Autoblog

New kit enables you to rent your car out with an iPhone like Zipcar

Jeff Glucker — Fri, 27 May 2011 13:30:00 EST

Getaround Car Rental System - Click above for high-res image gallery

A new startup called Getaround is looking to jump into the car rental business by following a similar path laid out by Zipcar. Getaround is a bit different, however, because the fleet of rentals are comprised of customer-supplied personal vehicles. This is peer-to-peer car rental, and we're intrigued.

Getaround co-founder Sam Zaid states that vehicles in the United States sit idle for an average of 22 hours every day. By signing your car up for use as a rental vehicle, you (and Getaround) can turn an idle situation into one that makes money.

The car sharing system works by creating a network of users that are connected via iPhone app and the Getaround website. Those wishing to rent their vehicles will receive a car kit that sits on the dash. When a customer has selected a car they wish to rent, you locate the car on a map and use your iPhone to unlock the vehicle. That gets you inside the car, where you can have access to a key hidden somewhere on the inside.

Rates vary by car, but the prices we've seen listed on the Getaround website seem quite reasonable. A Mini Cooper will cost you $5.50 per hour, a BMW Z4 can be had for $15 and you can tool around San Francisco in a Tesla Roadster for $50 per hour. The rate structure is a good incentive to keep people from putting serious mileage on your vehicle, but it also provides a fair deal at an hourly rate. Insurance is covered by Getaround thanks to backing from an unnamed provider, and it's full coverage.

Rental fees are broken down so that Getaround takes in 60 percent of the profit while the car owner receives the other 40. If you're interested in joining beta testing of the program, Getaround is currently offering the program to residents of San Francisco and San Diego.

If you don't mind the having to re-adjust your seat every time you get in your own car and you've got faith in your fellow motorists, this seems like a potential win-win situation for those looking to earn a few extra bucks.

New kit enables you to rent your car out with an iPhone like Zipcar originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 27 May 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zipcar gets Toyota Prius plug-ins ahead of the car's official launch

Autoblog Staff — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:33:00 EST

Filed under: Hybrid, Hatchback, Toyota, Electric

Want some data sharing with your car sharing? On Thursday, Zipcar added eight Toyota Prius plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) to its car-sharing fleet. The plug-in Priuses, which are not available for purchase until 2012, will be accessible to Zipcar members in Boston, MA, Cambridge, MA, San Francisco, CA, and Portland, OR. Zipcar's newest additions are part of a broad pilot program aimed at assisting Toyota in obtaining real-world data prior to the plug-ins' 2012 launch. On the flip side, Zipcar hopes to analyze the use of plug-in hybrids and assess the potential for a broader fleet rollout.

Back in 2009, Zipcar teamed up with the city of San Francisco to test a plug-in Prius. That car, which utilized a plug-in conversion kit provided by A123 Systems, offered up to 40 miles of pure electric range. The battery-only range of Toyota's plug-in Prius is limited to 13 miles, but Scott Griffith, Zipcar's chief executive officer, points out that "approximately one-third of our reservations are made for trips equaling less than 13 miles," which implies that those jaunts could be made in a Prius PHEV without using a drop of gas, as long as there's enough time to rechage between rentals.

Like all of the other hybrids in Zipcar's fleet, the plug-in Prius can only be reserved by the hour, with sixty minutes of seat time costing approximately $7.00.

[Source: Zipcar]

Continue reading Zipcar gets Toyota Prius plug-ins ahead of the car's official launch

Zipcar gets Toyota Prius plug-ins ahead of the car's official launch originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zipcar reportedly seeking $75 million in IPO

Chris Shunk — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 09:56:00 EST

Filed under: Government/Legal

Automotive News reports that budding car share company Zipcar is looking to raise as much as $75 million in an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Zipcar, which rents cars by the hour mainly in 13 heavily populated urban areas around the globe, has reportedly never turned a profit in 10 years of business. The filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Zipcar intends to use the money to pay down debt and increase the company's fleet size.

The company did post first quarter revenue of $33 million, up 29 percent from 2009, yet its loss ballooned from $3 million in '09 to $5 million this year. In spite of the losses, Zipcar has continued to grow as the company acquired Streetcar Ltd in April to gain a foothold in London, England. Further expansion into Europe is planned in part due to an investment in Catalunya Carsharing, the largest car sharing company in Spain.

Analyst Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics says that Zipcar may have an opportunity to expand beyond the big cities, but the company will need to "learn vehicle usage cycles for different markets all over the country and all over the world." That expansion may mean Zipcar will need to overstock its inventory of vehicles, which could cut into future profits.

[Source: Automotive News sub. req. | Image: Rakka, CC2.0]

Zipcar reportedly seeking $75 million in IPO originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 09:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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VIDEO: Zipcar has $1 billion dreams... and 46 members per car?

Sebastian Blanco — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Earnings/Financials

Zipcar's $1 billion ambition - Click above to watch the video after the break

How many cars do you think Zipcar owns around the world? Did you know it was 6,500?
How big could Zipcar one day become? How about a $1 billion company?

These are two of the numbers mentioned in an interview that CEO Scott Griffith gave to Fortune recently. Griffith also said that, today, Zipcar has about 300,000 members, which give us an average of about 46 members per car. To some of us on staff, that seems incredibly high, and to others of us, incredibly low. Either way, in order to reach the $1 billion goal, Zipcar will need to get to the one million member level, Griffith figures.

Before that happens, Griffith needs to convince a lot more organizations to adopt the Zipcar model. We know about how Zipcar can work for individuals - basically, easy car rentals by the hour - but Griffith is more excited about the behind-the-scenes operations. For example, people need to clean and maintain all 6,500 vehicles, right? The back-end work that Zipcar is doing today to make sure there is time in the schedule for all of these cars to be prepped and ready for customers when they want them will help tremendously as the company begins to add more and more electric vehicles to the fleet. Griffith says it is just a step away from scheduling maintenance to finding time to recharge electric cars:

"Our system is going to integrate very well with electric vehicles, and that's one of the things that governments and universities and corporate partners are very interested in. How are they going to schedule all of this and manage the logistics of having electric vehicles.

The next city to get an electric Zipcar, Griffith said, will probably be Washington, D.C. Watch the video after the jump to learn more.

[Source: Fortune via CNNMoney.com]

Continue reading VIDEO: Zipcar has $1 billion dreams... and 46 members per car?

VIDEO: Zipcar has $1 billion dreams... and 46 members per car? originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TomTom and Zipcar announce new apps for iPhone

Chris Shunk — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:28:00 EST

Filed under: Technology

For all of you who aren't Apple fanboys and haven't been refreshing Engadget's live coverage of the 2009 WWDC this afternoon, there's some major news involving everyone's favorite little smart phone and two big auto-related companies.

The first is a new app from TomTom that was previewed back in January but finally became official today. The long awaited TomTom app will turn your iPhone into a full feature navigation system, a function this phone's been sorely lacking for quite a while despite housing the hardware to make it happen. While pricing wasn't given, TomTom will also be offering a mounting accessory that will hold the phone in either portrait or landscape mode and charge it while you navigate.

The other app is from car sharing service Zipcar. This one's particularly neat, allowing a user to locate him or herself relative to the nearest available car for rent, purchase the drive time and even unlock the car's door, all from inside the app. The program's ease of use could make a big impact on Zipcar's popularity, as currently the only way to make reservations is through the web.

[Source: Engadget]

TomTom and Zipcar announce new apps for iPhone originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hertz dubs its Zipcar competitor Connect

Frank Filipponio — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:28:00 EST

Filed under: Car Buying, Trends, Etc., Lifestyle

It looks like Hertz has finally heard of Zipcar. The popular car rental agency has just launched a new service called Connect, and it's a lot like the service offered by eight-year-old Zipcar. Connect customers will pay an annual fee that allows them to rent vehicles by the hour -- an arrangement very similar to the one offered by Zipcar. Members go online to make reservations and then use swipe cards to open cars that are parked at lots all over the city. Rather predictably, chic city cars like the Toyota Prius and MINI Cooper are part of the program.

The big difference between the two programs is that where Zipcar has about 5,500 cars in 13 cities, Hertz has 40,000 in New York alone. Right now, Connect by Hertz is available in New York, Paris and London, as well as in Park Ridge, New Jersey, home of the Hertz Corporation. The plan is to add 20 more domestic cities and an equal number of foreign ones next year.

[Source: New York Times]

Hertz dubs its Zipcar competitor Connect originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Corporate Carpooling: Zipcar and Flexcar to merge

John Neff — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:29:00 EST

Filed under: Etc.

Both Zipcar and Flexcar are known as the two biggest players in the nascent industry of renting cars by the hour in urban areas and around college campuses. Their pick-up and drop-off locations have popped up all over the country, as well as Canada and London, though surprisingly the two companies only compete directly in Washington D.C. and San Francisco. Neither company, however, has managed to turn a profit, so they've decided to merge, combine their fleets and operate under the Zipcar brand name out of Cambridge, MA. Though both firms operate fleets that number in the thousands, neither had become big enough to enjoy those cost savings that only come from large economies of scale. Following the merge, they should be able to capitalize on reduce costs for everything from the cars themselves to the insurance with which they're covered. The execs handling the merge expect their first profit maybe within a year, and then an IPO may follow shortly after. For anyone who uses these services, the merger is undoubtedly great news. We can't attest to how well the system works having never tried it, but perhaps we'll give it a go now that renting cars by the hour is going mainstream.

[Source: Washington Post via AutobloGreen]

Continue reading Corporate Carpooling: Zipcar and Flexcar to merge

Corporate Carpooling: Zipcar and Flexcar to merge originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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