Volkswagen Group has joined the increasingly crowded short-term rental market with its new WeShare offering, which will seek to distinguish itself from rivals with an electric-only car fleet.The service started in Berlin on Thursday with 1,500 full-electric Golf hatchbacks and will add 500 e-Up minicars as well as some of the first ID3 vehicles next year.WeShare will expand to Prague and Hamburg in 2020, Volkswagen said in a statement.Short-term rental offerings have multiplied in Berlin in recent months. In the German capital, Sixt, Miles, Oply and Ubeeqo compete with BMW and Daimler's ShareNow, which still operates under the DriveNow and Car2go brands months after their merger. There is also a range of scooter- and bike-sharing options as well as riding sharing.The offering could help Volkswagen bolster its push into electric vehicles by making them more visible with consumers in what is effectively a paid test drive.VW plans to produce about 70 battery-powered models across its 12 auto brands by 2028 and assemble 22 million electric cars over the next decade. To make the strategy work, it needs to show skeptical consumers that the vehicles are viable for everyday use.WeShare will rent its cars for an introductory rate of 19 cents per minute, compared to about 30 cents for DriveNow."With such a consistent, broad offering, we stand out from the competition," Christian Senger, VW board member for digital services, said in the statement.

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