Volkswagen to offer all-electric car-sharing in 2019

by IndianAuto Team | 24/08/2018
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Volkswagen gears up delivering the car sharing services with fully electric vehicles in German cities from 2019, looking to move beyond traditional vehicle ownership.

Volkswagen has recently confirmed to launch a new e-mobility car-sharing service in Berlin. With this launching, the German carmaker looks forwarding showing off the new models and break into a fast-growing and teaming market. At the same time, it also drives the automaker to move beyond the conventional vehicle ownership.

The VW brand, which makes up around half of the sales generated by the parent Volkswagen Group, said 1,500 e-Golf cars will be rolled out onto streets of the German capital during the second quarter of 2019.

Volkswagen gears up launching for its next-generation I.D. range, adding into the Berlin all-electric car-sharing profile. Volkswagen has already made the debut for this I.D. Concept car at the Frankfurt auto show in 2018.

Volkswagen car red color

Volkswagen gears up launching for its next-generation I.D. range

In a press release on Wednesday, Volkswagen claimed that only in two year period of time, the number of available all-electric cars in the city will grow up to 2,000. In the long-term running, the carmaker will plan on expanding this new car-sharing service to further cities in Germany, the major cities in Europe, Asia, as well as select locations in North America as early as 2020 and focus on core VW brand cars.

The firm has made a prediction to 15 percent annual growth in Europe for on-demand vehicles. Car-sharing plays an instrumental role as the car market with advanced technology is growing at a fast clip where the younger customers, especially those living in cities, are less interested in committing to a large capital outlay for a car.

Explaining about this expanding, the new CEO Herbert Diess, who took office in April, said 

“It was vital for VW to pick up speed and make an unmistakable mark in areas including new mobility services which VW wants to contribute a significant share to future group business.”

To start the first phase, Volkswagen plans on launching the "We Share" service platform in the second quarter of 2019 which will initially offer 1,500 VW e-Golf compact cars in the capital. This will be following by a further 500 smaller e-up vehicles to be added later.

Volkswagen car body look

Volkswagen plans on launching the "We Share" service platform in the second quarter of 2019

Juergen Stackmann, VW Brand board member, looks to host 5 million new customers each year from the platform. Additionally, he expected it would be a “rapid growing, massive eco-system,” before adding that data would be controlled “by the customer themselves.”

Stackmann also reported that Volkswagen had already pumped in several billion euros investment in its ecosystem. This investment would also need to make new partnerships to score the goal. VW also has big plans for integrating different forms of transport, with initiatives like electric buses that can be hailed as "virtual stops", currently being tested in German port city, Hamburg.

The electric car-share service of Volkswagen will have to take on the likes with other rivals as the French auto manufacturers PSA and Renault plans on launching the service in Paris. Meanwhile, BMW is also set to team up with Daimler’s Mercedes brand to produce its own mobility service.

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