Daimler’s car2go car sharing has seen significant take-up in the first two months of launch, exceeding expectations, the carmaker has reported.

More than 78,000 customers have already registered with the scheme. In comparison, the biggest car2go locations in Europe and North America have approximately 100,000 to 130,000 registered customers per city after between four to five years.

The scheme currently offers 400 smart fortwo vehicles over approximately 60 square kilometers of the central city areas of Chongqing including Yubei, Jiangbei and Yuzhong.

Daimler added that more than 40,000 vehicle rentals within this period mean that a car2go vehicle is rented every 1.7 minutes in Chongqing.

“The start in Chongqing far exceeds our expectations,” said Roland Keppler, CEO of car2go. “The Chinese customers are really enthusiastic about the service and make intensive use of the vehicles.”