The mobility-sharing platform is partnering with Garden District Condominium to offer a full suite of electric vehicles to residents

Kite Mobility is expanding its electric rideshare service to the Garden District Condominium project in downtown Toronto.

Beginning in mid-November, Garden District residents will have access to Kite’s onsite “mobility hub,” featuring two Volvo all-electric XC40s, dedicated chargers and reserved parking, as well as a fleet of eight electric bikes (and chargers) in the facility’s bike room.

It’s the latest real estate partnership for the Canadian cleantech platform, which provides multi-family building residents with shared, on-demand electric vehicles to alleviate the burden of parking for private vehicles.

Founded in 2020 by Scott MacWilliam, Kite Mobility’s premise is simple: builders can replace the need for hundreds of private parking spaces for tenants by incorporating easy-to-use onsite electric mobility options directly into their buildings.

The company’s “electric mobility as an amenity” platform is currently deployed in residential buildings in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver.

Community benefits

In an interview with Electric Autonomy last year, MacWilliam explained the benefits of the Kite Mobility EV sharing program to builders and residents alike.

For developers, the service reduced the need to build parking spaces and resulted in significantly lower building costs. (Some estimates put the cost of creating indoor residential parking lots in urban areas at as much as $100,000 per space.)

For residents the benefits of shared mobility are obvious too: onsite, 24-7, app-based e-car and e-bike rental. “There’s nothing much more convenient than booking something, going down your elevator, and there it is,” MacWilliam says.

There are even benefits to the public too. Kite confirms non-residents will be able to book Garden District’s vehicles and e-bikes through the Kite app too.

“This collaboration allows us to enhance the living experience by providing convenient access to electric vehicles and bikes, empowering our community with sustainable transportation options that elevate their lifestyle,” said Shakeel Walji, owner of real estate development company, The Sher Corporation.

Strong demand

Given the wide reach of Kite’s services, it is not surprising then that, as MacWilliam remarked last year: “There is so much demand that we can’t keep up.”

But that was last year.

Since then, the company increased its capacity to meet the demand with a much-needed investment of $3.5 million from a consortium comprising the Low Carbon Cities Canada (L3C) network, a boutique Toronto impact investment firm called Good & Well, and Enlightened Building Technologies, a Toronto-based company specializing in carbon reduction and renewables.

Kite believes its mobility-sharing model presents a compelling investment with a little capital going a long way.

For instance, private vehicles are one of the largest single sources of greenhouse gases in Canada. Meanwhile, congestion is a growing problem in cities across the country.

EV car-shares address both issues. Experts estimate that a single car-share vehicle replaces 10 private vehicles on the road.