Car sharing in Vancouver—Evo vs Modo—which one to go for?

What is Evo car sharing?

Evo car sharing is based on the one-way sharing model. You can book a car right-away or 30 minutes in advance and leave it anytime. It serves the Vancouver lower-mainland area and Victoria. Lower-mainland and Victoria are considered two separate ‘home zones’. You can pick -up and drop-off your car anywhere in the home zone. Evo is created by the British Columbia Auto Association (BCAA) which is a not-for-profit organization providing roadside assistance, insurance, and auto-repairs. It was founded in 2015.

What is Modo car sharing?

Modo’s car-sharing model is based on two-way sharing model. You can book the car right-away or up to a year in advance. You can end your trip using the app if you return earlier than the booking end time you chose, but can’t keep it after your booking time ends. You can try to extend the return time if available or even better, if you are unsure of when will you be able to return, you can use the open return option at an additional cost of $3 and pay for only the time you use. It also serves the Vancouver lower-mainland area and Victoria area but includes much greater number of cities and towns in those areas. In addition, it also has service in the Nanaimo and Kelowna area. It is a member owned co-operative organization founded in 1997. You become a voting member when you choose Modo Plus membership.

Which one is better?

Which of the two is better depends on a bunch of things. In fact, most of the car-sharing users maintain memberships with both due to the diversity of options that each service offers. I’ll discuss the pros and cons one by one, but let’s start with the main one—cost to use.

Cost to use

Both the companies charge a fixed fee per trip which Evo calls ‘All access fee’ and Modo calls it ‘ Co-op innovation fee’. They charge $1 and $1.5 each respectively.

As for the main cost of use, Evo is the simplest—it charges 41 cents per minute until 36 minutes after which the charge is constant at $14.99. If you keep driving for 6 hours, the vehicle is yours for the next 18 hours at the flat rate of $89.99.

Modo is a bit complex as it charges based on the kilometres in addition to a flat fee per hour. It charges 40 cents per kilometre for the first 25 kilometres and 28 cents afterwards. A flat fee is also charged for every hour that you keep the vehicle which is $4 for Daily Drives such as sedans and hatchbacks, $6 for Large and Loadables such as SUVs and pick-ups, and $9 for moving vans. Also, this price is for Modo Plus members which have to deposit a $500 refundable amount to become the member. For regular Monthly members, it is a dollar more for each category. I tried to plot cost graphs for use cases with respect to time and kilometres (in case of Modo):

I got the idea to plot this graph from this Reddit post I saw by the user u/danielhn1992. However, as mentioned in the comments, this graph can be a bit hard to understand so here are the key points to help you choose which car to take if you have memberships with both and know for how long will you be keeping the car and how many kilometres are you planning to drive:

• Less than 15 minutes: Evo

• 15-36 minutes but less than10 kms — Modo, more than 10 kms— Evo

• 36 minutes and above but less than 25 kms— Modo, more than 25 kms— Evo

• 2 hours and above but less than 50 kms — Modo, more than 50 kms — Evo

• 3 hours and above but less than 100 kms — Modo, more than 100 kms — Evo

• 4 hours and above but less than 150 kms — Modo, more than 100 kms — Evo

• 4 hours and above and more than150 kms—Evo *

• *5.5-8.5 hours but less than 200 kms — Modo, more than 200 kms — Evo

Basically, if you are keeping the car for less time, then you should go for Modo since Evo charges you by time; and if you are driving the car for lesser kilometres then you should use Evo since Modo mainly charges you by the kilometres.

Other benefits of Evo v/s Modo