Car rental agency Europcar is set to expand its ‘ride-sharing’ business to all of its European markets as it adapts its business model to match the likes of Uber and other ride sharing services.
The offering, which is known as Europcar Ubeeqo for corporate clients will be rolled out beyond France and Germany and the UK in the next few months. Europcar currently possesses 20 per cent of the European car rental market and the expansion comes as the company prepares for its initial public offering. It is expected to float on the stock market sometime around June.
The move to expanding ride sharing is an example of how car rental companies are attempting to cash in on changing consumer patterns, with ride sharing platforms such as Uber, BlaBla Car and Zipcar becoming more popular.
Mr Germond, the CEO of Europcar said:
“The trend is from car ownership to car usage. We want to expand our mobility ecosystem with a full range of car rental services.”
Ubeeqo is a French start up company purchased by Europcar earlier this year. It focuses on corporate car pooling, where people use their phones to borrow a car rather than having exclusive use of one. The company also offers a system of motability benefits for employees, whereby instead of using their own car, they get points for usage on taxis, shared cars or even trains.
Europcar makes most of its two billion Euro revenue from rental cars, but has already made inroads into what is becoming known as the ‘sharing economy’ and it is not the only company to do so- Enterprise Rent a Car and Avis have both purchased car sharing businesses.
Of the trend for ride sharing, Mr. Germond said:
“Owning a car in a big city such as Paris makes less and less sense when ride-sharing options are available. We do not see the rise of ride sharing as a threat to us.”
