A fleet of electric Seat eMiis are now on the road in Barcelona to provide employees at the SEAT Metropolis:Lab Barcelona and the Pier 01 Barcelona Tech City with zero-emission transport.

Vehicles are put on charge by users once returned back to site.

The vehicles can be reserved by a mobile app, which also serves as a digital key to open them – a system described as “very simple and intuitive” by Sergi Vila, who is responsible for Operations and Finance at the SEAT Metropolis: Lab Barcelona and a regular user of the fleet of eMiis.

Once vehicles are returned, users put them on charge, which takes eight hours at conventional recharging points and 35 minutes at fast points, bringing a total range of 160km (99 miles).

Data generated by the vehicles is also being used help inform technology R&D at SEAT’s digital lab.

By 2025, more than 36 million drivers will be subscribed to carsharing services, according to estimates, and recent research has found that electric vehicles and carsharing services can have a symbiotic relationship.

According to the car2go white paper, carsharing can help drive EV take-up while the use of fully electric vehicles on carsharing fleets strengthens the positive effects of carsharing, including environmental benefits.