New mobility concepts are becoming increasingly popular with car customers

There is a lot of movement on the car market at the moment. This not only applies to new vehicle models or the modern possibilities of online marketing and online sales, which are being used by more and more car dealers. The choice of financing options has also increased. One new mobility concept that has been spreading worldwide since about 2016 is the car subscription.

Why car subscription?

There are many subscriptions, for newspapers, modern streaming services or the gym. So why shouldn't there be a car subscription as well? That has been around for a long time, the customers just have to get to know it properly. This should be possible through the targeted online marketing of the providers. The model - which is still very little known - could be a great success, as the specialist portal SpringerProfessional suspects. The principle is simple: Customers pay a monthly fee and can choose a car from a pre-defined pool of vehicles and change cars at a likewise pre-defined frequency. The driver has no additional costs for inspections, maintenance or insurance. All he has to do is fill up the tank himself. Booking is often done via app, and the entire model is completely geared to online sales and the Netflix generation. The costs are not small but can be planned, the flexibility is enormous. The trend towards this new mobility concept has apparently been in the air for some time. Not only because of the massive online marketing, but also because of the practical handling, many people are obviously interested in this model. The strategy consultancy Oliver Wyman asked several hundred German and US drivers about this. Around a quarter of Germans and a little more Americans think the model is good. In the USA it is already a little better known, where providers have massively pushed the online sale of car subscriptions.

Where does the driver get his car from?

He picks it up at a car dealer in his vicinity, and there are also fixed parks of subscription vehicles (multi-storey car parks and parking spaces). However, the providers prefer to cooperate with car dealers with an attached workshop, because they can carry out small repairs themselves immediately. The convenience of picking up and dropping off the car is relatively important with a car subscription. It is a mobility concept for short to medium-term use - slightly longer than renting or car sharing (also slightly cheaper), but clearly shorter than leasing, which is the cheapest of the alternative concepts. Savers are therefore more likely to lease, but those who would like to change brands and models more often should be very happy with a car subscription. Renting and car sharing appeal to a similar target group. Car subscriptions are designed to be very flexible. For example, customers can subscribe to one car for the summer season (for example a convertible) and one for the winter (for example the off-road and weatherproof all-wheel drive). They can use a car for certain days or weeks and reduce costs in the process. There are highly individual models that cater for every usage pattern. In this way, they represent the trend towards more diverse mobility concepts than we have seen so far. The market is currently growing, it is still manageable, but that should change soon. Innovative start-ups in particular like the idea. They are usually run by very young entrepreneurs who ask themselves: Buy a car - what for? So the car subscription is certainly a sustainable idea.