Pay as you go car trials piloted by manufacturers- the future?
Discussion
Carmakers tempt cellphone generation with pay-as-you-go
By John Reed in London
Carmakers, faced with a new generation of consumers weaned on mobile phones and cooling towards car ownership, are experimenting with pay-as-you-go schemes for vehicles to attract a younger market.
PSA Peugeot Citroën and Daimler are both piloting programmes allowing consumers to pay for individual trips either ahead of time or at the end of the month.
The schemes mix car sharing with partial ownership in some cases and repackaging old-fashioned short-term rental deals through the car companies themselves.
Peugeot last year launched a scheme in four
French cities that allows customers to buy mobility units with which they can rent cars,
scooters and even bicycles on a short-term basis.
The French carmaker plans to expand its Mu by
Peugeot programme to Berlin, London and other European cities later this year.
The main question is whether there is a real market behind these trends, and whether we as car manufacturers can make money, said Pascal
Feillard, Peugeots head of foresight and marketing intelligence.
The trend has been reinforced by polls in Japan, Germany and other developed markets that found Generation x consumers value mobile phones more than they do cars still the most prized possession of many older people.
In a survey by the German industry group Bitkom last year, 97 per cent of people aged 14 to 29 said the one thing they could not live without was a mobile phone, against 64 per cent who said they could not imagine life without a car.
Daimler is testing a cars on demand programme in Ulm, Germany and Austin, Texas under which drivers pay for trips in minicars that they can unlock with a chip in their drivers licence, park in any public space in the city centre, and be billed for later.
The German carmaker said it had developed the mobility concept for people in cities who want to be mobile without owning a car.
In Ulm, the company says the scheme has clocked about 250,000 rentals since its launch last year.
The move into mobility products by carmakers coincides with advances in electric-car technology that, in time, may see cars used and paid for in similar ways to mobile phones.
Better Place, a US company building recharging infrastructure for electric cars in Israel, Denmark, Japan and elsewhere, plans to bill customers for its services by the mile.
The company, which compares itself to early mobile-phone providers, says that in the future cars might be offered at highly subsidised rates or even for free as part of a recharging package. BMW is studying future mobility solutions for urban customers under which a leasing package for a city car might also include vehicles as needed, and a networked route planner that plots out parking, public transport, and travel by
foot.
Quoted From the FT
By John Reed in London
Carmakers, faced with a new generation of consumers weaned on mobile phones and cooling towards car ownership, are experimenting with pay-as-you-go schemes for vehicles to attract a younger market.
PSA Peugeot Citroën and Daimler are both piloting programmes allowing consumers to pay for individual trips either ahead of time or at the end of the month.
The schemes mix car sharing with partial ownership in some cases and repackaging old-fashioned short-term rental deals through the car companies themselves.
Peugeot last year launched a scheme in four
French cities that allows customers to buy mobility units with which they can rent cars,
scooters and even bicycles on a short-term basis.
The French carmaker plans to expand its Mu by
Peugeot programme to Berlin, London and other European cities later this year.
The main question is whether there is a real market behind these trends, and whether we as car manufacturers can make money, said Pascal
Feillard, Peugeots head of foresight and marketing intelligence.
The trend has been reinforced by polls in Japan, Germany and other developed markets that found Generation x consumers value mobile phones more than they do cars still the most prized possession of many older people.
In a survey by the German industry group Bitkom last year, 97 per cent of people aged 14 to 29 said the one thing they could not live without was a mobile phone, against 64 per cent who said they could not imagine life without a car.
Daimler is testing a cars on demand programme in Ulm, Germany and Austin, Texas under which drivers pay for trips in minicars that they can unlock with a chip in their drivers licence, park in any public space in the city centre, and be billed for later.
The German carmaker said it had developed the mobility concept for people in cities who want to be mobile without owning a car.
In Ulm, the company says the scheme has clocked about 250,000 rentals since its launch last year.
The move into mobility products by carmakers coincides with advances in electric-car technology that, in time, may see cars used and paid for in similar ways to mobile phones.
Better Place, a US company building recharging infrastructure for electric cars in Israel, Denmark, Japan and elsewhere, plans to bill customers for its services by the mile.
The company, which compares itself to early mobile-phone providers, says that in the future cars might be offered at highly subsidised rates or even for free as part of a recharging package. BMW is studying future mobility solutions for urban customers under which a leasing package for a city car might also include vehicles as needed, and a networked route planner that plots out parking, public transport, and travel by
foot.
Quoted From the FT
Edited by amir_j on Thursday 6th May 22:43
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