January - 2018

Update: Kia Motors announced the launch of their first CarShare market in Europe

Repsol SA REP and Kia Motors Corp. (000270.SE) will launch a car-sharing service, known as WiBLE, in Madrid in the second half of 2018, the companies said Wednesday. The two companies chose Madrid as it offers interesting geography and demographics and is likely to receive the new service positively, according to Repsol. Repsol said it is still working out the details of how the service will operate in Madrid and is currently awaiting authorization from the European Commissio

Statewide regulations for Uber, Lyft approved by Alabama Senate

A bill to set up a statewide regulation framework for Uber, Lyft and similar transportation network companies passed the Alabama Senate today. Uber and Lyft have advocated for the bill, sponsored by Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro. It has bipartisan support, including an endorsement by Gov. Kay Ivey and passed the Senate by a vote of 28-0. Alabama is one of only six states with no statewide regulations for ride-sharing companies, advocates for the bill say. Fifteen Alabama

MOL launches car sharing service in Budapest

Hungarian oil and gas company MOL yesterday launched its car sharing service MOL Limo in ten districts of Budapest within an area of 60 square kilometers with 200 petrol-driven and 100 electric cars. For registered clients, one hour of use costs about HUF 4,000. Péter Ratatics, director of consumer services within MOL Group, said the service is available in the city center and more frequented outer districts, national news agency MTI reports. Fees cover parking costs, and ele

Uber CEO hopes to have self-driving cars in service in 18 months

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was speaking to Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait today at the new outlet’s event #TheYearAhead event, and he shared some more information about Uber’s plans around autonomy, and autonomous ride-hailing service rollout. “True autonomy for every single use case, is some ways away,” Khosrowshahi began, acknowledging that the problem is a massive one to solve. But, he suggested that the first Uber autonomous vehicles to be deployed commercial

Volkswagen invest throughout Africa and plans to introduce EV Car-sharing in Rwanda

". . . plans to introduce car sharing and renting vehicles in the capital Kigali – all of which will, of course, be organized via an app and smartphone." German car maker Volkswagen (VW) will be the first international automobile company to invest in Rwanda. The first cars are expected to be ready by May. For the future VW also plans to build electric cars in Rwanda. If everything goes according to plan, the first car "made in Rwanda" could be on the streets as early as May,

On-demand car-sharing project, Poppy, launches in Antwerp

One of the largest Volkswagen Group importers in Europe, D’letern has launched a car-sharing project under the name of Poppy… The D’Ieteren group has launched its Antwerp-based mobility service in partnership with Vulog, the world leader in shared mobility technologies, called Poppy. With a fleet of 200 Volkswagen e-golfs and 150 Audi A3 g-trons, the 350 vehicles are arranged on a free-floating basis which enables instant access with no need to drop them off at a fixed locati

Turo car-sharing marketplace launches in Germany

Peer-to-peer car-sharing platform Turo is expanding to Germany officially, starting today, after acquiring last September Daimler’s Croove in-house product for providing essentially the same service. Turo also received a significant strategic investment from Daimler at the same time, as it acquired the automaker’s car-sharing experiment, and it now operates peer-to-peer rental services in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. in addition to Germany. Turo claims more than 200,000 vehi

Celebrating Its 10th Anniversary, Abrams Carsharing Advisors Rebranded as Abrams Mobility Advisors

PURCHASE, NY--(Marketwired - January 17, 2018) - Abrams Consulting Group, Inc. ("ACG") (www.abramsconsulting.com), the leading specialized consulting and research firm serving the global ground transportation industry since 1982, has announced that on the 10th anniversary of the launching of its ABRAMS CARSHARING ADVISORS ("ACA") business unit, which specializes in the development of alternative personal mobility models, ACA will now be re-branded as ABRAMS MOBILITY ADVISORS

Servco unveils name for new car-share program

A new car-share program from Servco Pacific and Toyota will be called Hui, the Hawaii-based dealership group said on Tuesday. Servco Pacific Inc., which owns and operates several car dealerships across the Islands and in Australia, announced the launch of its car-share program in cooperation with Toyota Connected North America last summer. Hui recently completed its employee-only pilot test with Servco employees and is moving on to its next phase with a closed pilot test in H

Uber's next ride-share could be in Southeast Asia

SINGAPORE (Reuters Breakingviews) - Uber’s next ride-share could be in Southeast Asia. After struggling in China and Russia, the app operator swapped its businesses there for a stake in Didi and a joint venture with Yandex. Another sensible partner would be Grab, which shares a backer in SoftBank. The stretch from Indonesia to Myanmar is a huge market. With few barriers to entry and a number of logistical problems to resolve, though, Uber rivals such as Singapore-based Grab a