Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Rotor was formed in 2023. There is tremendous thought and capital going into new mobility solutions, but very few of these seem to reach beyond the major U.S. cities. With few-to-no alternatives to private car ownership, rural households end up spending 17% of their income on transportation. Car sharing is an incremental step in the right direction for these small communities, but the two traditional car sharing business models are not designed to serve these communities. Companies like Zipcar, who own their own fleets of vehicles, have limited capital and are incentivized to deploy their vehicles in the largest, most densely-populated areas. Peer-to-peer models, like Turo, encourage car-hosts to price their vehicles as high as possible, making it less affordable to share than to buy. Rotor is building community-owned car sharing by partnering with municipalities, unlocking an economic model where the costs of car sharing are truly shared.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Reduces GHGs (e.g., projects that reduce sources of GHGs, such as through efficiency or other changes in consumption)

Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

See above answers. We're focused on servicing communities in smaller towns and cities that are typically the last to receive climate innovations. These communities often have an aging population and lower income households.

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Mission Statement:

We are focused on providing new mobility solutions to smaller communities (<250k population) that are traditionally overlooked by mobility providers. We're working to establish a pilot of our platform in several neighboring small towns within the upper Hudson Valley region.