Volkswagen Places Europcar at Center of New Mobility Strategy
Volkswagen said it planned a central platform around which its Group brands could offer mobility solutions depending on what was correct for each brand customer. There would be one app offering services from car rental and subscription to car sharing and ride hailing.
Europcar also has big plans for U.S. entry (see link at bottom).
Photo: Volkswagen
2 min to read
Following the closure of its Europcar transaction with consortium partners Attestor and Pon Holdings, Volkswagen is moving quickly to center Europcar as the kingpin of mobility provision, forming part of its NEW AUTO strategy based around new technology.
The auto giant expects Europcar Mobility Group to secure significant traction in the rapidly growing mobility services space. The company said Europcar would continue to service its existing customers while becoming critical to Volkswagen’s mobility platform in the future, offering everything from car sharing by the hour to flexirental over several months.
Ad Loading...
Photo: Volkswagen Financial Services
And Volkswagen is wasting no time on the proposition.
A partnership between Volkswagen, Porsche Bank, and Europcar in Vienna is slated to commence Q4/22, followed by a similar partnership in Hamburg for Q1/23.
Christian Dahlheim, CEO of Volkswagen Financial Services, said: “We are really excited that our customer-centric vision of future mobility materializes with the closing of the Europcar transaction. Its dedicated team brings important capabilities and assets to the table that help us to realize our plans swiftly. Our expectation is that by far most people will still prefer individual mobility by 2030, but it will be more about using and less about owning vehicles. Our new mobility platform will perfectly respond to this trend with a highly flexible and convenient offering at our customers’ fingertip. Autonomous vehicles will be the next gamechanger and lift the platform to an even higher level on the way to NEW AUTO.”
Volkswagen said it planned a central platform around which its Group brands could offer mobility solutions depending on what was correct for each brand customer. There would be one app offering services from car rental and subscription to car sharing and ride hailing.
Step two in the development of mobility provision would be the introduction of autonomous vehicles to the platform, which would open up delivery of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and Transport as a Service (TaaS) to corporate as well as private customers.
Ad Loading...
Pilot projects with an autonomous ID. Buzz were already being undertaken in Munich and Hamburg, said Volkswagen.
Currently the Europcar Mobility Group offers a wide range of car and van rental services in more than 140 countries through five major brands: Europcar, Goldcar, InterRent, Ubeeqo and Buchbinder.
Still managing your motor pool with spreadsheets and manual approvals? Loyola University replaced outdated processes with automated fleet management, eliminating overtime and saving up to $50,000 annually. See how they did it.
Viaduct will join Sumitomo as an independent subsidiary. Partnership strengthens global reach and accelerates AI-driven innovation for fleets and manufacturing.
Held in Sydney, the Australasian Fleet Management Association’s 2025 Summit marked ten years of growth as the event expanded its global reach and doubled down on practical, non-commercial fleet leadership programming.
“Accidents” suggest inevitability, but most crashes are preventable — caused by driver actions and behaviors. Here’s why shifting the narrative can improve road safety.
Check out photos from the first two days of the 2024 Global Fleet Conference, which convened for the first time in San Diego Nov. 4-6 as part of the new Fleet Week series of conferences.
On Nov. 5 in San Diego, join industry leaders from Schindler Elevator and Geotab as they share ideas and approaches to reaching emissions goals in global fleet operations.
