Feng Jingwei walked to a Roewe e50 parked at the Hongqiao transport hub in Shanghai after returning from a business trip.

He unplugged the charger from the white-green hatchback and hung it on the charging pile, before driving to his office 12 kilometers away. It was the fourth time Feng had used the car in a month.

The ultra small plug-in model was a rental that he booked online, one of 220 EvCard electric vehicles, or EVs, lined up at the Hongqiao hub, near a high-speed railway station and two airport terminals.

Visitors inspect a Roewe e50 electric car at an auto fair in Shanghai. Lai Xinlin / For China Daily

"I don't have to queue up for a taxi or jam myself into a subway carriage," said Feng, 31, who runs a small business in one of China's most expensive cities.

"I don't have a car, but it's getting easier to book one on an app and is usually cheaper than hailing a taxi," he added.

Five minutes after Feng pulled out with the Roewe e50, a Chery EQ filled its parking slot.

Lu Liuxi got out of the minicar, connected the charger and scanned a sensor on the windshield with his smartphone before hearing a beep.

"It's available now," said Lu, an EvCard employee, whose job is to move cars between parking stations as instructed by a dispatch center.

"Hongqiao is the busiest place among all EvCard stations in Shanghai, and we send cars here many times a day," said the veteran driver, who has been employed by EvCard for three months.