around cities in style, safety, and comfort.”

car2go, which began with a pilot in Ulm, Germany in 2008, has since become the largest one-way carsharing company in the world with more than 2.2 million members sharing cars on three continents. In 2016, the company saw a 43 percent increase in members.

In addition to Austin, car2go members in Portland, Oregon, Seattle, and the Washington, D.C. area are the first to get the new Mercedes-Benze car2gos. Members in Toronto and Vancouver will get them in February.