VANCOUVER — Turo, a car sharing marketplace where local car owners provide travellers with vehicles for their adventures, has announced that it has expanded to British Columbia since its launch in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec in April 2016.

The launch of Turo in B.C. marks an important step in realizing the company’s mission to put Canada’s 23 million cars to better use, and to capture a growing share of the Canadian travel market. It currently has over four million users around the world, including 220,000 users in Canada alone.

“British Columbia is one of the top travel destinations in Canada and around the world. With its great outdoor culture, high penetration of car sharing and high levels of cross-border travel, British Columbia is a natural market for Turo. It is worth noting that 7% of Turo members in Canada are actually residents of British Columbia, using the Turo platform in other provinces and in the U.S.,” said Cedric Mathieu, Director of Turo in Canada.

To address the unique insurance regulations of BC, Turo has structured this first stage of its expansion to British Columbia by partnering with local, independent car rental entrepreneurs who will make their unique fleets of cars available to the Turo community and will be providing their own commercial rental insurance to travellers.

“We’re very excited to bring Turo to the people of British Columbia and provide them with a local, convenient, more personal alternative to big car rental companies through our local network of amazing car rental entrepreneurs,” said Mathieu. “Independent car rental companies are natural partners for Turo; most are family-run small businesses who offer great service, and great cars, at great prices. Using the Turo platform, they can easily reach our fast growing community of trusted travelers and be able to more effectively compete with the larger car rental chains. We’re thrilled to empower car entrepreneurs across beautiful British Columbia.”

A number of preferred partners such as hotels, independent car rental companies and individual car entrepreneurs have already listed their vehicles on the Turo platform. Some unique cars already available include makes and models like Tesla Model S, Mercedes-Benz CLA and Porsche Panamera, with many more to come in the coming weeks. All partners are required to carry adequate commercial rental insurance as well as provide best in class service in order to participate.

Turo is actively marketing towards travellers and suppliers across the province to raise awareness of the Turo brand in preparation of the future launch of its full peer-to-peer service.

“We remain committed to launching our peer-to-peer marketplace in the near future, and will be working with insurance regulators and legislators to bring Turo to all individual car owners in B.C. soon, added Mathieu.