Currently, the car sharing business is growing rapidly. According to data from Frost & Sullivan Consulting, the number of car-sharing users will reach 16 million last year, and the number will climb to 44 million by 2025. GM Maven, Nissan Easy Ride, Daimler Le Moovel GmbH (Car2Go), BMW TravelNow and other traditional car companies have begun to develop and develop in this field. Recently, Volkswagen's shared travel brand has also been officially launched. In addition, many young travel companies have won the favor of the capital market. However, behind the bustling, Autolib, a shared car company known as the future traffic of the Paris city of France, is at risk of bankruptcy due to the recent losses.
Volkswagen launches 'We Share' car sharing service
According to foreign media reports, local time on August 23, Volkswagen officially announced that in the spring of 2019 in Berlin, Germany, the electric 'We Share' car sharing service will be launched. The official statement shows that in the second quarter of next year, Volkswagen will regard Berlin as At the test site, a shared car service called We Share was launched. By then, there will be 1,500 golf electric cars on the streets of Berlin. It is expected that by 2020, the project will be extended to other European cities and parts of North America. After the expansion, Volkswagen will also join about 500 e-UP models. In addition, Jürgen Stackmann, a member of the Volkswagen brand board, also revealed: 'From 2020, We Share will be the service platform for the new generation of ID electric vehicles.'
Coincidentally, Audi has also announced that it will continue to expand the scope of its shared travel projects. Currently, Audi on demand car sharing projects have been launched in the UK, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow have related services. Audi plans to put this before the end of this year. The service is extended to other parts of the UK.
Investment in investment, new round of financing continues
According to Reuters news, local time on August 21, the US car sharing travel startup Getaround completed a $300 million Series D financing, this round of financing was led by Softbank Vision Fund, Toyota OEM and other internal investors (including SAIC , Asset Plus, etc.). Getaround was founded in 2013 and currently operates shared travel services in 66 cities in the US, including San Francisco, Chicago and Washington. The company said that the latest funds will be used in North America and the rest of the world. Expansion of regional business, and will cooperate with automobile companies.
On the day of Getaround's completion of financing, according to tech media TechCrunch, Indian car sharing company Revv received a $14.3 million investment. The investors in this round of financing also included Japan's Dream Incubator, Telama Investment and auto parts company Sona. BLW CEO Sanjay Kapp. In addition, Edelweiss and Beenext, who had previously invested in the company, also participated in the financing transaction. At this stage, the company's business has covered 11 cities in India, including the capital of Delhi. District, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Pune, etc. Currently, the Revv fleet has about 1,000 vehicles and has served more than 300,000 users. With the latest capital injection, the company plans In the next 12-18 months, the company will expand its business to 30 cities, and expand the fleet size to 10,000-12,000.
The same news from Reuters said that China's Cao Cao car and time-share leasing company EvCard is seeking financing recently. According to insiders, Cao Cao car hopes to get 3 billion yuan investment (equivalent to 437 million US dollars), EvCard hopes to get 20 The investment of 100 million yuan (equivalent to 292 million US dollars), but the two companies did not respond to this news. It is understood that Cao Cao is the first company in China to provide electric vehicles as a special car and time-sharing business. In 1 of 25 cities in China, 2 million Geely-produced electric vehicles were launched, and EvCard operated more than 27,000 shared cars in 62 cities.
Is Autolib cool?
On the one hand, global sharing travel is in the midst of the Heat. On the other hand, French Autolib has broken Paris this summer. According to foreign media, Paris decided not to support Autolib's car business at the end of June this year, July 31, Bolloré The company's Autolib officially closed, and the 4,000 electric cars on the streets of Paris disappeared. According to Autolib, half of the cars will be scrapped and the other half will be shipped to Lyon, Turing and Bordeaux to continue to support local sharing. Business, or reselling to the private sector. In addition, Autolib has nearly 6,000 charging stations and parking spaces in Paris. The ownership of these facilities has not yet been determined. It is understood that Autolib was launched by the French Bolloré Group in 2011, originally planned for each year. It earned a profit of 56 million euros. Its initial operation was in the urban area of Paris, and it was gradually extended to hundreds of districts and towns in the suburbs of Paris. However, it suffered huge losses last year and then dissipated with the Paris government.
At present, 'new four modernizations' - electrification, intelligence, networking, and sharing are rapidly changing the automotive industry. This industry is gradually shifting from selling steel machines to providing a variety of personalized mobile travel services. Urban roads are congested, parking spaces are hard to find, and follow-up expenses are increasing. Coupled with changes in young people’s car attitudes, car companies are increasingly aware that consumers nowadays no longer need a car that belongs to them. , but instant, convenient, affordable travel services. Taking this opportunity, the business model of car sharing has brought new opportunities to the market. But in the same situation as electric cars and smart driving, shared travel is currently in a lot of money. At the stage, profitability is more difficult, so a large amount of hot money continues to flow into this field and some companies are unable to follow the funding problem.