FreeNow, the ride-hailing venture owned by Daimler and BMW, expects to double revenue this year and next in a fresh challenge to Uber in Europe and Latin America. FreeNow's so-called gross merchandise volume, which mirrors revenue, is forecast to reach about 2.4 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in 2019, CEO Marc Berg said in an interview. "We know it is aggressive and really ambitious, but we want to double our revenue again next year while further improving our profitability," B

Ride-sharing giant Lyft has crossed into the car rental market, and will directly compete with industry staples like Hertz and Avis. The company announced the new service in a blog post Thursday, pledging to provide riders "flexibility to rent" as opposed to booking regular Lyft service. Rentals are already available in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland, Calif. At launch, Lyft is making the Volkswagen Passat sedan and the Volkswagen Atlas SUV available to rent in San Fra

Nissan is launching a pilot program with car-sharing service Turo to let consumers kick the tires and get to know its vehicles in more depth than traditionally possible via test drives at the dealership. It’s offering $300 in bonus cash to eligible participants toward the purchase of a new or certified pre-owned vehicle within six months of the test drive. The Nissan Experience Test Drive launches in three test markets: Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and a 12-county region of no

Global car sales are expected to decline by about 3.1 million in 2019 — a larger unit drop than in 2008, according to Fitch Ratings. Falling demand in China, the world's largest auto market, is a major factor in the worldwide decline. Sales in the U.S. are struggling as well. Fitch Ratings anticipates an approximate 2% decline in U.S. sales to 16.9 million in 2019. Car sales around the world are expected to see their steepest year-over-year decline in 2019 since the financial

Enterprise Holdings, which owns the Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands, and Discount Car and Truck Rentals, announced Friday it has signed an agreement in which Enterprise Holdings’ Canadian subsidiary will acquire Discount Car and Truck Rentals, a leading Canadian car and truck rental company serving customers across Canada. The company says this includes all corporate-owned locations and the Quebec licensee’s daily rental businesses. The

Four L.A.-area pilots will each receive $100,000 toward boosting zero-emission transportation. The initiatives aim to offer new modes of travel to underserved communities. Several new transportation pilots in the Los Angeles region are trying to expand mobility options for low-income communities, while at the same time introducing electric vehicles. As part of that mission, the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) said in late November that it would award $500,000 toward th